I know someone already answered but I'd like to hear other perspectives in more details as to how we can eliminate D for question 21

Essentially, how do you eliminate D for Q21?

Many literary detectives have pored over a great puzzle concerning the writer Marcel Proust: what happened in 1909 ? How did Contre Saint-Beuve, an essay attacking the methods of the critic SaintBeuve turn into the start of the novel Remembrance of Things Past?

Draft passages in Proust's 1909 notebooks indicate that the transition from essay to novel began in Contre Saint-Beuve,

B) evidence concerning the genesis of Proust's novel Remembrance of Things Past

from the above sentences, we do have a genesis

D) Proust's correspondence and what it reveals about Remembrance of Things Past

this is just part of the story not the whole picture

Hope this helsp

21. The passage is primarily concerned with

relevant lines in the passage

Many literary detectives have pored over a great puzzle concerning the writer Marcel Proust: what happened in 1909 ? How did Contre Saint-Beuve, an essay attacking the methods of the critic SaintBeuve turn into the start of the novel Remembrance of Things Past?
......
......
Draft passages in Proust's 1909 notebooks indicate that the transition from essay to novel began in Contre Saint-Beuve, when Proust introduced several examples to show the powerful influence that involuntary memory exerts over the creative imagination.
......
......
The letter to Vallette, drafts of the essay and novel, and Bonnet's researches establish in broad outline the process by which Proust generated his novel out of the ruins of his essay.

The above lines indicate that the author is trying to establish with evidence the process by which the novel Remembrance of Things Past emerged from the essay Contre Saint-Beuve .

Choice D is wrong, because Proust's correspondence is just one of the evidences used to establish the origins of the novel Remembrance of Things Past.

Thus the correct Choice is B

(A) the role of involuntary memory in Proust's writing. Wrong
(B) evidence concerning the genesis of Proust's novel Remembrance of Things Past. Correct
(C) conflicting scholarly opinions about the value of studying the drafts of Remembrance of Things Past. Wrong
(D) Proust's correspondence and what it reveals about Remembrance of Things Past. Wrong
(E) the influence of Saint-Beuve's criticism on Proust's novel Remembrance of Things Past. Wrong


22. It can be inferred from the passage that all of the following are literary detectives who have tried, by means of either scholarship or criticism, to help solve the "great puzzle" mentioned EXCEPT

relevant lines in the passage

Maurice Bardeche, in Marcel Proust, romancier, has shown the importance in the drafts of Remembrance of spontaneous and apparently random associations of Proust's subconscious.

Intrigued by Proust's claim that he had "begun and finished" Remembrance at the same time, Henri Bonnet discovered that parts of Remembrance's last book were actually started in 1909.

A recently published letter from Proust to the editor Vallette confirms that Fallois, the editor of the 1954 edition of Contre Saint-Beuve, made an essentially correct guess about the relationship of the essay to the novel. Fallois proposed that Proust had tried to begin a novel in 1908, abandoned it for what was to be a long demonstration of Saint-Beuve's blindness to the real nature of great writing, found the essay giving rise to personal memories and fictional developments, and allowed these to take over in a steadily developing novel.

But those of us who hoped, with Kolb, that Kolb's newly published complete edition of Proust's correspondence for 1909 would document the process in greater detail are disappointed. For until Proust was confident that he was at last in sight of a viable structure for Remembrance, he told few correspondents that he was producing anything more ambitious than Contre Saint-Beuve.

Explanation

There is no mention of Vallette undertaking any work to unearth the truth, being only a recipient of correspondence from Proust.

(A) Bardeche. Wrong
(B) Bonnet. Wrong
(C) Fallois. Wrong
(D) Kolb. Wrong
(E) Vallette. Correct


23. According to the passage, in drafts of Contre Sainte-Beuve Proust set out to show that Saint-Beuve made which of the following mistakes as a critic?

relevant lines in the passage

In effect, in trying to demonstrate that the imagination is more profound and less submissive to the intellect than Saint-Beuve assumed, Proust elicited vital memories of his own and, finding subtle connections between them, began to amass the material for Remembrance.

I. Saint-Beuve made no effort to study the development of a novel through its drafts and revisions.
II. Saint-Beuve assigned too great a role in the creative process to a writer's conscious intellect.
III. Saint-Beuve concentrated too much on plots and not enough on imagery and other elements of style.

(A) II only. Correct.
(B) III only. Wrong.
(C) I and II only. Wrong.
(D) I and III only. Wrong.
(E) I, II, and III. Wrong.


24. Which of the following best states the author's attitude toward the information that scholars have gathered about Proust's writing in 1909 ?

relevant lines in the passage

But those of us who hoped, with Kolb, that Kolb's newly published complete edition of Proust's correspondence for 1909 would document the process in greater detail are disappointed.

(A) The author is disappointed that no new documents have come to light since FalIois's speculations. Wrong.
(B) The author is dissatisfied because there are too many gaps and inconsistencies in the drafts. Wrong.
(C) The author is confident that Fallois's 1954 guess has been proved largely correct, but regrets that still more detailed documentation concerning Proust's transition from the essay to the novel has not emerged. Correct.
(D) The author is satisfied that Fallois's judgment was largely correct but feels that Proust's early work in designing and writing the novel was probably far more deliberate than Fallois's description of the process would suggest. Wrong.
(E) The author is satisfied that the facts of Prbust's life in 1909 have been thoroughly established but believes such documents as drafts and correspondence are only of limited value in a critical assessment of Proust's writing. Wrong.


25. The author of the passage implies that which of the following would be the LEAST useful source of information about Proust's transition from working on Contre Saint-Beuve to having a viable structure for Remembrance of Things Past?

(A) Fallois's comments in the 1954 edition of Contre Saint-Beuve. Wrong.

relevant lines in the passage

A recently published letter from Proust to the editor Vallette confirms that Fallois, the editor of the 1954 edition of Contre Saint-Beuve, made an essentially correct guess about the relationship of the essay to the novel. Fallois proposed that Proust had tried to begin a novel in 1908, abandoned it for what was to be a long demonstration of Saint-Beuve's blindness to the real nature of great writing, found the essay giving rise to personal memories and fictional developments, and allowed these to take over in a steadily developing novel.

(B) Proust's 1909 notebooks, including the drafts of Remembrance of Things Past. Wrong.

relevant lines in the passage

Draft passages in Proust's 1909 notebooks indicate that the transition from essay to novel began in Contre Saint-Beuve, when Proust introduced several examples to show the powerful influence that involuntary memory exerts over the creative imagination.

(C) Proust's 1909 correspondence, excluding the letter to Vallette. Correct.

relevant lines in the passage

The letter to Vallette, drafts of the essay and novel, and Bonnet's researches establish in broad outline the process by which Proust generated his novel out of the ruins of his essay.

(D) Bardeche's Marcel Proust, romancier. Wrong.

relevant lines in the passage

Maurice Bardeche, in Marcel Proust, romancier, has shown the importance in the drafts of Remembrance of spontaneous and apparently random associations of Proust's subconscious.

(E) Bonnet's researches concerning Proust's drafts of the final book of Remembrance of Things Past. Wrong.

relevant lines in the passage

Intrigued by Proust's claim that he had "begun and finished" Remembrance at the same time, Henri Bonnet discovered that parts of Remembrance's last book were actually started in 1909.


26. The passage offers information to answer which of the following questions?

relevant lines in the passage

Already in that year, Proust had drafted descriptions of his novel's characters in their old age that would appear in the final book of Remembrance,
where the permanence of art is set against the ravages of time.

(A) Precisely when in 1909 did Proust decide to abandon Contre Saint-Beuve? Wrong.
(B) Precisely when In 1909 did Proust decide to connect the beginning and the end of Remembrance of Things Past?. Wrong.
(C) What was the subject of the novel that Proust attempted in 1908 ? Wrong.
(D) What specific criticisms of Saint-Beuve appear, in fictional form, in Remembrance of Things Past? Wrong.
(E) What is a theme concerning art that appears in the final book of Remembrance of Things Past? Correct.


27. Which of the following best describes the relationship between Contre Saint-Beuve and Remembrance of Things Past as it is explained in the passage?

(A) Immediately after abandoning Contre SaintBeuve, at Vallette's suggestion, Proust started Remembrance as a fictional demonstration that Saint-Beuve was wrong about the imagination. Wrong.

Proust did not start Remembrance at Vallette's suggestion.

(B) Immediately after abandoning Contre SaintBeuve, at Vallette's suggestion, Proust turned his attention to Remembrance, starting with incidents that had occurred to him while planning the essay. Wrong.

Proust did not turn his attention Remembrance at Vallette's suggestion.

(C) Despondent that he could not find a coherent structure for Contre Saint-Beuve, an essay about the role of memory in fiction, Proust began instead to write Remembrance, a novel devoted to important early memories. Wrong.

Proust was not despondent that he could not find a coherent structure for Contre Saint-Beuve, and neither did such a (non-existent) despondency make him write Remembrance instead.

(D) While developing his argument about the imagination in Contre Saint-Beuve, Proust described and began to link together personal memories that became a foundation for Remembrance. Correct.

relevant lines in the passage

Draft passages in Proust's 1909 notebooks indicate that the transition from essay to novel began in Contre Saint-Beuve, when Proust introduced several examples to show the powerful influence that involuntary memory exerts over the creative imagination. In effect, in trying to demonstrate that the imagination is more profound and less submissive to the intellect than Saint-Beuve assumed, Proust elicited vital memories of his own and, finding subtle connections between them, began to amass the material for Remembrance.

(E) While developing his argument about memory and imagination in Contre Saint-Beuve, Proust created fictional characters to embody the abstract themes in his essay. Wrong.

Proust did not create fictional characters to embody the abstract themes in his essay.

I have a problem with 26.
I answered C.

relevant lines in the passage
starting from Line 10:


Doesn't this mean that Proust was writing the novel in 1908 to get back at the critic St-Bv dude? Or am I missing something?
Doesn't this answer option C? I get that E is definitely correct. But why not C?

Here is the question again for lookup:
26. The passage offers information to answer which of
the following questions?
(A) Precisely when in 1909 did Proust decide to
abandon Contre Saint-Beuve?
(B) Precisely when In 1909 did Proust decide to
connect the beginning and the end of
Remembrance of Things Past?
(C) What was the subject of the novel that Proust
attempted in 1908 ?
(D) What specific criticisms of Saint-Beuve appear,
in fictional fonn, in Remembrance of Things
Past?
(E) What is a theme concerning art that appears in
the final book of Remembrance of Things
Past?

Choice C states:

What was the subject of the novel that Proust attempted in 1908?

Now the relevant lines below (highlighted in red) do not tell us the subject of the novel he tried to begin and subsequently abandoned.

Fallois proposed that Proust had tried to
begin a novel in 1908, abandoned it for what was to be
a long demonstration of Saint-Beuve's blindness to the
real nature of great writing, found the essay giving rise
to personal memories and fictional developments, and
allowed these to take over in a steadily developing novel

Summary:
Para 1: proust wrote novel from essay
Para 2: used memories subconsciously to write the novel
Para 3: critics speculating the start time of novel

21: (B) literary elements were concerned throughout the passage when the novel began and how
22: (E) Vallet only role in the passage was to receive messages from the proust
23: (A) Only II is correct
24 (C) The author was confident with Fallios deduction as given in para 1 but wasn’t happy with lack of detailing of the origin of the novel
25: (C)
26: (E) - para 3, (D). Is a trap answer, though the novel was built from the essay, the passage contains the specific criticism
27: (D) - proust memories flashback came from criticising the essay and that’s how the novel was built

How much time would it take for this essay to be solved? It took me around 15 minutes to solve, that too after reading couple of times.

Ideally, it should take $7 \times 1.5 = 10.5$ minutes to read and answer the questions following the paragraph. That is, $7$ questions with $1.5$ minutes allocated per question.

But since this is a difficult passage, it's okay to take $12-15$ minutes to do it. But you should have done the easy and medium questions faster, and use the time saved to answer these tough questions.

So, congratulations!