Wordsworth's urge towards the egotistical sublime, as well as his occasional oversights, mean that The Prelude can be seen as a blueprint for the imaginative, transcendental narratives of the self that would culminate with Proust's theory of the author's "deeper I." This paper aims at locating Wordsworth's singular achievement by contrasting it with other, contemporary modes of literary self-presentation, based in particular on the notion of character. Wordsworth's peculiar blend of assertiveness and reserve stems as much from his desire to transfigure the vagaries of personal experience into the exemplary 'growth of the poet's mind' as from an insight into the nameless or homeless character of the imagination.