Reissued with a new preface to commemorate the first publication of À la recherche du temps perdu one hundred years ago, Marcel Proust portrays in abundant detail the extraordinary life and times of one of the greatest literary voices of the twentieth century. “An impeccably researched and well-paced narrative that brings vividly and credibly to life not only the writer himself but also the changing world he knew.”—Roger Pearson, New York Times Book Review “William C. Carter is Proust’s definitive biographer.”—Harold Bloom
Proust's 'A la recherche du temps perdu' ('In Search of Lost Time', 1913─27) changed the course of modern narrative fiction. This Introduction provides an account of Proust's life, the socio-historical and cultural contexts of his work and an assessment of his early works. At its core is a volume-by-volume study of 'In Search of Lost Time', which attends to its remarkable superstructure, as well as to individual images and the intricacies of Proust's finely-stitched prose.
The Life and Work of Marcel Proust (Audiobook, MP3)
Proust's great literary work "Remembrance of Things Past" looks back at the old social order while noting the rise of a different way of life. This biography looks at Proust's own life which provided the background for a number of his stories and sketches. Born in 1871, Marcel Proust was intent on becoming a writer from an early age. For much of his youth Proust led the life of a man-about-town, frequenting fashionable Paris drawing rooms and literary salons, which would form the background of a number of his early stories and sketches, and subsequently Proust's great work, Remembrance of Things Past, the major French literary statement of the 20th century.
This outtake from Marcel Proust's SWANN'S WAY is an account of the long, obsessive affair between Swann, the Parisian man about town, and Odette, the cocotte to whom he is enslaved. Can you imagine Mrs R laughing so hard that she dislocates her jaw? Swann takes a long time to rearrange Odette's corsage of orchids. Thereafter they do not call it making love, they "do orchids". If you're nervous of Proust, this is a good standalone extract to start with. - Sue Arnold, Classic Sounds
Modern classics. NovelMarcel Proust (1871-1922) is on his deathbed. Looking at photographs brings memories of his childhood, his youth, his lovers, and the way the Great War put an end to a stratum of society. His memories are in no particular order, they move back and forth in time. Marcel at various ages interacts with Odette, with the beautiful Gilberte and her doomed husband, with the pleasure-seeking Baron de Charlus, with Marcel's lover Albertine, and with others; present also in memory are Marcel's beloved mother and grandmother. It seems as if to live is to remember and to capture memories is to create a work of great art.
