Marcel Proust
Bio: Marcel Proust was born in the Parisian suburb of Auteuil on July 10, 1871. His father, Adrien Proust, was a doctor celebrated for his work in epidemiology; his mother, Jeanne Weil, was a stockbroker's daughter of Jewish descent. He lived as a child in the family home on Boulevard Malesherbes in Paris, but spent vacations with his aunt and uncle in the town of Illiers near Chartres, where the Prousts had lived for generations and which became the model for the Combray of his great novel. (In recent years it was officially renamed Illiers-Combray.) Sickly from birth, Marcel was subject from the age of nine to violent attacks of asthma, and although he did a year of military service as a young man and studied law and political science, his invalidism disqualified him from an active professional life.
During the 1890s Proust contributed sketches to Le Figaro and to a short-lived magazine, Le Banquet, founded by some of his school friends in 1892. Pleasures and Days, a collection of his stories, essays, and poems, was published in 1896. In his youth Proust led an active social life, penetrating the highest circles of wealth and aristocracy. Artistically and intellectually, his influences included the aesthetic criticism of John Ruskin, the philosophy of Henri Bergson, the music of Wagner, and the fiction of Anatole France (on whom he modeled his character Bergotte). An affair begun in 1894 with the composer and pianist Reynaldo Hahn marked the beginning of Proust's often anguished acknowledgment of his homosexuality. Following the publication of Emile Zola's letter in defense of Colonel Dreyfus in 1898, Proust became 'the first Dreyfusard,' as he later phrased it. By the time Dreyfus was finally vindicated of charges of treason, Proust's social circles had been torn apart by the anti-Semitism and political hatreds stirred up by the affair.
Proust was very attached to his mother, and after her death in 1905 he spent some time in a sanitorium. His health worsened progressively, and he withdrew almost completely from society and devoted himself to writing. Proust's early work had done nothing to establish his reputation as a major writer. In an unfinished novel, Jean Santeuil (not published until 1952), he laid some of the groundwork for In Search of Lost Time, and in Against Sainte-Beuve, written in 1908-09, he stated as his aesthetic credo: 'A book is the product of a different self from the one we manifest in our habits, in society, in our vices. If we mean to try to understand this self it is only in our inmost depths, by endeavoring to reconstruct it there, that the quest can be achieved.' He appears to have begun work on his long masterpiece sometime around 1908, and the first volume, Swann's Way, was published in 1913. In 1919 the second volume, Within a Budding Grove, won the Goncourt Prize, bringing Proust great and instantaneous fame. Two subsequent sections--The Guermantes Way (1920-21) and Sodom and Gomorrah (1921)--appeared in his lifetime. (Of the depiction of homosexuality in the latter, his friend André Gide complained: 'Will you never portray this form of Eros for us in the aspect of youth and beauty?') The remaining volumes were published following Proust's death on November 18, 1922: The Captive in 1923, The Fugitive in 1925, and Time Regained in 1927.
|
| Displaying
1 - 9 of 9 items in this category. |
|
|
|
1
|
In Search of Lost Time, Volume I: Swann's Way [Secure eReader (recommended)]
by Marcel Proust
|
|
Swann's Way, the first part of a la recherche de temps perdu, Marcel Proust's seven-part cycle, was published in 1913. In it, Proust introduces the themes that run through the entire work. The narrator recalls his childhood, aided by the famous Madeleine; and describes M. Swann's passion for Odette. This is the most up-to-date translation available. In 1989, the Bibliotheque de la Pliade published the final volume of the definitive original text. For this translation, D.J. Enrigh... more info>>
Category: Classic Literature
|
|
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$4.95 |
|
 |
|
$4.21 |
|
|
|
2
|
In Search of Lost Time [Volume V: The Captive & The Fugitive] [Secure Mobipocket/Microsoft Reader/eReader (recommended)]
by Marcel Proust, C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin
|
|
The Modern Library's fifth volume of Proust's masterpiece, À la recherche du temps perdu, contains both The Captive (1923) and The Fugitive (1925). In The Captive, Proust's narrator describes living with his lover, Albertine, in his mother's Paris apartment. He finds himself, by turns, falling out of love with Albertine and obsessing about whom she may or may not love. In The Fugitive, the narrator loses Albertine forever. It is during his sojourn in Venice that he receives a fateful telegram fr... more info>> (Published: 2001)
Category: Classic Literature
|
1 Reader Ratings:
|
|
|
|
| Great |
Good |
OK |
Poor |
|
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$24.95 |
|
 |
|
$21.21 |
|
|
|
3
|
In Search of Lost Time, Volume V: The Captive; and The Fugitive [Secure eReader (recommended)]
by Marcel Proust
|
|
The Modern Library's fifth volume of Proust's masterpiece, � la recherche du temps perdu, contains both The Captive (1923) and The Fugitive (1925). In The Captive, Proust's narrator describes living with his lover, Albertine, in his mother's Paris apartment. He finds himself, by turns, falling out of love with Albertine and obsessing about whom she may or may not love. In The Fugitive. the narrator loses Albertine forever. It is during his sojourn in Venice that he receives a fate... more info>>
Category: Classic Literature
|
|
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$4.95 |
|
 |
|
$4.21 |
|
|
|
4
|
In Search of Lost Time, Volume VI: Time Regained; and A Guide to Proust [Secure eReader (recommended)]
by Marcel Proust
|
|
Time Regained, the final book in Proust's masterpiece, � la recherche du temps perdu, chronicles the years of World War I when, as M. de Charlus reflects on a moonlit walk, Paris threatens to become another Pompeii. Years later, after the war's end, Proust's narrator returns to Paris, where Mme. Verdurin has become the Princesse de Guermantes. He reflects on time, reality, jealousy, artistic creation, and the raw material of literature -- his past life. This Modern Library edit... more info>>
Category: Classic Literature
|
|
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$4.95 |
|
 |
|
$4.21 |
|
|
|
5
|
Sodom and Gomorrah [Secure Microsoft Reader/eReader (recommended)/Adobe PDF]
by Marcel Proust, C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin
|
|
"Flower and plant have no conscious will. They are shameless, exposing their genitals. And so in a sense are Proust's men and women ... shameless. There is no question of right and wrong. Homosexuality ... is as devoid of moral implications as the mode of fecundation of the Primula veris or the Lythrum salicoria."--Samuel Beckett. The theme of Sodom and Gomorrah is sexual ambiguity. In the opening scene, the narrator secretly observes a sexual encounter between two men that is played out 'as tho... more info>> (Published: 2001)
Words: 150000 - Reading Time: 428-600 min.
Category: Mainstream
|
3 Reader Ratings:
|
|
|
|
| Great |
Good |
OK |
Poor |
|
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$24.95 |
|
 |
|
$21.21 |
|
|
|
6
|
Swann's Way [Secure Microsoft Reader/eReader (recommended)/Adobe PDF]
by Marcel Proust, C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin
|
|
'The transmutation of sensation into sentiment, the ebb tide of memory, waves of emotion such as desire, jealousy, and artistic euphoria--this is the material of this enormous and yet singularly light and translucid work.--VLADIMIR NABOKOV In the overture to Swann's Way, the themes of the whole of In Search of Lost Time are introduced, and the narrator's childhood in Paris and Combray is recalled, most memorably in the evocation of the famous maternal good-night kiss. The recollection of the nar... more info>> (Published: 2001)
Words: 125000 - Reading Time: 357-500 min.
Category: Mainstream
|
4 Reader Ratings:
|
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$25.00 |
|
 |
|
$21.25 |
|
|
|
7
|
The Guermantes Way [Secure Microsoft Reader/eReader (recommended)/Adobe PDF]
by Marcel Proust, C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin
|
|
"The Guermantes way" is the path that runs past the chateau belonging to the Duc and Duchesse de Guermantes. It also represents the path into "the social kaleidoscope" traveled by Proust's narrator, which culminates in his introduction to the Paris salon of the Guermantes. The rich cast of characters in this third volume of In Search of Lost Time includes Robert de Saint-Loup, who is obsessed with the prostitute Rachel, and Baron de Charlus, a public womanizer and secret homosexual. The final vo... more info>>
Words: 150000 - Reading Time: 428-600 min.
Category: Mainstream
|
2 Reader Ratings:
|
|
|
|
| Great |
Good |
OK |
Poor |
|
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$24.95 |
|
 |
|
$21.21 |
|
|
|
8
|
Time Regained and a Guide to Proust [Secure Microsoft Reader/eReader (recommended)/Adobe PDF]
by Marcel Proust, Andreas Mayor, Terence Kilmartin
|
|
'Proust is perhaps the last great historian of the loves, the society, the intelligence, the diplomacy, the literature and the art of the Heartbreak House of capitalist culture.'--EDMUND WILSON The final volume of In Search of Lost Time chronicles the years of World War I, when, as M. de Charlus reflects on a moonlit walk, Paris threatens to become another Pompeii. Years later, after the war's end, Proust's narrator returns to Paris, where Mme. Verdurin has become the Princesse de Guermantes. He... more info>>
Words: 150000 - Reading Time: 428-600 min.
Category: Mainstream
|
1 Reader Ratings:
|
|
|
|
| Great |
Good |
OK |
Poor |
|
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$26.95 |
|
 |
|
$22.91 |
|
|
|
9
|
Within A Budding Grove [Secure Microsoft Reader/eReader (recommended)/Adobe PDF]
by Marcel Proust, C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin
|
|
Within a Budding Grove received the Prix Goncourt when it was published in 1919 and catapulted its author to overnight fame. It takes the autobiographical narrator of Swann's Way from childhood through adolescence. He loses interest in Gilberte and falls in love with Albertine, the dark girl on her bicycle, with 'that little beauty spot on her cheek, just under the eye.' Albertine, her friends, and the fictional Normandy resort of Balbec become the primary agents of recollection for him. The fin... more info>> (Published: 2001)
Words: 150000 - Reading Time: 428-600 min.
Category: Mainstream
|
3 Reader Ratings:
|
|
|
|
| Great |
Good |
OK |
Poor |
|
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$24.95 |
|
 |
|
$21.21 |
|
| Icon explanations: |
 |
Discounted eBook; added within the last 7 days. |
 |
eBook was added within the last 30 days. |
 |
eBook is in our best seller list. |
 |
eBook is in our highest rated list. |
|