Editing Marcel Proust

{{Short description|French novelist, literary critic, and essayist (1871–1922)}}
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{{Infobox person
| birth_name         = Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust
| name               = Marcel Proust
| image              = Otto_Wegener_Proust_vers_1895_bis.jpg
| caption            = Proust in 1900
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|df=yes|1871|7|10}}
| birth_place        = [[Paris]], France
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1922|11|18|1871|7|10}}
| death_place        = [[Paris]], France
| resting_place      = [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]]
| occupation         = {{flatlist|
* [[Novelist]]
* essayist
* critic
}}
| education          = [[Lycée Condorcet]]
| notable_works      = ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]''
| signature          = Marcel Proust signature.svg
| parents            = [[Adrien Proust|Adrien Achille Proust]]<br />Jeanne Clémence Weil
| relatives          = [[Robert Proust]] (brother)
}}

'''Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust''' ({{IPAc-en|p|r|uː|s|t}} {{respell|PROOST}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/proust "Proust"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222010903/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/proust |date=22 December 2014 }}. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{IPA|fr|maʁsɛl pʁust|lang}}; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French [[novelist]], [[literary critic]], and [[essayist]] who wrote the novel {{lang|fr|À la recherche du temps perdu}} (in [[French language|French]] – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more recently as ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]'') which was published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.<ref>Harold Bloom, ''Genius'', pp. 191–225.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/white-proust.html|title=Marcel Proust|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=13 October 2016|archive-date=16 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116033343/http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/white-proust.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Biography==
Proust was born on 10 July 1871 at the home of his great-uncle in the Paris Borough of [[Auteuil, Paris|Auteuil]] (the south-western sector of the then-rustic [[16th arrondissement of Paris|16th arrondissement]]), two months after the [[Treaty of Frankfurt (1871)|Treaty of Frankfurt]] formally ended the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. His birth coincided with the beginning of the [[French Third Republic]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ellison|first=David|title=A Reader's Guide to Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time'|year=2010|pages=8}}</ref> during the violence that surrounded the suppression of the [[Paris Commune]], and his childhood corresponded with the consolidation of the Republic. Much of ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]'' concerns the vast changes, most particularly the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the middle classes, that occurred in France during the ''[[fin de siècle]].''

Proust's father, [[Adrien Proust]], was a prominent French [[pathologist]] and [[Epidemiology|epidemiologist]], studying [[cholera]] in Europe and Asia. He wrote numerous articles and books on medicine and hygiene. Proust's mother, Jeanne Clémence (maiden name: Weil), was the daughter of a wealthy [[History of the Jews in Germany|German–Jewish]] family from [[Alsace]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Allan|last=Massie|title=Madame Proust: A Biography By Evelyne Bloch-Dano, translated by Alice Kaplan|work=Literary Review|url=http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/massie_10_07.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212151419/http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/massie_10_07.html |archive-date=12 February 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> Literate and well-read, she demonstrated a well-developed sense of humour in her letters, and her command of the [[English language]] was sufficient to help with her son's translations of [[John Ruskin]].<ref name="Tadié">Tadié, J-Y. (Euan Cameron, trans.) ''Marcel Proust: A life''. New York: Penguin Putnam, 2000.</ref> Proust was raised in his father's [[Catholicism|Catholic faith]].<ref>[http://www.nysoclib.org/travels/proust.html NYSL TRAVELS: Paris: Proust's Time Regained] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127020446/http://www.nysoclib.org/travels/proust.html|date=27 January 2012}}</ref> He was baptized on 5 August 1871 at the [[Saint-Louis-d'Antin|Church of Saint-Louis-d'Antin]] and later confirmed as a Catholic, but he never formally practised that faith. He later became an [[Atheism|atheist]] and was something of a [[Mysticism|mystic]].<ref>Edmund White (2009). Marcel Proust: A Life. Penguin. {{ISBN|9780143114987}}. "Marcel Proust was the son of a Christian father and a Jewish mother. He himself was baptized (on August 5, 1871, at the church of Saint-Louis d'Antin) and later [[Confirmation in the Catholic Church|confirmed as a Roman Catholic]], but he never practised that faith and as an adult could best be described as a mystical atheist, someone imbued with spirituality who nonetheless did not believe in a personal God, much less in a savior."</ref><ref>Proust, Marcel (1999). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford University Press. p. 594. {{ISBN|978-0-19-860173-9}}. "...the highest praise of God consists in the denial of him by the atheist who finds creation so perfect that it can dispense with a creator."</ref>

By the age of nine, Proust had had his first serious [[asthma]] attack, and thereafter was considered a sickly child. Proust spent long holidays in the village of [[Illiers-Combray|Illiers]]. This village, combined with recollections of his great-uncle's house in Auteuil, became the model for the fictional town of Combray, where some of the most important scenes of ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]'' take place. (Illiers was renamed Illiers-Combray in 1971 on the occasion of the Proust centenary celebrations.)

In 1882, at the age of eleven, Proust became a pupil at the [[Lycée Condorcet]]; however, his education was disrupted by his illness. Despite this, he excelled in literature, receiving an award in his final year. Thanks to his classmates, he was able to gain access to some of the salons of the upper [[bourgeoisie]], providing him with copious material for ''In Search of Lost Time''.<ref>Painter, George D. (1959) ''Marcel Proust: a biography''; Vols. 1 & 2. London: Chatto & Windus</ref>
[[File:Marcel Proust et Lucien Daudet.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Marcel Proust (seated), [[Robert de Flers]] (left), and [[Lucien Daudet]] (right), {{circa|1894}}]]

In spite of his poor health, Proust served a year (1889–90) in the French army, stationed at Coligny Barracks in [[Orléans]], an experience that provided a lengthy episode in ''[[The Guermantes' Way]]'', part three of his novel. As a young man, Proust was a [[Amateur|dilettante]] and a [[social climber]] whose aspirations as a writer were hampered by his lack of self-discipline. His reputation from this period, as a snob and an amateur, contributed to his later troubles with getting ''[[Swann's Way]]'', the first part of his large-scale novel, published in 1913. At this time, he attended the ''salons'' of [[Geneviève Halévy|Mme Straus]], widow of [[Georges Bizet]] and mother of Proust's childhood friend Jacques Bizet, of [[Madeleine Lemaire]] and of [[Léontine Lippmann|Mme Arman de Caillavet]], one of the models for Madame Verdurin, and mother of his friend [[Gaston Arman de Caillavet]], with whose fiancée (Jeanne Pouquet) he was in love. It is through Mme Arman de Caillavet, he made the acquaintance of [[Anatole France]], her lover.

Proust had a close relationship with his mother. To appease his father, who insisted that he pursue a career, Proust obtained a volunteer position at [[Bibliothèque Mazarine]] in the summer of 1896. After exerting considerable effort, he obtained a sick leave that extended for several years until he was considered to have resigned. He never worked at his job, and he did not move from his parents' apartment until after both were dead.<ref name="Tadié"/>

His life and family circle changed markedly between 1900 and 1905. In February 1903, Proust's brother, [[Robert Proust]], married and left the family home. His father died in November of the same year.<ref>Carter (2002)</ref> Finally, and most crushingly, Proust's beloved mother died in September 1905. She left him a considerable inheritance. His health throughout this period continued to deteriorate.

Proust spent the last three years of his life mostly confined to his bedroom of his apartment 44 rue Hamelin<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.france-memoire.fr/mort-de-marcel-proust/ |title=Mort de Marcel Proust |date=4 January 2022 |access-date=18 March 2023 |archive-date=18 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230318075623/https://www.france-memoire.fr/mort-de-marcel-proust/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=2022|title=La Maîtresse de Proust|page=193|author=Gilberto Schwartsmann, Emmanuel Tugny, Pascale Privey}}</ref> (in [[Chaillot]]), sleeping during the day and working at night to complete his novel.<ref>Marcel Proust: Revolt against the Tyranny of Time. Harry Slochower .''The Sewanee Review'', 1943.</ref> He died of [[pneumonia]] and a [[Lung abscess|pulmonary abscess]] in 1922. He was buried in the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris.<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 38123-38124). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref>

===Personal life===
Proust is known to have been [[Homosexuality|homosexual]]; his sexuality and [[Same-sex relationship|relationships with men]] are often discussed by his biographers.<ref>Painter (1959), White (1998), Tadié (2000), Carter (2002 and 2006)</ref> Although his housekeeper, [[Céleste Albaret]], denies this aspect of Proust's sexuality in her memoirs,<ref>Albaret (2003)</ref> her denial runs contrary to the statements of many of Proust's friends and contemporaries, including his fellow writer [[André Gide]]<ref>Harris (2002)</ref> as well as his [[valet]] Ernest A. Forssgren.<ref>Forssgren (2006)</ref>

Proust never openly disclosed his homosexuality, though his family and close friends either knew or suspected it. In 1897, he fought a duel with writer [[Jean Lorrain#Duel|Jean Lorrain]], who publicly questioned the nature of Proust's relationship with Proust's lover<ref>{{cite web |last=White |first=Edmund |title=Marcel Proust |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/white-proust.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710132920/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/white-proust.html |archive-date=10 July 2018 |access-date=2 May 2022}}</ref> [[Lucien Daudet]]; both duellists survived.<ref>{{cite web |author=Hall, Sean Charles |date=12 February 2012 |title=Dueling Dandies: How Men Of Style Displayed a Blasé Demeanor In the Face of Death |url=http://www.dandyism.net/2024/04/15/dueling-dandies/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190911060214/http://www.dandyism.net/2012/02/12/dueling-dandies |archive-date=11 September 2019 |access-date=6 November 2024 |website=Dandyism}}</ref> Despite Proust's public denials, his romantic relationship with composer [[Reynaldo Hahn]]<ref name="carter"/> and his infatuation with his chauffeur and secretary, Alfred Agostinelli, are well documented.<ref>{{cite news|work=Salon|date=1 June 2000|title=Proust's dearest pleasures: The best of a slew of recent biographies points to the author's conscious self-closeting|author=Whitaker, Rick|url=http://www.salon.com/2000/06/01/proust/|access-date=18 May 2016|archive-date=5 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605041544/http://www.salon.com/2000/06/01/proust/|url-status=live}}</ref> On the night of 11 January 1918, Proust was one of the men identified by police in a raid on a male [[brothel]] run by Albert Le Cuziat.<ref>Murat, Laure (May 2005). "Proust, Marcel, 46 ans, rentier: Un individu 'aux allures de pédéraste' fiche à la police", ''La Revue littéraire'' 14: 82–93; Carter (2006)</ref> Proust's friend [[Paul Morand]] openly teased Proust about his visits to [[Male prostitution|male prostitutes]]. In his journal, Morand refers to Proust, as well as Gide, as "constantly hunting, never satiated by their adventures ... eternal prowlers, tireless sexual adventurers."<ref>Morand, Paul. ''Journal inutile, tome 2: 1973 – 1976'', ed. Laurent Boyer and Véronique Boyer. Paris: Gallimard, 2001; Carter (2006)</ref>

The exact influence of Proust's sexuality on his writing is a topic of debate.<ref>Sedgwick (1992); O'Brien (1949)</ref> However, ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]'' discusses homosexuality at length and features several principal characters, both men and women, who are either homosexual or [[Bisexuality|bisexual]]: the Baron de Charlus, Robert de Saint-Loup, Odette de Crécy, and Albertine Simonet.<ref>Sedgwick (1992); Ladenson (1999); Bersani (2013)</ref> Homosexuality also appears as a theme in ''[[Les plaisirs et les jours]]'' and his unfinished novel, ''[[Jean Santeuil]]''.

Proust inherited much of his mother's political outlook, which was supportive of the [[French Third Republic]] and near the [[Classical liberalism|liberal]] [[Centrism|centre]] of French politics.<ref name="Hughes">{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Edward J.|title=Proust, Class, and Nation|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=19–46}}</ref> In an 1892 article published in ''Le Banquet'' entitled "L'Irréligion d'État", Proust condemned extreme [[Anti-clericalism|anti-clerical]] measures such as the expulsion of monks, observing that "one might just be surprised that the negation of religion should bring in its wake the same [[fanaticism]], intolerance, and persecution as religion itself."<ref name="Hughes" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Carter |first1=William C. |title=Marcel Proust: A Life, with a New Preface by the Author |date=2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=346}}</ref> He argued that [[socialism]] posed a greater threat to society than the Church.<ref name="Hughes" /> He was equally critical of the right, lambasting "the insanity of the conservatives," whom he deemed "as dumb and ungrateful as under [[Charles X of France|Charles X]]," and referring to [[Pope Pius X]]'s obstinacy as foolish.<ref name="Watson">{{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=D. R. |title=Sixteen Letters of Marcel Proust to Joseph Reinach |journal=The Modern Language Review |date=1968 |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=587–599 |jstor=3722199 |doi=10.2307/3722199 }}</ref> Proust always rejected the bigoted and illiberal views harbored by many priests at the time, but believed that the most enlightened clerics could be just as progressive as the most enlightened secularists, and that both could serve the cause of "the advanced liberal Republic".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sprinker |first1=Michael |title=History and Ideology in Proust: A la Recherche Du Temps Perdu and the Third French Republic |date=1998 |publisher=Verso |pages=45–46}}</ref> He approved of the more moderate stance taken in 1906 by [[Aristide Briand]], whom he described as "admirable".<ref name="Watson" />

Proust was among the earliest [[Dreyfus Affair|Dreyfusards]], even attending [[Émile Zola]]'s trial and proudly claiming to have been the one who asked [[Anatole France]] to sign the petition in support of [[Alfred Dreyfus]]'s innocence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bales |first1=Richard |title=The Cambridge Companion to Proust |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00bale |url-access=limited |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00bale/page/n21 21]}}</ref> In 1919, when representatives of the right-wing [[Action Française]] published a manifesto upholding [[French colonialism]] and the [[Catholic Church]] as the embodiment of civilised values, Proust rejected their nationalistic and chauvinistic views in favor of a [[Classical liberalism|liberal]] [[Pluralism (political philosophy)|pluralist]] vision which acknowledged [[Christianity in France|Christianity]]'s [[Culture of France|cultural legacy in France]].<ref name="Hughes" /> [[Julien Benda]] commended Proust in ''La Trahison des clercs'' as a writer who distinguished himself from his generation by avoiding the twin traps of nationalism and class sectarianism.<ref name="Hughes" />

Because of his allergies and frequent asthma attacks, and the misunderstanding of the disease at the time,<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Marcel Proust (1871-1922): reassessment of his asthma and other maladies |date=2000 |pmid=10853866 |url=https://publications.ersnet.org/content/erj/15/5/958 |last1=Sharma |first1=O. P. |journal=The European Respiratory Journal |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=958–960 |doi=10.1034/j.1399-3003.2000.15e25.x }}</ref> Proust was considered a [[Hypochondriasis|hypochondriac]] by his doctors. His correspondence provides some clues on his symptoms.{{Clarification needed|date=January 2024}} According to Yellowlees Douglas, Proust suffered from the [[Ehlers–Danlos syndromes#Vascular EDS|vascular subtype of Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Douglas |first=Yellowlees |date=2016-05-01 |title=The real malady of Marcel Proust and what it reveals about diagnostic errors in medicine |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27063078/ |journal=Medical Hypotheses |volume=90 |pages=14–18 |doi=10.1016/j.mehy.2016.02.024 |issn=1532-2777 |pmid=27063078 |access-date=15 November 2022 |archive-date=15 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221115120604/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27063078/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Early writing==
Proust was involved in writing and publishing from an early age. In addition to the literary magazines with which he was associated, and in which he published while at school (''La Revue verte'' and ''La Revue lilas''), from 1890 to 1891 he published a regular society column in the journal ''Le Mensuel''.<ref name="Tadié"/> In 1892, he was involved in founding a literary review called ''Le Banquet'' (also the French title of [[Plato]]'s ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]]''), and throughout the next several years Proust published small pieces regularly in this journal and in the prestigious ''[[La Revue Blanche]]''.

In 1896 ''[[Les plaisirs et les jours]]'', a compendium of many of these early pieces, was published. The book included a foreword by [[Anatole France]], drawings by Mme [[Madeleine Lemaire|Lemaire]] in whose ''salon'' Proust was a frequent guest, and who inspired Proust's Mme Verdurin. She invited him and [[Reynaldo Hahn]] to her [[Réveillon, Marne|château de Réveillon]] (the model for Mme Verdurin's La Raspelière) in summer 1894, and for three weeks in 1895. Despite the contents being well received, the book sold poorly due to its high price, which was widely ridiculed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pleasures and Days 1 - Proust and the Arts |url=https://library.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/static/collections/proust/pleasures-and-days-1.html |website=library.harvard.edu |access-date=22 January 2025}}</ref> The price was due to the fact that the book was so sumptuously produced.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

That year Proust also began working on a novel, which was eventually published in 1952 and titled ''[[Jean Santeuil]]'' by his posthumous editors. Many of the themes later developed in ''In Search of Lost Time'' find their first articulation in this unfinished work, including the enigma of memory and the necessity of reflection; several sections of ''In Search of Lost Time'' can be read in the first draft in ''Jean Santeuil''. The portrait of the parents in ''Jean Santeuil'' is quite harsh, in marked contrast to the adoration with which the parents are painted in Proust's masterpiece. Following the poor reception of ''Les Plaisirs et les Jours'', and internal troubles with resolving the plot, Proust gradually abandoned ''Jean Santeuil'' in 1897 and stopped work on it entirely by 1899.

Beginning in 1895 Proust spent several years reading [[Thomas Carlyle]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], and [[John Ruskin]]. Through this reading, he refined his theories of [[art]] and the role of the artist in society. Also, in ''[[Le Temps retrouvé|Time Regained]]'' Proust's universal protagonist recalls having translated Ruskin's ''Sesame and Lilies''. The artist's responsibility is to confront the appearance of nature, deduce its essence and retell or explain that essence in the work of art. Ruskin's view of artistic production was central to this conception, and Ruskin's work was so important to Proust that he claimed to know "by heart" several of Ruskin's books, including ''[[The Seven Lamps of Architecture]]'', ''The Bible of Amiens'', and ''Praeterita''.<ref name="Tadié"/>

Proust set out to translate two of Ruskin's works into French, but was hampered by an imperfect command of English. To compensate for this he made his translations a group affair: sketched out by his mother, the drafts were first revised by Proust, then by Marie Nordlinger, the English cousin of his friend and sometime lover<ref name="carter">{{citation|title=Proust in Love|first=William C.|last=Carter|year=2006|publisher=YaleUniversity Press|isbn=0-300-10812-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/proustinlove00cart/page/31 31–35]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/proustinlove00cart/page/31}}</ref> [[Reynaldo Hahn]], then finally polished by Proust. Questioned about his method by an editor, Proust responded, "I don't claim to know English; I claim to know Ruskin".<ref name="Tadié"/><ref>Karlin, Daniel (2005) ''Proust's English''; p. 36</ref> ''The Bible of Amiens'', with Proust's extended introduction, was published in French in 1904. Both the translation and the introduction were well-reviewed; [[Henri Bergson]] called Proust's introduction "an important contribution to the psychology of Ruskin", and had similar praise for the translation.<ref name="Tadié"/> At the time of this publication, Proust was already translating Ruskin's ''Sesame and Lilies'', which he completed in June 1905, just before his mother's death, and published in 1906. Literary historians and critics have ascertained that, apart from Ruskin, Proust's chief literary influences included [[Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]], [[Michel de Montaigne|Montaigne]], [[Stendhal]], [[Gustave Flaubert|Flaubert]], [[George Eliot]], [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], and [[Leo Tolstoy]].{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

In Proust’s 1904 article "La mort des cathédrales" (The Death of Cathedrals) published in ''[[Le Figaro]]'', Proust called [[Gothic cathedrals and churches|Gothic cathedrals]] “probably the highest, and unquestionably the most original expression of French genius”.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-death-of-cathedrals-and-venerable.html | title=RORATE CÆLI: THE DEATH OF CATHEDRALS – and the Rites for which they were built – by Marcel Proust (Full English translation) | access-date=29 September 2023 | archive-date=27 September 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927094032/https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-death-of-cathedrals-and-venerable.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

1908 was an important year for Proust's development as a writer. During the first part of the year he published in various journals [[pastiches]] of other writers. These exercises in imitation may have allowed Proust to solidify his own style. In addition, in the spring and summer of the year Proust began work on several different fragments of writing that would later coalesce under the working title of ''[[Contre Sainte-Beuve]]''. Proust described his efforts in a letter to a friend: "I have in progress: a study on the nobility, a Parisian novel, an essay on [[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve|Sainte-Beuve]] and [[Gustave Flaubert|Flaubert]], an essay on women, an essay on [[pederasty]] (not easy to publish), a study on stained-glass windows, a study on tombstones, a study on the novel".<ref name="Tadié"/>

From these disparate fragments Proust began to shape a novel on which he worked continually during this period. The rough outline of the work centred on a [[First-person narrative|first-person narrator]], unable to sleep, who during the night remembers waiting as a child for his mother to come to him in the morning. The novel was to have ended with a critical examination of Sainte-Beuve and a refutation of his theory that biography was the most important tool for understanding an artist's work. Present in the unfinished manuscript notebooks are many elements that correspond to parts of the ''Recherche'', in particular, to the "Combray" and "Swann in Love" sections of Volume 1, and to the final section of Volume 7. Trouble with finding a publisher, as well as a gradually changing conception of his novel, led Proust to shift work to a substantially different project that still contained many of the same themes and elements. By 1910 he was at work on ''À la recherche du temps perdu''.

==''In Search of Lost Time''==
{{Main|In Search of Lost Time}}

Begun in 1909, when Proust was 38 years old, ''À la recherche du temps perdu'' consists of seven volumes totaling around 3,200 pages (about 4,300 in [[Modern Library|The Modern Library's]] translation) and featuring more than 2,000 characters. [[Graham Greene]] called Proust the "greatest novelist of the twentieth century, just as [[Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy]] was of the nineteenth"<ref>{{Cite book|title=Marcel Proust, a life|last=White|first=Edmund|publisher=Penguin|year=1999|isbn=9780143114987|pages=2}}</ref> and [[W. Somerset Maugham]] called the novel the "greatest fiction to date".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Patrick |title=Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time: A Reader's Guide to The Remembrance of Things Past |date=2009 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday |isbn=978-0-307-47560-2 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l4C0I7dCktgC&pg=PA5 |language=en |access-date=2 March 2022 |archive-date=27 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527075916/https://books.google.com/books?id=l4C0I7dCktgC&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> [[André Gide]] was initially not so taken with his work. The first volume was refused by the publisher Gallimard on Gide's advice. He later wrote to Proust apologizing for his part in the refusal and calling it one of the most serious mistakes of his life.<ref>Tadié, J-Y. (Euan Cameron, trans.) ''Marcel Proust: A Life''. p. 611</ref>  Finally, the book was published at the author's expense by [[Éditions Grasset|Grasset]] and Proust paid critics to speak favorably about it.<ref>« Marcel Proust paid for reviews praising his work to go into newspapers », [[Agence France-Presse]] in ''[[The Guardian]]'', 28 septembre 2017, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/28/marcel-proust-paid-for-reviews-praising-his-work-to-go-into-newspapers?CMP=share_btn_tw online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527075901/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/28/marcel-proust-paid-for-reviews-praising-his-work-to-go-into-newspapers?CMP=share_btn_tw |date=27 May 2024 }}.</ref>

Proust died before he was able to complete his revision of the drafts and proofs of the final volumes, the last three of which were published posthumously and edited by his brother [[Robert Proust|Robert]]. The book was translated into English by [[C. K. Scott Moncrieff]], appearing under the title ''Remembrance of Things Past'' between 1922 and 1931. Scott Moncrieff translated volumes one through six of the seven volumes, dying before completing the last. This last volume was rendered by other translators at different times. When Scott Moncrieff's translation was later revised (first by [[Terence Kilmartin]], then by [[D. J. Enright]]) the title of the novel was changed to the more literal ''In Search of Lost Time''.

In 1995, Penguin undertook a fresh translation of the book by editor Christopher Prendergast and seven translators in three countries, based on the latest, most complete and authoritative French text. Its six volumes, comprising Proust's seven, were published in Britain under the [[Allen Lane]] imprint in 2002.

In 2023, Oxford University Press started releasing a new translation of the book by editors Brian Nelson and Adam Watt and five other translators. It will be published in seven volumes under the Oxford World's Classics imprint.

==Bibliography==
===Novels===
* ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu'' published in seven volumes, previously translated as ''Remembrance of Things Past'') (1913–1927)
# ''Swann's Way'' (''Du côté de chez Swann'', sometimes translated as ''The Way by Swann's'') (1913)
# ''In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower'' (''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'', also translated as ''Within a Budding Grove'') (1919)
# ''The Guermantes Way'' (''Le Côté de Guermantes'' originally published in two volumes) (1920–1921)
# ''Sodom and Gomorrah'' (''Sodome et Gomorrhe'' originally published in two volumes, sometimes translated as ''Cities of the Plain'') (1921–1922)
# ''The Prisoner'' (''La Prisonnière'', also translated as ''The Captive'') (1923)
# ''The Fugitive'' (''Albertine disparue'', also titled ''La Fugitive'', sometimes translated as ''The Sweet Cheat Gone'' or ''Albertine Gone'') (1925)
# ''Time Regained'' (''Le Temps retrouvé'', also translated as ''Finding Time Again'' and ''The Past Recaptured'') translated by [[C. K. Scott Moncrieff]] (1927)
* ''[[Jean Santeuil]]'' (1896–1900, unfinished novel in three volumes published posthumously – 1952)

===Short story collections===
* ''Early Stories'' (short stories published posthumously)
* ''[[Les plaisirs et les jours|Pleasures and Days]]'' (''Les plaisirs et les jours''; illustrations by [[Madeleine Lemaire]], preface by [[Anatole France]], and four piano works by [[Reynaldo Hahn]]) (1896)

===Non-fiction===
* ''[[Pastiches et mélanges|Pastiches'', or ''The Lemoine Affair]]'' (''Pastiches et mélanges'' – a collection) (1919)
* ''[[Contre Sainte-Beuve|Against Sainte-Beuve]]'' (''Contre Sainte-Beuve: suivi de Nouveaux mélanges'') (published posthumously 1954)

===Translations of John Ruskin===
* ''La Bible d'Amiens'' (translation of ''The Bible of Amiens'') (1896)
* ''Sésame et les lys: des trésors des rois, des jardins des reines'' (translation of ''Sesame and Lilies'') (1906)

==See also==
* ''[[102 Boulevard Haussmann]]'', a [[BBC]] production set in 1916 about Proust
* ''[[Albertine (Rose novel)|Albertine]]'', a novel based on a character in ''À la recherche du temps perdu'' by [[Jacqueline Rose]] (London, 2001)
* ''[[Céleste (1980 film)|Céleste]]'', a German film dramatising part of Proust's life, seen from the viewpoint of his housekeeper [[Céleste Albaret]]
* [[Involuntary memory]]
* ''Le Temps Retrouvé, d'après l'œuvre de Marcel Proust'' (''[[Time Regained (film)|Time Regained]]''), film by director [[Raúl Ruiz (director)|Raúl Ruiz]], 1999
* ''Mme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen'', a novel by [[Kate Taylor (novelist)|Kate Taylor]] that includes a fictional diary written by Proust's mother
* ''[[Proust (Beckett essay)|Proust]]'', an essay by [[Samuel Beckett]]
* [[Proust Questionnaire]]
* ''[[Swann in Love (film)|Swann in Love]]'', film by the director [[Volker Schlöndorff]], 1984
* ''[[La Captive|La captive]]'', film by the director [[Chantal Akerman]], 2000
* ''[[Little Miss Sunshine]]'', an American road-trip tragicomedy where [[Steve Carell]] plays an ex-Proust professor.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Aciman, André (2004), ''The Proust Project''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
* Adams, William Howard; [[Paul Nadar]] (photo.), ''A Proust Souvenir''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1984)
* [[Theodor W. Adorno|Adorno, Theodor]] (1967), ''Prisms''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press
* Adorno, Theodor, "Short Commentaries on Proust," Notes to Literature, trans. S. Weber-Nicholsen (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991).
* Albaret, Céleste ([[Barbara Bray]], trans.) (2003), ''Monsieur Proust''. New York: New York Review Books
* [[Samuel Beckett|Beckett, Samuel]], ''Proust'', London: Calder
* [[Walter Benjamin|Benjamin, Walter]], "The Image of Proust," Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: [[Schocken Books]], 1969); pp.&nbsp;201–215.
* Bernard, Anne-Marie (2002), ''The World of Proust, as seen by Paul Nadar''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press
* Bersani, Leo, ''Marcel Proust: The Fictions of Life and of Art'' (2013), Oxford: Oxford U. Press
* [[Malcolm Bowie|Bowie, Malcolm]], ''Proust Among the Stars'', London: Harper Collins
* [[Demetrios Capetanakis|Capetanakis, Demetrios]], "A Lecture on Proust", in ''Demetrios Capetanakis A Greek Poet in England'' (1947)
* Carter, William C. (2002), ''Marcel Proust: A Life''. New Haven: Yale University Press
* Carter, William C. (2006), ''Proust in Love''. New Haven: Yale University Press
* Chardin, Philippe (2006), ''Proust ou le bonheur du petit personnage qui compare''. Paris: Honoré Champion
* Chardin, Philippe ''et alii'' (2010), ''Originalités proustiennes''. Paris: Kimé
* Compagnon, Antoine, ''Proust Between Two Centuries,'' Columbia U. Press
* [[Józef Czapski|Czapski, Józef]] (2018) ''Lost Time. Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp.'' New York: New York Review Books. 90 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-68137-258-7}}
* [[Richard Davenport-Hines|Davenport-Hines, Richard]] (2006), ''A Night at the Majestic''. London: Faber and Faber {{ISBN|9780571220090}}
* [[Alain de Botton|De Botton, Alain]] (1998), ''How Proust Can Change Your Life''. New York: Vintage Books
* [[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuze, Gilles]] (2004), ''Proust and Signs: the complete text''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
* [[Paul De Man|De Man, Paul]] (1979), ''Allegories of Reading: Figural Language in Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Proust'' {{ISBN|0-300-02845-8}}
* [[Vincent Descombes|Descombes, Vincent]], ''Proust: Philosophy of the Novel''. Stanford, CA: Stanford U. Press
* Forssgren, Ernest A. (William C. Carter, ed.) (2006), ''The Memoirs of Ernest A. Forssgren: Proust's Swedish Valet''. New Haven: Yale University Press
* Foschini, Lorenza, ''Proust's Overcoat: The True Story of One Man's Passion for All Things Proust''. London: Portobello Books (2010)
* [[Gérard Genette|Genette, Gérard]], ''Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell U. Press
* [[Julien Gracq|Gracq, Julien]], "Proust Considered as An End Point," in Reading Writing (New York: Turtle Point Press,), 113–130.
* Green, F. C.  ''The Mind of Proust'' (1949)
* Harris, Frederick J. (2002), ''Friend and Foe: Marcel Proust and André Gide''. Lanham: University Press of America
* [[Ronald Hayman|Hayman, Ronald]] (1990), ''Proust. A Biography''. London: William Heinemann
* Hillerin, Laure [http://www.comtessegreffulhe.fr/ ''La comtesse Greffulhe, L'ombre des Guermantes''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019100054/http://www.comtessegreffulhe.fr/ |date=19 October 2014 }}, Paris, Flammarion, 2014. Part V, ''La Chambre Noire des Guermantes''. About Marcel Proust and comtesse Greffulhe's relationship, and the key role she played in the genesis of ''La Recherche''.
* Karlin, Daniel (2005), ''Proust's English''. Oxford: Oxford University Press {{ISBN|978-0199256884}}
* [[Julia Kristeva|Kristeva, Julia]], ''Time and Sense. Proust and the Experience of Literature''. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1996
* Ladenson, Elisabeth (1991), ''Proust's Lesbianism''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell U. Press
* [[Joshua Landy|Landy, Joshua]], ''Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust''. Oxford: Oxford U. Press
* [[Justin O'Brien (scholar)|O'Brien, Justin]]. "Albertine the Ambiguous: Notes on Proust's Transposition of Sexes", PMLA 64: 933–52, 1949
* [[George D. Painter|Painter, George D.]] (1959), ''Marcel Proust: A Biography''; Vols. 1 & 2. London: Chatto & Windus
* [[Georges Poulet|Poulet, Georges]], ''Proustian Space''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press
* Prendergast, Christopher ''[http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10020.html Mirages and Mad Beliefs: Proust the Skeptic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615110417/http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10020.html |date=15 June 2013 }}'' {{ISBN|9780691155203}}
* Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1992), "Epistemology of the Closet". Berkeley: University of California Press
* Shattuck, Roger (1963), ''Proust's Binoculars: a study of memory, time, and recognition in "À la recherche du temps perdu"''. New York: Random House
* [[Leo Spitzer|Spitzer, Leo]], "Proust's Style," [1928] in ''Essays in Stylistics'' (Princeton, Princeton U. P., 1948).
* [[Roger Shattuck|Shattuck, Roger]] (2000), ''Proust's Way: a field guide to "In Search of Lost Time"''. New York: W. W. Norton
* [[Jean-Yves Tadié|Tadié, Jean-Yves]] (2000), ''Marcel Proust: A Life''. New York: Viking
* [[Edmund White|White, Edmund]] (1998), ''Marcel Proust''. New York: Viking Books
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{sister project links|d=y|v=no|voy=no|species=no|s=Author:Marcel Proust|b=no|n=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no}}
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548wx BBC audio file]. ''[[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|In Our Time]]'' discussion, Radio 4.
* [https://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/kolbproust/ The Kolb-Proust Archive for Research]. [[University of Illinois]].
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/marcel-proust}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=987| name=Marcel Proust}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Proust, Marcel|name=Marcel Proust|author=yes}}
* [http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#proust Works by Marcel Proust] at [[Project Gutenberg Australia]]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Marcel Proust}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4253}}
* {{OL author}}
* [http://www.gerard-bertrand.net/aproustprem.htm The Album of Marcel Proust], Marcel Proust receives a tribute in this album of "recomposed photographs".
* {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/books/marcel-proust-and-swanns-way-at-the-morgan-library.html?ref=arts |title=Swann's Way Exhibited at The Morgan Library |work=The New York Times|date=14 February 2013 |last1=Rothstein |first1=Edward }}
* {{cite news |url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/books/041300proust.html |title=Why Proust? And Why Now? |date=13 April 2000  |work=[[The New York Times]]}} – Essay on the lasting relevance of Proust and his work.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060214035025/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/p/proust/marcel/ University of Adelaide Library] French text of volumes 1–4 and the complete novel in English translation

{{Marcel Proust|state=expanded}}
{{In Search of Lost Time}}
{{Prix Goncourt}}
{{Modernism}}
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