 French writer,
creator of the 16-volume À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-27),
the lengthy cyclic novel known in English as Remembrance of Things Past
(1922-32) and regarded as one of the greatest achievements in world literature.
Proust was born July 10, 1871, in Paris, of a well-to-do family and educated
at the Lycée Condorcet. As a young man he studied law, but gave
it up after a brief time to mingle with Parisian fashionable society and
to write. His first work, a collection of essays and stories titled
Pleasures and Regrets (1896; trans. 1948), was not notable, but the impressions
he gathered in salons provided the material for this book and were used
to greater effect in his later work. At the age of 35, Proust, a victim
of asthma since childhood, became a chronic invalid. He spent the rest
of his life as a recluse, almost never leaving his cork-lined room, and
worked on his masterpiece, the vast À la recherche du temps perdu.
Proust died November 18, 1922, before the final three volumes of the novel,
which comprises seven related books, had been published. In Proust's novel
the physical life and, more particularly, the life of the mind of a man
of leisure moving in elegant society are described in minute detail. The
entire work is written as an interior monologue in the first person and
is in many respects autobiographical. The first part, Swann's Way (1913;
trans. 1928), published initially at Proust's own expense, failed to attract
attention. Five years later the second part, Within a Budding Grove
(1919; trans. 1922), was a great success and won the prestigious Prix
Goncourt. The third and fourth parts, The Guermantes Way (2 vol., 1920-21;
trans. 1925) and Cities of the Plain (2 vol., 1921-22; trans. 1927), were
also well received. The three final parts, left in manuscript form at
Proust's death, were published posthumously: The Captive (1923; trans.
1929), The Sweet Cheat Gone (2 vol., 1925; trans. 1930), and Time Regained
(2 vol., 1927; trans. 1932). The importance of Proust's novel lies not
so much in his descriptions of changing French society as in the psychological
development of characters and in his philosophical preoccupation with
time. As Proust traced the path of his hero from happy childhood through
romantic attachment to self-awareness as a writer, he was also concerned
with seeking eternal truths in the changing world. He treated time both
as a destroyer and as a positive element that can be grasped only by intuitive
memory. The sequence of time is perceived in the light of the theories
of the French philosopher Henri Bergson, whom Proust admired. Time is
in constant flux, moments of the past and the present having equal reality.
Proust also boldly explored the depths of the human psyche, subconscious
motivations, and the irrationality of human behavior, particularly in
relation to love. The work, translated into many languages, established
Proust's reputation throughout the world, and his method of writing, which
entailed analyzing his characters' development in minute detail, had an
important influence on 20th-century literature. Another Proust novel,
discovered and published after his death, is Jean Santeuil (3 vol., 1952;
trans. 1956). |