Proust, Marcel

(1871-1922)

   writer

   Marcel Proust, the creator of the multivolume À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time, also known as Remembrance of Things Past; 1913-22), the novel regarded as one of the finest achievements in world literature, was born in Paris to a wealthy bourgeois family. Early in life, he manifested extreme intellectual curiosity and, after initially studying law, gave up that pursuit and, mingling in Parisian society, began to write. His first work, Les Plaisirs et les Jours (1896, preface by anatole france) was not so notable, but he would use his experiences gathered in salons for this piece to greater effect in later works. At age 35, after a sojourn in Venice, Proust, who suffered from asthma since youth, became a chronic invalid and remained almost exclusively in his cork-lined room working on his masterpiece, and he died before the final three volumes were published. Written in the first person as an interior monologue, it is in many respects autobiographical and is tied to his homosexuality. In the evolution of French literary genres, the place of Proust's work is fundamental. The importance of his work 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 traces the path of his hero from happy childhood through romantic attachment to self-awareness as a writer, he is also concerned with seeking eternal truths in a changing world. He writes of time as both a destructive force and as a positive element. In this, he was influenced by Henri bergson, whom he admired and through whose theories he perceived the sequence and passage of time (World War I, too, had a profound effect on his writing). À la recherche du temps perdu was translated into many languages and established Proust's reputation worldwide, while his techniques and methods of writing (with minute analysis of his characters' development) have greatly influenced 20th-century literary style. other posthumously published works of Proust include Chroniques (1927), Jean Santeuil (1952), Contre Sainte-Beuve (1954), and his Correspondance (20 volumes, 1970-93). He was awarded the prix Goncourt in 1919.