| Marcel Proust | |
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| Born | July 10, 1871 Auteuil, France |
| Died | November 18, 1922 (aged 51) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Novelist, essayist, critic |
| Genres | modernism |
| Notable work(s) | In Search of Lost Time |
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Influences
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Influenced
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Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (pronounced [maʁsɛl pʁust]) (July 10, 1871 – November 18, 1922) was a French novelist, essayist and critic, best known as the author of À la recherche du temps perdu (in English, In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past), a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven parts from 1913 to 1927. Events 48 BC - Battle of Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia. Year 1871 ( MDCCCLXXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 326 - The old St Peter's Basilica is consecrated 1302 - Pope Boniface VIII issues the Papal bull Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story This article is an abbreviated list of Essayists - individuals notable for writing essays on various topics The word critic comes from the Greek el κριτικός ( el-Latn kritikós) "able to discern" which in turn derives from the word In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Fiction is the telling of stories which are not real More specifically fiction is an imaginative form of Narrative, one of the four basic Rhetorical modes.
Contents |
Biography
Proust was born in Auteuil (the southern sector of Paris's then-rustic 16th arrondissement) at the home of his great-uncle, two months after the Treaty of Frankfurt formally ended the Franco-Prussian War. Auteuil and Passy are part of the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city The Treaty of Frankfurt (Le traité de Francfort Friede von Frankfurt was a Peace treaty signed in Frankfurt on May 10, 1871, at the end of The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War ( 19 July, 1870 — 10 May, 1871 His birth took place during the violence that surrounded the suppression of the Paris Commune, and his childhood corresponds with the consolidation of the French Third Republic. The Paris Commune (La Commune de Paris was a Government that briefly ruled Paris from 18 March (more formally from 26 March) to 28 May The French Third Republic (in French, La Troisième République, sometimes written as La IIIe 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 Third Republic and the fin de siècle. In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical Fin de siècle (fɑ̃ dɛ si'ɛːkl French for ‛end of the century‘ was a cultural movement between 1880 and the beginning of World War I.
Proust's father, Achille Adrien Proust, was a prominent pathologist and epidemiologist, responsible for studying and attempting to remedy the causes and movements of cholera through Europe and Asia; he was the author of many articles and books on medicine and hygiene. Pathology (from Greek grc πάθος pathos, "fate harm" and grc -λογία -logia) is the study and Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the Health and Illness of populations and serves as the foundation and Logic of interventions made in the Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera, is an infectious Gastroenteritis caused by the Bacterium Proust's mother, Jeanne Clémence Weil, was the daughter of a well-off and cultured Jewish family. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ She was a literate and well-read woman. Her letters demonstrate a well-developed sense of humour, and her command of English was sufficient for her to provide the necessary impetus to her son's later attempts to translate John Ruskin. John Ruskin (8 February 1819 &ndash 20 January 1900 is best known for his work as an Art critic, sage writer, and Social critic, but is remembered [1]
By the age of nine, Proust had had his first serious asthma attack, and thereafter he was considered by himself, his family and his friends as a sickly child. Asthma is a chronic Condition involving the Respiratory system in which the airways occasionally constrict become inflamed, and are Proust spent long holidays in the village of Illiers. Illiers-Combray is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in north-central France. This village, combined with aspects of the time he spent at 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. In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical (Illiers was renamed Illiers-Combray on the occasion of the Proust centenary celebrations). Illiers-Combray is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in north-central France.
Despite his poor health, Proust served a year (1889–90) as an enlisted man in the French army, stationed at Coligny Caserne in Orléans, an experience that provided a lengthy episode in The Guermantes' Way, part three of his novel. This article is about the French city of Orléans for other meanings see Orleans (disambiguation. In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story As a young man, Proust was a dilettante and a social climber, whose aspirations as a writer were hampered by his lack of application. A social climber is someone who seeks social prominence by obsequious behavior 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. In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical
Proust had a close relationship with his mother. In order to appease his father, who insisted that he pursue a career, Proust obtained a volunteer position at the Bibliothèque Mazarine in the summer of 1896. The Bibliothèque Mazarine is the oldest Public library in France. After exerting considerable effort, he obtained a sick leave which was to extend 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 (Tadié).
Proust, who was homosexual, was one of the first European novelists to treat homosexuality openly and at length. Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation.
His life and family circle changed considerably between 1900 and 1905. In February 1903, Proust's brother Robert married and left the family home. His father died in September of the same year. Finally, and most crushingly, Proust's beloved mother died in September 1905, leaving him a considerable inheritance. (In today's terms, a principal of about $6 million, with a monthly income of about $15,000. ) His health throughout this period continued to deteriorate.
Proust spent the last three years of his life largely confined to his cork-lined bedroom, sleeping during the day and working at night to complete his novel. Cork material is a Prime-subset of generic cork tissue, harvested for commercial use primarily from the Cork Oak tree Quercus He died in 1922 and is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Père Lachaise Cemetery (Cimetière du Père-Lachaise officially cimetière de l'Est, "East Cemetery" is the largest Cemetery in the city of Paris
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 1890–91 Proust published a regular society column in the journal Le Mensuel (Tadie). In 1892 he was involved in founding a literary review called Le Banquet (also the French title of Plato's Symposium), and throughout the next several years Proust published small pieces regularly in this journal and in the prestigious La Revue Blanche. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written by Plato sometime after 385 BC
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. Anatole France (16 April 1844—12 October 1924 born François-Anatole Thibault, Anatole France studied at the Collège Stanislas and after graduation Lemaire, and was so sumptuously produced that it cost twice the normal price of a book its size.
That year Proust also began working on a novel which was eventually published in 1954 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 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.
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Beginning in 1895 Proust spent several years reading Carlyle, Emerson and John Ruskin. This article is a general introduction to French literature For detailed information on French literature in specific historic periods see the separate historical articles in the Medieval French literature is for the purpose of this article Literature written in Oïl languages (particularly Old French and early Middle For more information on historical developments in this period see Renaissance, History of France, and Early Modern France. French literature of the 17th century &mdashthe so-called Grand Siècle &mdashspans the reigns of Henry IV of France, the Regency of Marie de Medici French literature of the 18th century usually refers to the literature written between 1715, the year of the death of King Louis XIV of France, and 1798 the year French literature of the nineteenth century is for the purpose of this article literature written in French from (roughly 1799 to 1900 French literature of the twentieth century is for the purpose of this article literature written in French from (roughly 1895 to 1990 Contemporary French literature is French literature roughly from the 1990s to Today. Chronological list of French language authors (regardless of nationality by date of birth Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881 was a Scottish essayist satirist and historian whose work was highly influential during the Victorian era. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25 1803 &ndash April 27 1882 was an American essayist philosopher poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century John Ruskin (8 February 1819 &ndash 20 January 1900 is best known for his work as an Art critic, sage writer, and Social critic, but is remembered Through this reading Proust began to refine his own theories of art and the role of the artist in society. Also, in Time Regained Proust's universal protagonist recalls having translated Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies. In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical 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 (Tadié 350).
Proust set out to translate two of Ruskin's works into French, but was hampered by an imperfect command of English. In order 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 Reynaldo Hahn, then by Proust again finally polished. Confronted about his method by an editor, Proust responded, "I don't claim to know English; I claim to know Ruskin" (Tadié). The Bible of Amiens, with Proust's extended introduction, was published in French in 1904. Both the translation and the introduction were very well reviewed; Henri Bergson called Proust's introduction "an important contribution to the psychology of Ruskin" and had similar praise for the translation (Tadié 433). At the time of this publication, Proust was already at work on translating Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, which he completed in June 1905, just prior to his mother's death, and published in 1906. Literary historians and critics have ascertained that, apart from Ruskin, Proust's chief literary influences included Saint Simon, Montaigne, Stendhal, Flaubert, George Eliot, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. Louis de Rouvroy duc de Saint-Simon ( January 16, 1675 &ndash March 2, 1755) French soldier Diplomatist and writer Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ ( February 28 1533 &ndash September 13 1592) was one of the most influential writers Henri-Marie Beyle ( January 23, 1783 &ndash March 23, 1842) better known by his Pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century Gustave Flaubert (gystaːv flobɛːʁ in French ( December 12, 1821 &ndash May 8, 1880) was a French writer who is counted among Mary Ann (Marian Evans ( 22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880) better known by her Pen name George Eliot, was an Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky, Dostoievsky, Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy ( –) (Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, was a Russian Writer widely regarded
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. The word pastiche describes a literary or other artistic Genre. 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 Saint-Beuve. Proust described what he was working on in a letter to a friend: "I have in progress: a study on the nobility, a Parisian novel, an essay on Sainte-Beuve and 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" (Tadié 513). Saint Beuve redirects here For the eponymous saint see Beuve Abbess of Saint Pierre de Reims. Gustave Flaubert (gystaːv flobɛːʁ in French ( December 12, 1821 &ndash May 8, 1880) was a French writer who is counted among
From these disparate fragments Proust began to shape a novel on which he worked continually during this period. The rough outline of the work centered on a 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
Begun in 1909, À la recherche du temps perdu consists of seven volumes spanning some 3,200 pages and teeming with more than 2,000 literary characters. In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical Graham Greene called Proust the "greatest novelist of the 20th century", and W. Somerset Maugham called the novel the "greatest fiction to date. Henry Graham Greene OM, CH (2 October 1904 &ndash 3 April 1991 was an English writer best known as a novelist but who also produced Short stories William Somerset Maugham, CH ( January 25 1874 &ndash December 16 1965) was an English Playwright, " 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.
The book was translated into English by C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, appearing as Remembrance of Things Past between 1922 and 1931. Charles Kenneth (CK Scott Moncrieff MC (25 September 1889 – 28 February 1930 was a Scottish writer most famous for his English translation of most of Proust
In 1995, Penguin undertook a fresh translation of the book by editor Christopher Prendergast and seven translators in three countries, based on the latest and most authoritative French text. Subsequently, the title of the novel was more accurately translated as In Search of Lost Time and is now often referred to as such. Its six volumes were published in Britain under the Allen Lane imprint in 2002. The first four (those which under American copyright law are in the public domain) have since been published in the U. S. under the Viking imprint and in paperback under the Penguin Classics imprint.
Bibliography
- 1896 Les plaisirs et les jours ("Pleasures and Days")
- 1904 La Bible D'Amiens; a translation of Ruskin's The Bible of Amiens
- 1906 Sésame et les lys; a translation of Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies
- 1913–27 À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time, also Remembrance of Things Past)
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Vol. John Ruskin (8 February 1819 &ndash 20 January 1900 is best known for his work as an Art critic, sage writer, and Social critic, but is remembered John Ruskin (8 February 1819 &ndash 20 January 1900 is best known for his work as an Art critic, sage writer, and Social critic, but is remembered In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical French titles Published English titles 1 Du côté de chez Swann 1913 Swann's Way
The Way by Swann's2 À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs 1919 Within a Budding Grove
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower3 Le Côté de Guermantes
(published in two volumes)1920/21 The Guermantes Way 4 Sodome et Gomorrhe
(published in two volumes)1921/22 Cities of the Plain
Sodom and Gomorrah5 La Prisonnière 1923 The Captive
The Prisoner6 La Fugitive
Albertine disparue1925 The Fugitive
The Sweet Cheat Gone
Albertine Gone7 Le Temps retrouvé 1927 The Past Recaptured
Time Regained
Finding Time Again
- 1919 Pastiches et mélanges ("Mixtures")
- 1954 Contre Sainte-Beuve ("Against Sainte-Beuve")
- 1954 Jean Santeuil (unfinished)
See also
- In Search of Lost Time
- Involuntary Memory
- Proust effect
- Proust Questionnaire
- "Proust", an essay by Samuel Beckett
References
- Adorno, Theodor. Saint Beuve redirects here For the eponymous saint see Beuve Abbess of Saint Pierre de Reims. In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical Involuntary memory is a conception of human Memory in which cues encountered in everyday life evoke recollections of the past without conscious effort Involuntary memory is a conception of human Memory in which cues encountered in everyday life evoke recollections of the past without conscious effort The Proust Questionnaire is a Questionnaire about one's personality first popularized by the responses given by the French Writer Marcel Proust Samuel Beckett 's essay Proust, from 1930 is an Aesthetic and Epistemological manifesto which is more concerned with Beckett's influences and "Prisms. " The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA. 1967.
- Aciman, André (2004) The Proust Project. New York Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Albaret, Céleste (Barbara Bray, trans. ) 2003 Monsieur Proust. New York: The New York Review of Books
- Bernard, Anne-Marie (2002) The World of Proust, as seen by Paul Nadar. Cambridge: MIT Press
- Carter, William C. (2000) Marcel Proust: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press
- Davenport-Hines, Richard (2006) A Night at the Majestic. London: Faber and Faber ISBN 978-0-571-22009-0
- De Botton, Alain (1998) How Proust Can Change Your Life. New York: Vintage Books
- Deleuze, Gilles (2004) Proust and Signs: The Complete Text. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
- Painter, George D (1959) Marcel Proust A Biography Vols. 1 & 2. London: Chatto & Windus
- Shattuck, Roger (1963) Proust's Binoculars: A Study of Memory, Time, and Recognition in À la recherche du temps perdu. New York: Random House
- Shattuck, Roger (2000) Proust's Way: A Field Guide To In Search of Lost Time, New York: W. W. Norton
- Tadié, Jean-Yves: Marcel Proust: A Life. Viking, New York, 2000
- White, Edmund (1998) Marcel Proust. New York: Viking Books
Footnotes
- ^ Tadié, J-Y. (Euan Cameron, trans. ) Marcel Proust: A life. New York: Penguin Putnam, 2000.
External links
- Le temps de Proust- a blog about (re)reading Proust and the associated secondary literature
- Reading Proust- A reader enjoys the new Penguin/Viking translations of In Search of Lost Time.
- Reinterpretation of Remembrance Of Things Past
- Why Proust? And Why Now? - an essay on the lasting relevance of Proust and his work
- A short Proust bibliography (bilingual)
- TempsPerdu.com- many useful links, including to online texts of Lost Time in French and English
- The Kolb-Proust Archive for Research
- Marcel Proust, a personal site in Italian
- Essay by Stephan Reimertz on Proust in Germany (in French)
- Marcel Proust's Album, Marcel Proust receives a tribute in this album of "recomposed photographs". Stephan Reimertz (born 4 March 1962 in Aachen, Germany is an Art historian and Novelist.
- Marcel Proust et l'aviation, Proust and airplanes.
Online texts
- Works by Marcel Proust at Project Gutenberg French text of volumes 1-4 and Swann's Way in English translation
- University of Adelaide Library French text of volumes 1-4 and the complete novel in English translation
- Works by Marcel Proust (public domain in Canada)
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Proust, Marcel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Proust, Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | French Novelist, essayist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 10, 1871 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Auteuil, France |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 18, 1922 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Paris, France |
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