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REMEMBERANCE OF THINGS PAST - VOLUME I
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1981
About the author
Marcel Proust
2,235 books7,717 followersMarcel Proust was a French novelist, best known for his 3000 page masterpiece À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time), a pseudo-autobiographical novel told mostly in a stream-of-consciousness style.
Born in the first year of the Third Republic, the young Marcel, like his narrator, was a delicate child from a bourgeois family. He was active in Parisian high society during the 80s and 90s, welcomed in the most fashionable and exclusive salons of his day. However, his position there was also one of an outsider, due to his Jewishness and homosexuality. Towards the end of 1890s Proust began to withdraw more and more from society, and although he was never entirely reclusive, as is sometimes made out, he lapsed more completely into his lifelong tendency to sleep during the day and work at night. He was also plagued with severe asthma, which had troubled him intermittently since childhood, and a terror of his own death, especially in case it should come before his novel had been completed. The first volume, after some difficulty finding a publisher, came out in 1913, and Proust continued to work with an almost inhuman dedication on his masterpiece right up until his death in 1922, at the age of 51.
Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century, and À la recherche du temps perdu as one of the most dazzling and significant works of literature to be written in modern times.
Born in the first year of the Third Republic, the young Marcel, like his narrator, was a delicate child from a bourgeois family. He was active in Parisian high society during the 80s and 90s, welcomed in the most fashionable and exclusive salons of his day. However, his position there was also one of an outsider, due to his Jewishness and homosexuality. Towards the end of 1890s Proust began to withdraw more and more from society, and although he was never entirely reclusive, as is sometimes made out, he lapsed more completely into his lifelong tendency to sleep during the day and work at night. He was also plagued with severe asthma, which had troubled him intermittently since childhood, and a terror of his own death, especially in case it should come before his novel had been completed. The first volume, after some difficulty finding a publisher, came out in 1913, and Proust continued to work with an almost inhuman dedication on his masterpiece right up until his death in 1922, at the age of 51.
Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century, and À la recherche du temps perdu as one of the most dazzling and significant works of literature to be written in modern times.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 24, 2023
Proust has been on my bucket list for all my adult life. I was glad to have gotten through the first volume with "Comprey" and "Swann's Way." I really enjoyed the loving lingering over details. Proust definitely had a way about his prose style.
For me, though, the prose really shone through when he was describing places. Those parts I loved. When he was describing the frame of mind of someone falling in and out of love? Not as much. I kept wanting to qualify some of those long passages with, "She's just not that into you. Get over it." Not what Proust intended, I'm sure.
For me, though, the prose really shone through when he was describing places. Those parts I loved. When he was describing the frame of mind of someone falling in and out of love? Not as much. I kept wanting to qualify some of those long passages with, "She's just not that into you. Get over it." Not what Proust intended, I'm sure.
April 25, 2025
Beautiful work. I actually listened to the audiobook version.
April 7, 2024
okay well im different now
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews