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Proust: Combray (French Texts Series) [Paperback] [1996] (Author) Marcel Proust, Leighton Hodson
Paperback
Published January 1, 1996
About the author
Marcel Proust
2,441 books7,961 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 - 1 of 1 review
November 10, 2026
Une lecture que j’avais envie de revisiter, de nombreuses années après l’avoir découverte à l’école. Et force est de constater que le style de Proust n’a pas pris une ride.
Ses descriptions de l’enfance, des paysages, des lieux et des sensations sont d’une richesse assez extraordinaire. Mais ce qui me frappe surtout, c’est la modernité de sa narration. Un récit qui n’en est pas vraiment un, où les souvenirs, les impressions et les réflexions s’entremêlent, sans véritable intrigue, mais avec une capacité fascinante à capturer le passage du temps.
On comprend à quel point Proust a pu influencer des générations d’écrivains. Plus d’un siècle après sa publication, Combray conserve quelque chose de profondément singulier, presque avant-gardiste. Un livre difficile à résumer, tant son intérêt réside moins dans ce qu’il raconte que dans la manière dont il le raconte.
Ses descriptions de l’enfance, des paysages, des lieux et des sensations sont d’une richesse assez extraordinaire. Mais ce qui me frappe surtout, c’est la modernité de sa narration. Un récit qui n’en est pas vraiment un, où les souvenirs, les impressions et les réflexions s’entremêlent, sans véritable intrigue, mais avec une capacité fascinante à capturer le passage du temps.
On comprend à quel point Proust a pu influencer des générations d’écrivains. Plus d’un siècle après sa publication, Combray conserve quelque chose de profondément singulier, presque avant-gardiste. Un livre difficile à résumer, tant son intérêt réside moins dans ce qu’il raconte que dans la manière dont il le raconte.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review