The world of Marcel Proust

by André Maurois

An excellent introduction to Marcel Proust and the Belle Époque world he both inhabited and immortalized in his great novel. Designed as a coffee table book, its chief importance are the pictures that dominate the text. A product of it's time, Maurois' essay barely mentions Proust's homosexuality except to say he fought an inconclusive duel when accused of being one. There are better biographies, but none so well illustrated. There is much hinted at in the photograph captions, but nothing is explored further

Genres: Biography

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

André Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog, was a French author. André Maurois was a pseudonym that became his legal name in 1947.

During World War I he joined the French army and served as an interpreter and later a liaison officer to the British army. His first novel, Les silences du colonel Bramble, was a witty but socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and also became popular in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have also been translated into English (mainly by Hamish Miles (1894–1937)), as they often dealt with British people or topics, such as his biographies of Disraeli, Byron, and Shelley.

During 1938 Maurois was elected to the prestigious Académie française. Maurois was encouraged and assisted in seeking this post by Marshal Philippe Pétain, and he made a point of acknowleging with thanks his debt to Pétain in his 1941 autobiography, Call no man happy - though by the time of writing, their paths had sharply diverged, Pétain having become Head of State of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy France.

During World War II he served in the French army and the Free French Forces.

He died during 1967 after a long career as an author of novels, biographies, histories, children's books and science fiction stories. He is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A BIG LUSCIOUS book filled with photographs
of people and places associated with You-Know-Who !!!!
Big Print, too!!
You can pick it up any old time,
turn to any page and find something to look at.
Proustians should NOT deprive themselves of this Addiction.

[Stéphane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect snapshot to understand the Proust's work

[Hugh Coverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to Marcel Proust and the Belle Époque world he both inhabited and immortalized in his great novel. Designed as a coffee table book, I suspect, its chief importance are the pictures that dominate the text. A product of it's time, Maurois' essay barely mentions Proust's homosexuality except to say he fought an inconclusive duel when accused of being one.
There are better biographies, but none so well illustrated. There is much hinted at in the photograph captions, but nothing is explored further.

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suspect that the accompanying text will not be of too much interest to Proust 'hands', and is a bit eccentric by any measure. Some of the photos are quite interesting -- period shots of buildings and so forth. But even here, one often can't tell from the caption what is in the photo, both captions and texts being almost 'dreamy' in tone... not an entirely success book.

[Velvetink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been a while since I read this book (which is a kind of coffee table book with a lot of dreamy photographs)and is a good introduction but for Proust fans here is an interesting blog article on him that I ran across today http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/...