Marcel Proust: A Very Short Introduction: Very Short Introductions

by Joshua Landy, Kevin Kemp (narrator)

100 years after Proust's death, In Search of Lost Time remains one of the greatest works in World Literature. At 3,000 pages, it can be intimidating to some. This short volume invites first-time listeners and veterans alike to view the novel in a new way.

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) was arguably France's best-known literary writer. He was the author of stories, essays, translations, and a 3,000-page novel, In Search of Lost Time (1913-27). This book is a brief guide to Proust's magnum opus.

Joshua Landy shows why the questions Proust raises are important and exciting for all of how we can feel at home in the world; how we can find genuine connection with other human beings; how we can find enchantment in a world without God; how art can transform our lives; whether an artist's life can shed light on their work; what we can know about the world, other people, and ourselves; when not knowing is better than knowing; how sexual orientation affects questions of connection and identity; who we are, deep down; what memory tells us about our inner world; why it might be good to think of our life as a story; how we can feel like a single, unified person when we are torn apart by change and competing desires. Finally, Landy suggests why it's worthwhile to listen to the novel itself.

Audible Audio

Published March 18, 2025

About the author

Joshua Landy is the Andrew B. Hammond Chair of French and Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University, where he teaches "Film and Philosophy," "Literature and the Brain," "Getting through Proust," and other hopefully fun classes. He also co-directs Stanford's Initiative in Philosophy and Literature. And since 2017, he's been one half of the nationally syndicated public radio program “Philosophy Talk.”