Marcel Proust

Penguin Lives

by Edmund White

Marcel Proust is enjoying an enormous revival. Now he has at last found a biographer who himself once produced "the finest French novel written in English" ("The Nation"). From the author of the award-winning biography of Jean Genet comes this passionate biography of the brilliant writer, famous recluse, and tormented lover. Abridged.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, France, Literature, History, Biography Memoir, LGBT

165 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Edmund Valentine White III was an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer, and essayist. He was the recipient of Lambda Literary's Visionary Award, the National Book Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. France made him Chevalier (and later Officier) de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993.
White was known as a groundbreaking writer of gay literature and a major influence on gay American literature and has been called "the first major queer novelist to champion a new generation of writers."

Reviews

[Karen· · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conveniently concise. Enough to sketch you in on the main question marks over Proust the man: his Jewishness, his friendships, his relationships, his health, his writing. White portrays his infamous snobbishness as somewhat tempered by compassion, and counters the legend of ivory tower incarceration with plenty of juicy gossip from dealings with the great and the good - and the no-so-good.

White has a nice eye for a comparison that will bring his subject home to us: describing Proust's method of composition, he points out that he would have been the perfect candidate to work with a word processor as he was still adding and expanding and extending even as the type was set, costing him a fortune in typesetters' pay.

Smooth and pleasant to read, and isn't it a joy when you can sit and finish a book in one sitting?

[Nicole~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.
― Marcel Proust

Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.
― Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia

White calls Proust the most influential and respected among writers, "the first contemporary writer of the 20th century, for he was the first to describe the permanent instability of our times." His renown outshone those of "Joyce, Beckett, Woolf, and Faulkner, of Hemingway, and Fitzgerald, of Gide and Valéry and Genet, of Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, for if some of these writers are more celebrated than Proust in their own country, Proust is the only one to have a uniformly international reputation."

The chapters flow easily, in chronological order, and follow his upper middle class life from his sickly childhood (Proust suffered from bouts of asthma) up to his death in 1922 from pneumonia, that turned into bronchitis and eventually abscessed lungs. He wrote: "a child who from birth has always breathed without paying any attention has no idea how much the air, which swells so sweetly his chest that he doesn't even notice it, is essential to his life."

White recounts Proust's (near pathological) obsessiveness with those he loved - from his clingy needs as a child for his mother to kiss him goodnight numerous times to his possessiveness with his lovers. White pays frequent attention to Proust's pédérastie (the French word for homosexuality) although Proust later preferred the label inversion. His diverse amours would include his chauffeur Agostinelli, Jacques Bizet, Lucien Daudet, Robert de Flers, Robert de Montesquiou, Raynaldo de Caillavet, Henri Rochat. He would lavish extravagant gifts on them and want them with him all the time. When Agostinelli secretly left him one time, Proust went so far as to inquire about a "policeman who could follow someone - a private eye." In his writings, Proust used many of his male companions as archetypes for some of his female characters. In some instances, he would blend characteristics of his loves in modeling one person.

Proust mingled in high societal circles to the dismay of his more placid parents, who were astonished to find dukes, duchesses, painters en-vogue and well-known actresses around their dining table. White illuminates that "as Proust's writings demonstrate, when he was young and naive a noble name was for him a piece of living, breathing, walking, talking history, a modern incarnation of a medieval legend." He seemed a bit of a gossip- from his observations or social liaisons, he would learn of others' dalliances, secrets, even the type of dress in style; information which, without question, were used to enrich his novels.

Proust greatly admired Honoré de Balzac and was influenced by his extensive series of interconnected novels in which the characters constantly recur. He was inspired by "the story of how young, ambitious men from the provinces could social-climb their way through Paris with the help of mistresses."

Since writing the semi-autobiographical Jean Santeuil, Proust discovered how to manage themes- pick them up, let them drop, then come back to them, though each time the theme was exposed to a different light. His writing was taking shape with innovative style, always with his concept of recollecting past experiences through the process of involuntary memory. Proust examined the psychological linkage to pure recall; he pursued the idea that involuntary memory allowed recollected experiences: "to be mirrored at one and the same time in the past, so that my imagination was permitted to savor it, and in the present, where the actual shock to my senses of the noise, the touch of the linen napkin, or whatever it might be, had added to the dreams of the imagination the concept of 'existence' which they usually lack, and through this subterfuge had made it possible for my being to secure, to isolate, to immobilize- for a moment brief as a flash of lightning- what normally it never apprehends: a fragment of time in the pure state."

We are all novelists who have been handed by destiny one big book, the story of our lives. - Edmund White

In June 1919, Proust finally saw the publication of three of his books: Swann's Way, Within the Budding Grove and a collection of pastiches. He received the Goncourt award, France's most distinguished literary award, that same year. Some said he was undeserving of the honor, alluding it was garnered through "expensive gifts and fine meals." He was sure that his critics would change their minds once all of the seven volumes were published and the overall design could be greater appreciated. They did, especially the publishers who originally turned down his work.

This Penguin Lives version of Edmund White's biography of Marcel Proust is controlled, concise and extremely lightweight reading. In as much as Marcel Proust's life and legacy were undeniably epic, I felt more than satisfied after reading White's "Marcel Proust" that I've been substantially informed. Anything of a denser or lengthier nature might probably, involuntarily, trigger my sense of lost time and remembrance .

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Proust, but I typically do not enjoy reading biographies. Perhaps it is because, like Proust, I mostly disagree with Sainte-Beuve's opinion that an artist's art is great if his corresponding life is great, or perhaps it is because the life which I am most interested in is simply my own. I saw White's biography of Proust and it's brevity won my approval - "I can give a couple of hours to the general life of Proust, after all I've devoted months to his semi-autobiographical-novel-epic anyway." I do not regret this assessment, although I already knew most of the content of his life from a skimming of wikipedia.

White's assessment of Proust is basically that of the artist-invalid-dandy, but what irked me is the almost obsessive coverage of Proust's life as a homosexual. While is mask of homophobia, scarcely covering his open-secret life as a homosexual, is interesting and entertaining to a degree, it seemed to me that White dwelled on this aspect of Proust to self-indulgent ends. Like the claustrophobic and suffocating smallness of the gay community already, White's interest in Proust seems as much devoted to his gayness as to his greatness.

Furthermore, where not explicitly devoting his attention to Proust's sexual proclivities (I might have lived without the multiple quotations of Proust's endorsing masturbating with other men - seemed gratuitous), there is an almost self-important game of "unlock the roman à clef" or "Whose who: Proust edition." While of course, even Proust admits to much of his novel-epic being extracted and distilled fragments of his real life, it is perhaps best to leave the interpretations of his characters to readers of his novel and students of his life, rather than extending the biographer's own (albeit informed) hypotheses. I can appreciate the stories of Proust's romantic adventures without the aggrandizing statements of "this man is the basis for Albertine... of Gilberte... this woman and this woman form the compound of Mme de Guermantes.." etc.

While an author's life, like Hemingway's for example, may exceed even his stories in novelistic flair, Proust's is a rather pale mirror help up to his own work. He was an invalid, kept inside almost all his adult life, protected from the catalysts of his asthmatic attacks, devoted solely to his work in his late years, before his early death at the age of 51. His younger and formidable years are constituted largely with dandyism, social climbing, and doomed love affairs or enamorment of his heterosexual male friends. What transforms Proust's rather mundane existence into art are not the people (for he did not value friendships), nor the events which constituted the life seen, but rather the inner-workings of his mind which constitute and elevate the life unseen.

[Zeynep T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bu kitap, Marcel Proust'u bir edebiyatçı olarak neden sevemediğimi hem de neden okumam gerektiğini bana gösterdi.

Bir biyografi olmasının yanında Kayıp Zamanın İzinde serisinin ortaya çıkışı, karakterlerin arkasındaki gerçek kişiler, eserdeki göndermelerin kaynakları ve başka pek çok değerli ayrıntı anlatılıyor.

Swann'ların Tarafı ile ilgili aklımdaki pek çok eleştiriye yanıt buldum diyebilirim.

[Jolanta (knygupė) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 *

Toks įspūdis, kad skaičiau ''Žmones'' ir "Literatūra ir menas'' viename.
Trumputė ir popsinė vieno iš didžiausių dvidešimtojo amžiaus rašytojo biografija.

Didžiausias dėmesys (?) - Prousto ir jo aplinkos homoseksualumui ir šio polinkio įtakai jo kūrybai.

Kaip ir nieko įdomaus nesužinojau nei apie Proustą, nei jo prarastą laiką...

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

First the good news. With no Preface, Introduction, or Bibliography, White's biography of Proust makes no pretense to scholarship and it delivers none. Written in a gossipy style with an eye toward titillation, this thin little volume reduces Proust's life and work down to filler between salacious details of the various "handsome" young men with whom Proust had trysts or affairs.
Proust was a homosexual who wrote boldly about male and female homosexuality through much of "In Search of Lost Time." But to claim, as Mr White does, that "in the end most of the characters turn out to be gay" is flat wrong. There are hundreds of characters and most are not gay.
If you are keeping a list of who is gay and who is not throughout history, this cheap little volume serves nicely as your Proust source. If you are looking for well-researched background that adds to understanding Proust's life and work, go to the Tadie or Carter biographies.
I returned White's biography of Proust and got my money back.

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A slim volume on the life and work of Marcel Proust: a supposed invalid who reclined in bed and yet became a prolific and enigmatic writer.

Of course, one can easily spend one's entire life studying Proust and wallowing in the related Proustian industries, so a slim volume such as this one is all the more appealing. It has everything without being too much. One can duck in and read all about it and still have time left over for the post important things in life — such as some chamomile tea, a gluten-free pastry, and the time to daydream.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is kind of the express version of a Proust bio. If you don't want to invest the time in 1000+ pages from Tadié or the subjective account of Painter, and perhaps you are not sure if you wish to read La Recherche or not, this book might be a good way to start. Hopefully, it will make you want to learn and read more. Easy to read and with a light, fun reading style, it is highly accessible.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edmund White's short Proust biography, Marcel Proust: A Life, is a very concise and readable work. I was already aware of some of the tidbits of knowledge that White shares, such as Proust's influences, like Flaubert, Baudelaire, Ruskin, Anatole France and Balzac, though White (as does every biographer) claims that certain of Proust's sources of inspiration play a greater or lesser role than other sources contend (often to fit with their own theories on the author), and I was also aware of the alleged role that certain relationships, such as that with chauffeur Alfred Agostinelli, played in the crafting of Proust's masterwork À la reserche du temps perdu.

We know that Proust's magnum opus is at least partly autobiographical (I would say that many of the characters -- the narrator in particular -- have at least a little bit of Proust in them, much as it is said that all of the main male characters in War and Peace are semi-autobiographical depictions of their author and as Ingmar Bergman has admitted that all of the male characters in his very personal film Fanny och Alexander bear some resemblance to himself). Proust, White points out, was not afraid to inject his own neuroses into his various characters (male and female), engaging in self-satire in the process. The question is, just how much of Proust's great work is autobiographical and who were all the models for the characters in this massive novel?

Many scholars contend that Agostinelli was at least one model for Albertine, even if there were others as well. And White directs us to other very plausible bases for Proust's other characters, such as the Duchesse de Guermantes, Monsieur Vinteuil and Madame Verdurin. But my biggest complaint is that White reduces the overall complexity of Proust and his sources to his homosexuality. I've not read any of White's fiction, but his own sexual orientation apparently figures prominently into his work. Nor have I read any of his other biographies, but as these are all (I believe) on French writers who were also homosexuals, like Jean Genet and Arthur Rimbaud, I suspect that he also reduces these writers to a label as well.

The strength of White's work, aside from some compelling arguments and his chronology of the events in Proust's life (owing to Philip Kolb's meticulous work in publishing Proust's many letters), is that his work is allegedly the first to deal with Proust's sexual orientation in depth, theorizing on the role this played in the crafting of À la reserche du temps perdu, something glossed over or even ignored altogether by earlier Proust biographers. And White at least (in the bibliography section at the end of his book [though I think this admission should have come early on]) admits his "homosexual bias." While I undoubtedly found White's work very interesting, I also found it a bit on the gossipy side (which is not something I prefer in my biographies), though certainly less scandalous and more reliable than the work of someone like Kitty Kelley, the queen of trashy unauthorized bios, or any of those "tell-alls" written with an obvious (often malicious) motive.

I think there is a good deal of worthwhile and reliable information to take away from White's book, especially when he is relying on Proust's letters, theorizing on Proust's method as a writer, or when relaying what Proust's contemporaries (like André Gide) have written about him. But at other times he seems to be groping in the dark, trying often to make connections that (while he makes compelling arguments) may not exist. The picture White assembles of the artist is a fascinating one, no doubt, but like a complex jigsaw puzzle that has been pieced together, if we carefully examine the complete work we find that the pieces don't all fit together as they should. And I don't think any biographer's efforts to assemble a puzzle, especially one as intricate as this one, are ever going to make the pieces come together perfectly. At best the arguments one makes may resonate with us, the readers, more or less strongly and we will be more forgiving in our assessment of the assembled puzzle, overlooking the gaps and misplaced pieces if we're satisfied with the author's work, feeling that it fits with our own preexisting assumptions and biases.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never read Edmund White's fiction, just his essays and bios. He did a remarkable bio on Jean Genet, and this little book is really good as well. White has a great understanding of Paris culture, so he has an understanding of the social world of Marcel Proust. I couldn't put this book down, it is such a fantastic read.

[Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nie dam więcej niż 4 gwiazdki, ale naprawdę dobra biografia. Zachwyciły mnie dobrze dobrane zdjęcia, które są trudne do znalezienia w internecie. Dowiedziałum się nowych rzeczy, poznałum kilka ciekawych historii. Jestem bardzo zadowolonu i przede wszystkim zmotywowanu do pisania. Nie czytałum tekstu po angielsku, ale nawet w tłumaczeniu czuć styl White'a i nie wyobrażam sobie lepszego kandydata na autora biografii Prousta.

[Adam Pluszka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dodatkowa gwiazdka za odwagę wydania tak kiepskiego przekładu z tyloma błędami xD

[Justin Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointing; White writes very well for the most part, and the book is well-structured for the most part... but the bits that are poorly written just stick out all the more thanks to that (if I never again read "Just as x... so, in the same way, y", I will be particularly glad). There's a tad too much repetition for a 150 page biography, as well. White tried to do something good with the structure (chapters in chronological order, with each chapter also being a bit thematic), but one only has to be told once that Just as Proust offered to buy his chaffeur a plane, so, in the same way, does the narrator offer to buy Albertine a yacht. Once, not thrice. The lack of an index is quite a pain, too.

For all that, it's a nice read if you've read the novel, and a nearly perfect airplane book. White cribbed so much from Tadie's 'Marcel Proust' that he felt the need to announce as much on the copyright page, so if you've recently read that one, you probably don't need to read this. The converse is not the case.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a gay author, this slim volume occasionally moves a quick pace between morsels of delightful gossip and erudite canonization. While White provides several good passages on Proust's posthumous reception and his place within the literature of the 20th C., he might spend too much time delineating the homosexual loves, affairs, and self-loathing that have either been glossed over or saved for controversy in other retrospectives on Proust's life.

[Eylül Görmüş · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok güzel kitap bu da. Dili çok yalın, eğlenceli, detaylara boğmadan Proust’un hayatının ve kişiliğinin tertemiz bir resmini çekiyor. Kayıp Zamanın İzinde’nin karakterlerini Proust’un kimlerden etkilenerek yarattığını keşfetmek çok heyecan vericiydi, aynı zamanda Büyük Savaş öncesi ve sırasında Avrupa’daki sosyal dönüşümü de arka planda çok güzel anlatmış yazar. Ziyadesiyle tatmin etti.

[David Corvine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and very readable short account of the life and work of the subject. I have some slight issues: gay is not a direct synonym for homosexual, Marcel Proust cannot be considered to be a member of a cultural and political movement prior to it existing; being Jewish is not a matter of religion, you can be of the Jewish race and be an atheist or of another faith, alternately you could be of another ethnic origin and convert to Judaism. Overall an excellent introduction to Proust.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

White offers up a short but excellent overview of Proust’s illness-plagued life.

[Merve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nisan ayinda yeniden Proust okumalarına başlamadan önce, Proust'un yaşamına yönelik bir ön okuma yapmak istedim.Bu kısa ama yoğun bilgi dolu biyografik eser de bu açıdan gayet isabetli bir karar oldu. Bir buçuk günde bitirmiş olabilirim ama Proust'a dair tekrar dönüş yapılmayi gerektirecek kayda değer söylemler var içerisinde. Özellikle Kayıp Zamanın İzinde'nin ilk iki cildi olan Swanlar'ın Tarafı ve Çiçek Açmış Genç Kızların Gölgesinde'ye çok referans yapılmış. Romanları tekrar okurken, o anlatılara dair bu kitabın sayfalarında dönmek daha pekiştirici olacaktır. Proust'un yaşamını anlamak, eserlerini ve zihninin işleyiş yapısını anlamaktan daha kolay (:

[Grace]

Read in one sitting. Good introduction to Proust but very simplified.

[Micah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny that at the birth of his novel Proust determinedly embraced the idea that someone could be rather ridiculous in many of the externals of their life, but still be capable of producing artistic tours de force; he then went on to his demonstration. Somehow there is depth and tragedy even in Proust's occasional childishness.

[Ravi Prakash · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book to start a reading of Marcel Proust. Enough basic information about the author and the book. But you should not stop after it. Read, George D. Painter's biography also.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read!

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the best short introduction to Proust. What is more, it gives a memorable and sympathetic look at the young writer who was at one and the same time a practicing homosexual and who wrote a classic work in which he portrayed himself as a heterosexual. He accomplished this by "transposing" his male lovers into women: His chauffeur, Alfredo Agostinelli, for instance, became Marcel's unforgettable lover Albertine.

What I appreciated most about this book was perhaps its selective annotated bibiography of works of and about Proust, showing considerable generosity untypical of most biographers.

Marcel Proust: A Life is a great book with which to start before diving into the 3,500-page ocean that is In Search of Lost Time -- along with Alain de Botton's excellent How Proust Can Change Your Life.

Well, what are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this short biography of Proust readable and well written, as with other books by Edmund White that I've read. But I think I might have done better to read this after reading more of Proust himself, since it isn't really the introduction I'd been hoping for.

Also, while the focus on his gay relationships is very interesting, I'd have liked more about his lovers as individuals. At times they seem like little more than a list of names. Maybe excerpts from letters could have shown more of the personalities involved, but there just isn't space in such a short book (assuming the letters exist!) I'd have liked a lot more on his literary influences as well. So overall it feels rather thin - I'll go on to a more major biography after finishing 'In Search of Lost Time'. Still glad to have read it, though.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short (156 pages) biography of Proust does not disappoint and it is an easy read. Obviously, it does not go into great detail but one learns about the parents, his childhood, adolescence, the 'lazy period' until he conceived of 'A la recherche du temps perdu' and the subsequent frenzy to finish all volumes before he dies. Also some of his 'love affairs' are mentioned, and how these mostly unhappy passions, together with the course of history -- notably the Great War -- caused the structure of the almost finished book to change substantially. Amusingly, while everyone who knew Proust knew him to be homosexual, he was convinced that almost no one knew his 'secret'.

[Murat Sahin Ocal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Türkçe yayımlanan ilk Proust biyografisi. Sadece Proust romanlarına değil aynı zamanda yaşadığı Belle Epoque dönemi de ışık tutan kısa ama kapsamlı bir eser. Kayıp Zamanın İzinde'nin yazılış serüvenine, romandaki kişilerin "aslında" kimler olduğuna açıklık getiriyor. Dönemin homofobik reflekslerinin Proust'u nasıl bir ruhsal girdaba soktuğunu fakat bu sayede o girdabın üzerinde ışıltılı bir Proust edebiyatının doğmuş olduğunu anlatıyor.Türkçeleştiren çevirmen Fırat Demir'in yalın dili takdire şayan.

[Shawn Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet look into Proust and his motivations and assignations by a gay author who clearly feels an affinity for the innovative man of letters. White understands Proust's modernism, his innovations, his neuroses and his complex mix of elitism and empathy. It's an easy read and a small book, but it adds a needed and witty perspective on Proustian lore.

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice quick (and very, very brief) introduction to Proust - esp. meant for those (like self) who know nothing.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book aims to give a very concise account of Marcel Proust’s life. At less than two hundred pages and written in a breezy tone, it can be read in little more than a single sitting. Essentially it seems to be merely Edmund White’s condensation of the massive biography by Jean-Yves Tadié, the standard serious life of Proust during the 1990s when this book was being prepared.

While this book does give a general overview of Proust’s life for anyone wondering what man created the masterpiece that is À la recherche du temps perdu, its limitations feel very apparent as soon as one has closed the book. This offers not much more information on Proust’s life than general internet sources like Wikipedia. Moreover, Edmund White (who had established a career in gay literature) is interested above all in Proust’s romantic and sexual life. Certainly Proust’s many entanglements found their reflection in his work, but White focuses on them to the point where the many other social interactions Proust had in Paris around the turn of the century are marginalized.

Since Tadié’s biography and this condensation by Edmund White appeared, Proust scholarship has advanced and new information has come to light. The second (2013) edition of the massive William C. Carter biography corrects a misconception regarding the circumstances of Proust’s final illness that White perpetuates.

[Gregg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when an author encapsulates their own point so beautifully, you can only point to it and go “Yeah. That.”

Why read Proust? I haven’t yet, but I plan to. And Edmund White justifies the ordeal, the labor, the time and the immersion, thusly:

“Proust may have attacked love, but he did know a lot about it. Like us, he took nothing for granted. He was not on smug, cozy terms with his own experience. We read Proust because he knows so much about the links between childhood anguish and adult passion. We read Proust because, despite his intelligence, he holds reasoned evaluations in contempt and knows that only the gnarled knowledge that suffering brings us is of any real use. We read Proust because he knows that in the terminal stage of passion we no longer love the beloved; the object of our love has been overshadowed by love itself: "And this malady which Swann's love had become had so proliferated, was so closely interwoven with all his habits, with all his actions, with his thoughts, his health, his sleep, his life, even with what he hoped for after his death, was so utterly inseparable from him, that it would have been impossible to eradicate it without almost entirely destroying him; as surgeons say, his love was no longer operable."”