Marcel Proust

(Paperback)

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Description

Marcel Proust (18711922) spent fourteen years creating la recherche du temps perdu ('In Search of Lost Time'), his seven-volume magnum opus. He died when only half of it was in print, and thus didn't see it become one of the most important literary works of the twentieth century. Today this novel still garners extraordinary levels of critical attention, and Proust's habits, health and sexual preferences continue to keep commentators and fans occupied. In this concise biography, Adam Watt explores the life of a writer whose every experience was stored, dissected and redeployed within a vast fictional work.

Reviews

"Excellent. . . . Apart from a sense that Watt has deftly and with considerable economy tackled all aspects critical to the production of Proust's novel, a particular pleasure to be had is his neat turn of phrase."
-- "Times Literary Supplement"
"Here is an excellent brief life of Proust. . . . Watt is succinct without being perfunctory, scholarly without pedantry, authoritative without being exhaustive. . . . A readable and reliable account of one of the 20th-century's most telling writers."
-- "The Age"
"This is an amazing book. . . . It covers everything, but its economy provides a perspective that lets us see both the forest and the trees. . . . . One may be amazed that this story can pull one in yet again, but in Watt's expert hands it does."
-- "Gay and Lesbian Review"

Author Bio

Adam Watt is Associate Professor of French at the University of Exeter. He is a member of the 'Equipe Proust' at the item/ens, Paris. His previous books include Reading in Proust's A la recherche: 'le delire de la lecture' (2009) and The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust (2011).