Marcel Proust | Brief Biography
Marcel Proust | Brief Biography
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) was a French author and essayist, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Born in Auteuil, France, to a well-to-do family, Proust was a frail child who suffered from asthma and was often bedridden. Despite his health problems, he was a voracious reader from an early age and developed a love for literature that would later shape his life and work.
Proust’s early education was marked by a strict Catholic upbringing and a series of private tutors, who instilled in him a love for classical literature and music. After completing his studies at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris, Proust decided to pursue a career in law, but quickly became disillusioned with the legal profession and turned his attention to writing.
In the early 1890s, Proust began publishing articles and essays in literary magazines, gaining recognition as a talented writer. He became a fixture in Parisian cultural circles, mingling with the city’s most prominent artists and intellectuals, including the composer Claude Debussy and the writer Anatole France.
Proust’s first major work, “Les Plaisirs et les Jours,” was published in 1896. This collection of essays and stories marked Proust’s debut as a writer, but it was not until the publication of “À la recherche du temps perdu” (In Search of Lost Time), a series of seven novels published between 1913 and 1927, that Proust achieved literary fame.
In Search of Lost Time is considered Proust’s masterpiece and one of the greatest works of Western literature. The novel is a meditation on time, memory, and the nature of experience, and is known for its complex structure and attention to detail. It is also celebrated for its vivid descriptions of French society and its keen insights into the human condition.
Marcel Proust worked on In Search of Lost Time for more than a decade, revising and expanding the novel as he went along. Despite his success as a writer, Proust lived a reclusive life, spending much of his time in his cork-lined room, writing and reflecting on his experiences. He died in 1922, at the age of 51, leaving behind one of the most monumental works of modern literature. 0 0 0.
Sources:
“Marcel Proust: A Life” by William C. Carter
“Proust and the Square of the Infinitely Small” by Anka Muhlstein
“In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower” by Marcel Proust
“Marcel Proust: Selected Letters, Volume 1” edited by Philip Kolb
“The Marcel Proust Encyclopedia” edited by William C. Carter
“Proust: A Biography” by Ronald Hayman. ***
N.B. The article originally belongs to the book entitled ‘Biographies of Writers Around the World‘ by Menonim Menonimus.
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