MARCEL PROUST’S LIFE LEADS, after many false starts, to the production of a masterpiece: À la recherche du temps perdu. Since its publication in France in the first quarter of the twentieth century, this vast novel has never been out of print. Known for many years in English as Remembrance of Things Past, the title chosen by its distinguished translator C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, this work continues to delight readers in more than thirty languages throughout the world. Lecturing at Cornell University in the 1950s, Vladimir Nabokov, who declined to use Scott-Moncrieff’s title, called In Search of Lost Time “the greatest novel of the first half of our century.” Many eminent writers and critics consider the Search to be the major novel of the twentieth century and perhaps in the history of the genre.
Given the abiding interest in Proust and the wealth of fresh material available, a new life of Proust in English seems overdue. These sources of information—to name the most important since the first major English biography, by George D. Painter (two volumes, 1959 and 1965)—include more than five thousand letters in Philip Kolb’s twenty-one-volume edition of Proust’s correspondence; the seventy-five notebooks containing Proust’s manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale; several new French editions of the Search, all with generous notes; a number of sketches and poems by an adolescent Proust (many cited here for the first time in English); and a number of memoirs by people who knew the writer and his milieu intimately. Of the memoirs, the single most important is Monsieur Proust, by his legendary housekeeper Céleste Albaret, who witnessed Proust’s daily life for the final eight years. Marcel Proust: A Life takes advantage of the new material, giving for the first time in English a detailed portrait of Proust’s life and his odyssey as a writer in search of his vocation.
Proust’s era, 1871–1922, which he depicted in the Search, was one of the most exciting and momentous in history. His life encompassed the fin-de-siècle, Belle Époque, and World War I years. Charles Péguy, a poet and contemporary of Proust’s, observed in 1913, on the eve of the war in which he would perish, that the world had changed more in the previous thirty years than in all the centuries since Christ. Proust came of age in a world with no electricity or central heating, without rapid transit and mass communication. By 1910 he had witnessed the arrival of electric lighting, the telephone, the automobile, motion pictures, the Paris subway, and the airplane. He characterized his era as the “age of speed” and showed in the Search how these remarkable inventions changed daily life and the way people perceived time and space. By 1918 he had observed the catastrophic effects of World War I. His novel bears witness to the rich, complex workings of the mind and heart—memory, love, passion, both sacred and profane—and to the oceanic transformations that changed the horse-and-buggy world to one of aviation, Cubism, modern fashion, comfort, and hygiene.
In Marcel Proust: A Life I have attempted to reveal, in addition to the writer’s intimate life, his aesthetic convictions and passionate devotion to his craft. My purpose has been to study this life and to understand, as well as one reasonably can, how Marcel Proust, generally considered by his peers a talented but frivolous dilettante, came to produce what is arguably the most brilliant sustained prose narration in the history of literature.
Although this biography takes into account all areas of Proust scholarship, I have given priority to his writings and letters and to the memoirs of those who knew him best. I have benefited immeasurably from the work of all who have made important contributions to Proustian studies.
I would like to thank those who helped me along the way. I am greatly indebted to the late Philip Kolb, author of many studies and editions of Proust’s texts, especially his monumental edition of Proust’s correspondence, without which this book and many others on Proust would not have been possible. Philip and his wife, Dorothy, whom I also wish to thank, became good friends who encouraged and assisted me in this and other projects. Another much regretted friend is Odile Gévaudan, the daughter of Odilon and Céleste Albaret, who offered hospitality, shared memories of her parents, and showed me her extensive collection of Proust memorabilia. I also miss my good friend and gifted photographer François-Xavier Bouchart, who served as a pleasant and knowledgeable tour guide to many out-of-the way Proustian locales that he had scouted and photographed for his book Marcel Proust: La Figure des pays. François died too young, but his wife, Nadine Beauthéac, also a good friend, has published many of the beautiful color photographs that he left behind in her book Les Promenades de Marcel Proust. I wish to thank Anne Borrel for making my many visits to the Proust Museum (La Maison Tante Léonie) at Illiers such a pleasant and rewarding experience. I am indebted to Florence Callu, head of the manuscript department at the Bibliothèque nationale and cataloguer of the Proust manuscripts, for graciously providing information and access to the Proust manuscripts on many occasions; to Mme Anne-Marie Bernard for her expert assistance in collecting the photographs for this book; and to Patrice Mante-Proust for lending photographs from the family collection. This biography has benefited immensely from the suggestions of delightful, accomplished friends who read it in manuscript and whom I thank for their generous assistance: Dr. L. M. Bargeron, Jr., Elyane Dezon-Jones, Shelby Foote, Blandine McLaughlin, and J. P. Smith. Their suggestions alerted me to many errors and omissions.
I want to thank Lawrence Rainey for bringing this book, in its early stages, to the attention of Yale University Press, and all those at the press for their interest and enthusiasm, especially Lara Heimert, who has guided me so well and with such kindness, and Dan Heaton, whose impressive editorial skills are combined with great stamina and a salutary sense of humor.
On the home front, I wish to thank the University of Alabama at Birmingham for supporting this project through sabbatical leaves; my colleagues in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, for their interest and support, and for their understanding when I sometimes seemed rather distracted; the considerate and efficient staff at UAB’s Mervyn H. Sterne Library, which houses one of the world’s most extensive Proust collections; and Dr. James C. Martin, a colleague in the Department of Physics, who kindly rescued me more than once when I was baffled by computer difficulties. I am grateful to many students and friends in the Birmingham community whose interest in my Proust courses and projects have provided encouragement over many years.
My heartfelt gratitude goes to our good friend Marie-Colette Lefort, whose gracious hospitality during many Paris sojourns made hard work a pleasant experience, and to Robert and Dixie Bowden, true friends of many years, with whom we visited several Proustian sites, including my first trips to Beg-Meil and Belle-Île-en-Mer. I wish to express my love and gratitude to my beautiful, accomplished daughters, who enchant and enliven my days, Josephine Carter Monmaney, Sarah Carter Davis, and Susanna Carter, and, above all, to my wife, Lynn, for her love, patience, encouragement, and invaluable assistance at every phase of this long and challenging enterprise.