This volume sets Marcel Proust s masterwork, A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time, 1913 27), in its cultural and socio-historical contexts. Essays by the leading scholars in the field attend to Proust s biography, his huge correspondence, and the genesis and protracted evolution of his masterpiece. Light is cast on Proust s relation to thinkers and artists of his time, and to those of the great French and European traditions of which he is now so centrally a part. There is vivid exploration of Proust s reading; his attitudes towards contemporary social and political issues;...

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) spent fourteen years creating In Search of Lost Time, his seven-volume magnum opus. He died when it was only half in print, unable to see it become one of the most important literary works of the twentieth century. Over eighty years later, the work still garners extraordinary levels of critical attention, and Proust's habits, health, and sexual preferences still 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. After...