Monsieur Proust’s Library: Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Marcel Proust

Anka Muhlstein reveals a poignant story in her biography of Marcel Proust, acclaimed as one of France’s most celebrated novelists. Proust’s seven-volume masterpiece, known in English as In Search of Lost Time, is, in a sense, the culmination of a childhood obsession with books, his invariably emotional reaction to all those his mother and grandmother read to him. One can only wonder if the persistence invested their hope, ambition, and aspiration in the little boy? It matters not: only that it imbued him with a lifelong habit of reading widely, the experience enabling him to transfer his passion to his masterpiece, a double helix where author and narrator cling together, sometimes indistinguishably, where multiple characters interact with each other across the pages.

Monsieur Proust’s Library will seduce readers already familiar with Proust’s writing on the extravagant surroundings of French society in the early twentieth century, the gossip, transgressions, antagonisms, and hidden homosexuality. The appeal to others will be furthering their enjoyment of Swann’s Way, the first volume, after which many halted. Last but not least, the book provides a lively introduction to all who are eager to learn why Proust’s reputation is so lastingly appealing.