Proust

Marcel Proust´s great novel, Remembrance of Things Past (A la recherche du temps perdu is not just a long work of lyrical reminiscense, as many people suppose. It is also a dazzling portrait of French character and society, and a masterpiece of often Dickensian comedy. In this attractively written concise study of the novel, Derwent May brings out to the full its historical and social the snobbery-dominated life of the French aristocracy at the turn of the century, and the Dreyfus case, which was to lead to such rifts and changes in their world.He also shows with great clarity the way in which Proust´s picture of this society is connected to the personality of Marcel, the narrator. Marcel´s experiences in love, and the sslow blossoming of his ideas about art are shown to have an intimate relationship with the whole style in which he tells his witty and dramatic story. Proust´s book is in fact a unique marriage of the subjective and the objective, a marriage which is delicately analysed here.Derwent May´s book is an invaluable guide both for new readers hesitating on the brink and those who wish to pick up their Proust again.Contents1. Proust and his novel2. Society and snobbery3. The suffering of love4. Marcel and his ideas5. Marcel´s art and Proust´s artNote on the English translationsFurther readingIndex