Watt - The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust

Introduction -- Life -- Contexts -- Early works and late essays -- In Search of Lost Time -- Proust criticism -- Epilogue: Proustian afterlives.;Prousts A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time, 1913-27) changed the course of modern narrative fiction. This Introduction provides an account of Prousts life, the socio-historical and cultural contexts of his work and an assessment of his early works. At its core is a volume-by-volume study of In Search of Lost Time, which attends to its remarkable superstructure, as well as to individual images and the intricacies of Prousts finely-stitched prose. The book reaches beyond stale commonplaces of madeleines and memory, alerting readers to Prousts verbal virtuosity, his preoccupations with the fleeting and the unforeseeable, with desire, jealousy and the nature of reality. Lively, informative chapters on Proust criticism and the works afterlives in contemporary culture provide a multitude of paths to follow. The book charges readers with the energy and confidence to move beyond anecdote and hearsay and to read Prousts novel for themselves--Provided by publisher.