Proust

Marcel Proust (1871–1922) was a French novelist best known for In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu), a seven-volume, semi-autobiographical work that examines memory, time, society, and art. Written in long, intricate sentences, the novel blends personal recollection with sharp social observation and philosophical reflection.

Born in Auteuil, then part of Paris, Proust came from a bourgeois family and grew up with health problems that shaped his inward turn toward literature and memory. He produced early, unfinished work such as Jean Santeuil, which foreshadowed his mature technique. In Search of Lost Time began publication in 1913 and appeared in seven volumes through 1927, including Swann's Way, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, The Guermantes Way, Sodom and Gomorrah, The Prisoner, Albertine Disappeared, and Time Regained.

A central feature of Proust’s method is involuntary memory, the idea that sensory experiences can unlock a past that rational memory cannot access. The famous madeleine scene illustrates how taste can disclose a vast, interconnected past. The narrative voice is deeply interior, tracing how memory, desire, class, sexuality, and art intertwine within a shifting social world. Proust’s style combines extensive digressions, precise observation, and a highly self-conscious narrator whose consciousness permeates the prose.

Impact and legacy: Proust is regarded as a defining stylist of the 20th century and a major influence on modernist literature. His exploration of time, memory, and perception has shaped later fiction and critical theory, and his innovations in narrative voice and lengthened, linked sentences continue to be widely studied.