The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust

Proust's '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 Proust's 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 Proust's finely-stitched prose. The book reaches beyond stale commonplaces of madeleines and memory, alerting readers to Proust's 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 work's 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 Proust's novel for themselves.

Author: Adam Watt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 04/07/2011
Pages: 154
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.30d
ISBN: 9780521734325

About the Author
Watt, Adam: - Adam Watt is Senior Lecturer in French at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Reading in Proust's A la recherche: 'le délire de la lecture' (2009), and editor of Le Temps retrouvé Eighty Years After/80 ans après: Critical Essays/Essais critiques (2009).