Anka Muhlstein

A wonderful, quick read about the role literature played in shaping Proust's life and his approach to the Recherche. Muhlstein's prose is readable; her use of quotes from the Recherche are generous and contextualized well so that someone who has yet to read it will not be lost in any way; and her quotations from Proust's work and letters are unfettered by academic jargon (she leaves most of these in footnotes which doesn't interfere with the flow of her main text—a wise choice in this sort show more of book).

Here, we see how Proust was shaped by Racine's rejection of proper syntactical structure and also how Baudelaire piqued Proust's interest in issues of queerness and sexuality in literature; we learn of his unemphatic views of George Sand from whose book, curiously, the Narrator's mother in the Recherche reads to him in the beginning of the first volume; we see how British writers such as Hardy, Eliot, and especially Ruskin influenced Proust's approach to his novel; we get a good grasp of how influential Ruskin was on Proust after he had shelved his unfinished novel, Jean Santeuil, and found Ruskin to be "the gateway" to finding a workable structure for the Recherche both in terms of narrative and aesthetics; and we also meet the many writers and artists that populate Proust's massive novel, learning how their reading tastes reflect their moralities.

Recommended to any fans of Proust, or those who are embarking on their first read of the Recherche Note: Muhlstein offers an introduction of the major characters from the novel in the beginning of her book. Some major plot points are given away in these character sketches, and, given that she contextualizes the quotes from the Recherche rather well throughout, I would advise first-time Proust readers to skip this so as to not ruin the novel for them. show less

A compact little book built around the interactive relationships between artists and writers beginning in the 19th Century. She does mini bio's on Balzac, Zola, Proust, Huysmans and Maupassant and their use of artists and their masterpieces in defining setting and character in the novels of each of the authors.

"She leads the reader on a journey of spontaneous discovery as she explores how a great painting can open a mind and spark a fire."

This book by a French historian has a different focus than most traditional accounts of Napoleon's Russia campaign. While many will recall Charles Minard's great map of the French army strength (curiously not included in this book!), Muhlstein elegantly reminds us that most of the losses occurred on the way to Moscow and prior to the onset of winter. Contrary to popular wisdom, it was not the Russian winter that defeated Napoleon. He arrived in Moscow with barely 100.000 out of his 425.000 show more men, and his cavalry was broken. Most of the attrition was caused by the lack of infrastructure, water and supplies in the vast, empty space of Russia. Napoleon repeated the mistake his marshals made in Spain on a much larger scale.

Muhlstein follows a traditional top-down narrative of Napoleon's decisions as viewed by his entourage (Ségur, Caulaincourt) and a few soldiers, all from a French perspective. The chapters focus on the way to Moscow and its occupation (June to October 1812). The battles and the retreat are not given much prominence. The book can thus be easily combined with Adam Zamoyski's 1812 or traditional battle narratives. Muhlstein's book includes a number of unfortunate errors (mostly about military matters), which do not detract from the correct assessment of the big picture. Recommended. show less

In an effort to get my mind in the right place to start reading Proust, I picked up this slim volume that focuses on reading and readers in In Search of Lost Time. Muhlstein focuses on authors who influenced Proust (Racine, Balzac, the Goncourts), the fictional author Bergotte, and the way his characters read and understand their reading. This was a great place to start for me as I now have some themes to grab on to that were presented in a very interesting and easy to read manner. show more

Recommended for anyone reading Proust. show less