Monsieur Proust

I hadn't known that this existed - the memoir of Céleste Albaret, Proust's housekeeper for the last several years of his life. The book was dictated to Georges Belmont in 1973 and there was an English translation a few years later; I read a recent edition in the NYRB classic series. An absolutely fascinating look at Proust's bizarre life and methods. His great work seems like a massive fictionalized autobiography, plus all the other things that it is, an investigation of human relationships and how they develop and disintegrate over time, the quality of memory, and the story of the end of an historical era. This memoir gives great insight into where this all came from.

A welcome insight into what Proust was like "at home." Although an extremely peculiar person, he has never seemed to me to be more so than other geniuses about whom I've read.
I found everything interesting that Celine had to say about working for Proust and about her getting to be more and more Proust's confidante in his plans for characters in his novel. (But she takes care to show that her role was completely passive, except for her keeping up his home as he wanted and later, providing a clever idea for handling--physically--Proust's multitude of revisions.)
On the other hand, Celine does not discuss the overarching theme of the novel--the effort to recapture time. Nor does she mention my favorite part of Proust's writing: his show more metaphors and other figurative writing. I can better understand, having read the memoir, how Proust went back to his work and added exactitude to the writing, or even metaphors within metaphors. It makes for sentences that require extended attention to grasp all that is in them.
But even though that aspect of Proust's writing is not addressed, I felt completely satisfied with the memoir as written. show less

Video forthcoming along with Czapski’s [b:Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp|40378238|Lost Time Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp|Józef Czapski|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551194775l/40378238._SY75_.jpg|23896057] and Beckett’s [b:Proust|289769|Proust|Samuel Beckett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1401029323l/289769._SY75_.jpg|52695].

Entre 1913 et 1922, Céleste est la gouvernante de Marcel Proust, mais aussi sa confidente et son assistante littéraire. Un récit de vie publié en 1973, plein d’informations sur l’auteur et de détails sur son existence mondaine ou recluse, et illustré ici de dessins documentaires, impressionnistes et évocateurs d’un homme et d’une époque.
Un livre reçu dans le cadre de Masse critique Babelio.