Marcel Proust

More of an extended introduction to A la recherche du temps perdu than a biography, really — a handy little guide to what Proust is all about, with the emphasis, as you would expect from White, on Proust's sexuality, but also quite illuminating on his snobbishness and on his semi-hidden Jewish background. Very interesting.

Very helpful for starting the journey into In Search of Lost Time. It's clear to me now that of all the modernists, Proust focuses most on sexuality and social mores, and also on obsession, desire and illness (or obsessive desire AS illness, for that matter) so this little sketch on how those themes emerge from his life and his world is good grounding.

A little disappointing; White writes very well for the most part, and the book is well-structured for the most part... but the bits that are poorly written just stick out all the more thanks to that (if I never again read "Just as x... so, in the same way, y", I will be particularly glad). There's a tad too much repetition for a 150 page biography, as well. White tried to do something good with the structure (chapters in chronological order, with each chapter also being a bit thematic), but one only has to be told once that Just as Proust offered to buy his chaffeur a plane, so, in the same way, does the narrator offer to buy Albertine a yacht. Once, not thrice. The lack of an index is quite a pain, too.

For all that, it's a nice read show more if you've read the novel, and a nearly perfect airplane book. White cribbed so much from Tadie's 'Marcel Proust' that he felt the need to announce as much on the copyright page, so if you've recently read that one, you probably don't need to read this. The converse is not the case. show less

Yet another short book on Proust, but very different from Alain De Botton's book. Edmund White concentrates on Proust from a homosexual viewpoint. Witty and anecdotal it may be, but White gives a succint overview of proust's life and work. Useful bibliography on the works, and biograpies of Proust. Recommended.

A pretty succinct but interesting biography of Marcel Proust.

Very good, short biography. Maybe this will spur me to actually finish Swann's Way.

Shorter introduction to Proust's life and his masterwork.