In Search of Lost Time

Pronst s great work is titled A la recherche du temps perdu in the original French and is also known as Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time in English translations. 

The town of Combray, in which Proust s work takes place, is fictional but inspired by the small town of Illiers where Proust actually spent his summers from age six until nine and once again at age 15. Proust seemed to know everyone in the town, and in In Search of Lost Time, Marcel recognized everyone in Combray, except for the mysterious fisherman whose identity he never discovered. Today, Illiers is called Illiers-Combray to let potential tourists know of its connection to Proust. Pilgrims of Proust flock to Illiers-Combray to visit the local bakeries, eat madeleines, and gaze at the house that Proust called home during the summers. 

As I mentioned in other chapters, Proust was a fascinating writer, best known for his seven-volume work. In Search of Lost Time (older English translations have used the title Remembrance of Things Past). The novel draws heavily on the Proust s own life and experiences, but he made sure that the main character also had experiences that Proust never had. Most of the book s characters were metaphors for actual people he had encountered in real life, and the characters often combine traits of several different friends or lovers. The closeness of the novel to his life is revealed on two occasions near the end of the novel, when he mentions that Marcel is the first name of the narrator. 

British novelist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) became so enraptured by In Search of Lost Time that she wrote, Proust so titillates my own desire for expression that I can hardly set out the sentence. Oh, if I could write like this To Woolf, Proust s work was the greatest of adventures. She felt that nothing could be written after Proust. How has someone solidified what has always escaped—and made it too into this beautiful and perfectly enduring substance One has to put the book down and gasp. ... 

In Search of Lost Time has been translated into more than 35 languages and has never been out of print since its initial publication. The work s amazing popularity is due to Proust s psychological insights into how humans view the deepest essence of reality. 

Alfred Humblot, who was head of one potential publisher for Proust, rejected In Search of Lost Time., saying I may be dense, but I fail to see why a chap needs thirty pages to describe how he tosses and turns in bed before falling asleep. Jacques Madeleine, another reviewer, said, At the end of 712 pages of the manuscript... one doesn t have a single clue of what this is about. Yet another said to Proust ... 

Eventually, Proust was forced to pay for the publication In Search of Lost Time himself... 

Readers frequently ask me about the methods I have used to become a prolific book author. Readers also wonder how they can get published. So, in this chapter, I would like to talk about personal experiences I ve had as a writer and with the business of publishing. In the previous chapter, I mentioned that Marcel Proust was forced to pay for the publication of his masterpiece. In Search of Lost Time. Luckily, I ve not had to do that with any of my books. In contrast, no publisher would initially touch In Search of Lost Time, even though today it is hailed as one of the best novels ever written. In 1919, one of its earlier volumes. Within a Budding Grove, won France s most prestigious literary award, the Goncourt Prize. 

The essence of In Search of Lost Time can be described in just a few words A man leaves home, searching for happiness. He does not find happiness by traveling, but instead learns that happiness comes from within and in the home he left behind. True journey is return. Another Proustian message Slow down. Take life at a more leisurely pace. Take your time. 

In Proust s novel, the town of Balbec, with its slow pace of life and attractive landmarks, seems trapped in time, like an ancient ant trapped in amber. I like to think of In Search of Lost Time as a collection of chambers connected by tunnels in a dense ant colony. In one chamber is an endless party taking place at one point in the narrator s life—and if we escape through a tunnel, we are quickly whisked away to another chamber in which time congeals yet again. 

Roger Shattuck, Proust s Way A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time... 

Marcel s father in In Search of Lost Time took his family on many walks through the meadows and fields of Combray. In some scenes, the sun would descend as twilight enveloped the world. Little puffs of vapor hovered over the grasses, and crickets chirped. Father would take his... 

Proust, Marcel (author), with translations by Andreas Mayor and Terence Kilmartin, In Search of Lost Time Volume VI, Time Regained (New York Modern Library, 1999). See chapter 3, An Afternoon Party at the House of the Princesse de Guermantes. ... 

Proust, Marcel, In Search of Lost Time (translated by C. K. Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin revised by D. J. Enright) (New York Modem Library, 1992, 6 volumes). 

Proust, Marcel, In Search of Lost Time Swann s Way, 160. 

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