Marcel Proust

by Jean-Yves Tadié

Book Overview

Marcel Proust was arguably the greatest writer of the 20th century. This biography by the acknowledged world authority on Proust redefines the way we look at both the artist and the man.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670876550
• ISBN13: 9780670876556
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 986 Pages
• Weight: 3.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.3" x 6.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Proust, a biography by Jean-Yves Tadié

For serious Proustians, Tadié's biography is a must have. Tadié is the greatest French Proust scholar. He's the editor for the standard, scholarly edition of Proust's complete works in the gorgeous, masterful Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (which costs a fortune to buy). The best American Proust scholars, even when they're writing their own biographies of the great French novelist, use Tadié's biography profusely. Tadié is a great literary scholar and has devoted a lifetime to studying Proust. He's also combed every primary document left by Proust and his circle in France.

Masterpiece

What is the nature of biography? Is it the work of the subject? Is it separatable? What is fair? What is accurate? Does a biography of one such as Proust, the 20th century's most famous, best author, have to be a recitation of the work itself melded with events in his life? Or can the work come simply from being an artist: the culmination of the mind that is under study? Tadie takes Proust as the person: and what he becomes is in essence what the judgment of the biographer says he becomes using his best judgment. And there appears to be no person alive with more knowledge of Proust and his work than Tadie. It is big. It is full. Almost too much. But then we are not dealing with a minor novelist, are we? This book is a classic and a model for all biography in terms of its approach and philosophy: Proust is never to be forgotten from this rendering, which is art in and of itself. For Proust, and Tadie's treatment here, is that of the nature of art itself.

a panorama almost as vast as Proust's!

I concur with the reviewer who suggested that the newbie proceed as follows: 1) Read Edmund White's little Penguin biography so as to orient yourself. This will lessen the culture shock when you are first confronted with Swann's Way (or The Way by Swann's, as the English prefer). 2) Read Proust. This is actually my third perambulation, so I'm a bit unsure how much of the novel to recommend. Whatever you do, get a good start on it, sufficient that you know you will persevere. 3) Read Tadie. Much of what has mystified you in In Search of Lost Time (Remembrance of Things Past, whatever) will suddenly become clear. For example, how is it that young Marcel (most writers call him the Narrator) with his wheezing and his mother complex and his odd ideas about sexuality is welcomed in the highest reaches of Paris society? Well, why not, since Proust was! People loved him, men and women, rich and poor, nobility and servants. Knowing about Proust's life makes Marcel/Narrator a lot more credible. The same is true of other characters, such as Charles Swann. (Some of Proust's characters, including the Baron Charlus and the awful Madame Verdurin, are so good that their real-life equivalents are but pale imitations. They need no biography to limn them.) Tadie is a vast undertaking--as of course is In Search of Lost Time. I became so interested in the biography that I have put aside the final volume, Finding Time Again, so as to concentrate on the biography. A suggestion: skip the footnotes. I began doing so at about the halfway point of the biography, and I'm enjoying it more and following it better. Those constant interruptions (it's not unusual for the footnotes to occupy a quarter or a third of the page) made it difficult for me to follow the text. Maybe Tadie has to be read three times, like the novel itself! It's a splendid work. I've read three Proust biographies, the third one (apart from Tadie's and White's) being Marcel Proust: A Biography, by Roger Hayman (out of print). It's a better read, but it pales as a biography and as an introduction to the novel. -- Dan Ford at readingproust dot com

As good as La Recherche

I read the original French edition of Tadie's book a few years ago. I had started reading La Recherche and after a few hundred pages I really wanted to know more about the author before continuing reading. I found in Tadie's book exactly what I was looking for. An excellent biography describing with enough details Proust's family, lifestyle, friends, places where he visited and so on. I can only recommend to all Proust's enthusiasts to read this book. La Recherche cannot be understood and fully appreciated without basic knowlegde about Paris social life at the beginning of the century and without knowing what Proust was doing at that time. It is often said that he was always sick and was spending all his days in his bedroom. Readers will discover that it is not exactly true and that it is thanks to the places that he visited and people he met that he could write one of the greatest books ever written.

Major contribution to the Proust aura

This biography offers incredible insight into not only the life but the work of this astonishing author. Reading is a chore but it is as it were a vast biographical footnote to Remembrance. I think it will stand as a definitive classic for years to come, bringing an exceptional new dimension to a major literary work. Like Proust's work itself, this biography requires a concerted effort of memory and imagination to appreciate its thoughtful nuance.