This volume sets Marcel Proust's masterwork, A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time, 1913-27), in its cultural and socio-historical contexts. Essays by the leading scholars in the field attend to Proust's biography, his huge correspondence, and the genesis and protracted evolution of his masterpiece. Light is cast on Proust's relation to thinkers and artists of his time, and to those of the great French and European traditions of which he is now so centrally a part. There is vivid exploration of Proust's reading; his attitudes towards contemporary social and political issues; his relation to journalism, religion, sexuality, science and travel, and how these figure in the Recherche. The volume closes with a comprehensive survey of Proust's critical reception, from reviews during his lifetime to the present day, including assessments of Proust in translation and the broader assimilation of his work into twentieth- and twenty-first-century culture.

This wide-ranging volume of essays provides an illuminating set of approaches to the multifaceted contexts of Proust's life and work.

About the Author
Adam Watt is Associate Professor of French at the University of Exeter and is a member of the Equipe Proust at the ITEM/ENS in Paris. He is the author of Reading in Proust's A la recherche: 'le delire de la lecture' (2009), The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust (Cambridge, 2011) and an illustrated biography of the author, Marcel Proust (2013).

Reviews
'... impeccably researched and annotated ... Readers will find each of the articles in this volume interesting and insightful.' Edward Ousselin, French Studies: A Quarterly Review
'... a wonderfully coherent, effervescent, tirelessly engaging volume.' Clive Scott, Journal of European Studies



Book Information
ISBN 9781316626245
Author Adam Watt
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 420g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 150mm * 15mm