Marcel Proust (Proust Marcel)

(1871-1922)
Born in Paris on July 10, 1871. His father was a famous physician and a significant position in the Ministry of Health. Mother belonged to a wealthy Jewish family originally from Alsace-Lorraine, was well-read, sensitive, intelligent and had a great influence on his son. Proust childhood years spent in Paris, leaving on vacation in the town of Ille (in the novel In Search of Lost Time named Combray), not far from Chartres.
At the age of nine years in Proust's asthma was revealed, from which he suffered all his life, eventually it became the cause of his death. The disease, caused partly causes psychosomatic nature, often exacerbated and accompanied by fear, insomnia, digestive disorders, and excessive sensitivity. Mother lovingly nursed her son, and Proust, Marcel, like your character, with whom he had much in common and enjoyed a close and the possibility of anxiety to break the rules of strict discipline imposed father for raising children. From eleven to eighteen years, and Marcel went to Lycц?e Condorcet in Paris, which has made brilliant achievements in literature and philosophy. School friends did not like him for femininity and refined manners. He admired the French classics, J. Michelet and poets Parnassians and later carried away by works of Anatole France, Jean E. Renan, C. Baudelaire and, to a lesser extent, the Symbolist poets. He translated the work of small D. Ruskin, though his English is always left much to be desired, I read George Eliot, in French, but in recent years has become an admirer of Dostoevsky. He did not know much about life in other countries, and shared with her mother a trip to Venice was one of the few adventures in his life inveterate homebody.

In 1890, fulfilling the desires of parents, Proust became a student of the Paris School of Lawyers and the Institute of Political Sciences. But his heart belonged to literature, and he spent much time in a secular society, where he met with the aesthetes, refined musicians and ladies, tsarivshimi in the salons of Paris.

Proust wrote magazine essays and stories of conflict -. They were published in the joy and the days (Plaisirs et les jours) in 1896. Brilliant styling favorite and at the same time mercilessly parodied writers (Balzac, E. and J. Goncourts, G. Flaubert and Renan) were published in 1919 under the title role models and other trifles (Pastiches et mlanges). He dabbled in the criticism, praising the dignity of Balzac and accusing Sh.O.Sent-Beuve in the inertia, which is why he could not understand his contemporaries. Uneven novel Sante Jean (Jean Santeuil), it's student experience, created between 1896 and 1900, was published in 1952.

Conceiving and leisurely life of artistic expression in the saga of Proust are years that followed the death of his mother in 1905. Health writer deteriorated - not least because of the deplorable habits: he kept awake at night, slept during the day, taking many medicines, and constantly complained of fatigue, although they continued to work steadily on a novel. Few friends, which he took and considered him a hypochondriac. It turned into a complete pessimist: he seemed to be fake all the senses, and especially love, which inevitably brings disappointment, as a loving and idealizing the beloved is not capable of a sober assessment.

Proust has replaced several apartments in Paris. He lived in his legendary room with cork walls and tightly closed to foreign odors and noise. From time to time he visited the Normandy town of Cabourg (named in the novel Balbec) or go to admire the sculptures and architecture of some of the old church. When in 1912-1913 was completed the first part of it in huge Wagnerian symphony of prose, he did not find a publisher for her. Even the best critics, puzzled by the long sentences and complicated poetic style, failed to adopt a new look at the world, demanding a new means of expression. In 1913, Proust was able to publish a novel by the direction of the Swan (Du Ct de chez Swann).

When, in 1918 there was a second part, under the shadow of girls in color (A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs), public sentiment changed. Proust received the prestigious Goncourt Prize, which contributed to the subsequent success of his books. He ended the retreat began to take a few enthusiastic fans, found time to publish several small essays, continuing to work on an expanding novel. The third part, I Guermantes (Du Ct de Guermantes), has been so long, that was published in two editions, first released in 1920. Critics greeted the novel favorably, but noted the imperfection of the architectonics. Annoyed by the author made it clear that in its completed form pyatnadtsatitomny novel present as well thought-out design, like a Gothic cathedral. In 1921 the second volume U Guermantes appeared simultaneously with the book, . where Proust has taken an unusually bold attempt a frontal attack on the social prejudices - two volumes under the name of Sodom and Gomorrah (Sodome et Gomorrhe), . published in 1921 and 1922, . constitute the fourth and fifth parts of the novel,
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At the end of summer 1922 Proust very cold, almost refused to eat, he drank a cold beer as a remedy against asthma. November 18, towards evening, he died. Three of the main work of his life, . viewed them only partially, . were published posthumously: Captive (La Prisonnire) - the deepest image of jealousy in world literature; runaway (Albertine disparue) - the weakest part of the novel, and Time Regained (Le Temps retrouv) - aesthetic testament Proust, . majestic and sad revelation, . clarifying the psychological basis of the novel and creative credo of the author.,