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3rd out of 29 books
—
7 voters
Marcel Proust
by
Edmund White
Marcel Proust is enjoying an enormous revival. Now he has at last found a biographer who himself once produced "the finest French novel written in English" ("The Nation"). From the author of the award-winning biography of Jean Genet comes this passionate biography of the brilliant writer, famous recluse, and tormented lover. Abridged.
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published
July 13th 1999
by Viking Adult
(first published January 1st 1999)
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The PENGUIN LIVES' approach to biography is in part to keep it short by focusing on very specific elements of the subject's life. In Edmund White's exploration of Proust, the focus returns incessantly and at times exclusively to the impact of the writer's homosexuality on his masterpiece.
There's no doubt that this is an important key to REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST. Proust, throughout his life, believed he was closeted although virtually everyone who knew him considered him to he gay. A reader's k...more
There's no doubt that this is an important key to REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST. Proust, throughout his life, believed he was closeted although virtually everyone who knew him considered him to he gay. A reader's k...more
How could I possibly consider myself an aesthete without having read Proust? (eyes rolling)
Alternately dazzled, indignant, intrigued, frustrated, just plain worn out, my reactions were unlike anything I'd experienced before or since.
So when I finished Volume 1 of Remembrance I was overcome with this compulsion to know more about its author. I took a break from Hume and picked up Edmund White's slim biography at the library.
The details of his life (attachment to mother, various unrequited or unfu...more
Alternately dazzled, indignant, intrigued, frustrated, just plain worn out, my reactions were unlike anything I'd experienced before or since.
So when I finished Volume 1 of Remembrance I was overcome with this compulsion to know more about its author. I took a break from Hume and picked up Edmund White's slim biography at the library.
The details of his life (attachment to mother, various unrequited or unfu...more
A warm up before deciding to read Proust's magnum opus. Which is rather silly since I usually just jump into a book, regardless of any knowledge on the book's author or background. In fact I realized that those books where I think a lot before starting usually the ones that ends up unread. Just like most of my knitting projects are started on a sudden craving and not the ones with swatches.
Anyway, this is the second book about Proust that I've read and I don't think it's better than de Botton's...more
Anyway, this is the second book about Proust that I've read and I don't think it's better than de Botton's...more
Written by a gay author, this slim volume occasionally moves a quick pace between morsels of delightful gossip and erudite canonization. While White provides several good passages on Proust's posthumous reception and his place within the literature of the 20th C., he might spend too much time delineating the homosexual loves, affairs, and self-loathing that have either been glossed over or saved for controversy in other retrospectives on Proust's life.
Marcel Proust holds a rare distinction on my reading list. (And I don't mean "Most Influential Author of the 20th Century" because that is a load of baloney francais.) He is the only author I don't want to read, but I do want to read about... I reject his fiction and embrace his biography.
This jaunty little book was a great help in my random reading quest. It has all the levity and skill of a Vanity Fair article. Edmund White wrote about the life and works of Proust -- combining biography, fine...more
This jaunty little book was a great help in my random reading quest. It has all the levity and skill of a Vanity Fair article. Edmund White wrote about the life and works of Proust -- combining biography, fine...more
This book was so efficiently and effectively written. It went down like a good New Yorker article. Edmund White focused on Marcel Proust's relationships both romantic and otherwise and indicated how those relationships informed characters in his novels- mostly analyzing REMEMBRANCES OF THINGS PAST. White did such a great job as a biographer, informing the reader with relevant specific details but keeping it still lively with descriptions of the time period and more gossip like details. White sho...more
Edmund White surveys the life of Proust, and in a relatively small amount of space, for such a voluminously prolific literary figure. White's writing, as elsewhere, is beautiful, and this may be one of the first biographies of Proust to be so thorough.
When Proust released his first volume of "Remembrance of Things Past," "Swann's Way," around 1912 (I think), the same year saw the publication of D.H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers." It must have been a banner year for good books, so much so that I t...more
When Proust released his first volume of "Remembrance of Things Past," "Swann's Way," around 1912 (I think), the same year saw the publication of D.H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers." It must have been a banner year for good books, so much so that I t...more
Conveniently concise. Enough to sketch you in on the main question marks over Proust the man: his Jewishness, his friendships, his relationships, his health, his writing. White portrays his infamous snobbishness as somewhat tempered by compassion, and counters the legend of ivory tower incarceration with plenty of juicy gossip from dealings with the great and the good - and the no-so-good.
White has a nice eye for a comparison that will bring his subject home to us: describing Proust's method of...more
White has a nice eye for a comparison that will bring his subject home to us: describing Proust's method of...more
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Apr 20, 2008
Patrick
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Diana, Chad, Fluffy, et al.
Shelves:
penguin-lives,
proust-books
I just listened to this book again, having found an audio CD copy at the Newport Beach library. Having read three quarters of Remembrance of Things Past at this point, and thus being familiar with all of the major characters in Proust's epic novel, I have a new appreciation for how good this short biography is. The author Edmund White makes much of how Proust disguised his friends and acquaintances as characters in his book, just as he also recreates experiences from his life (often absurd scene...more
Perhaps the best short introduction to Proust. What is more, it gives a memorable and sympathetic look at the young writer who was at one and the same time a practicing homosexual and who wrote a classic work in which he portrayed himself as a heterosexual. He accomplished this by "transposing" his male lovers into women: His chauffeur, Alfredo Agostinelli, for instance, became Marcel's unforgettable lover Albertine.
What I appreciated most about this book was perhaps its selective annotated bibi...more
What I appreciated most about this book was perhaps its selective annotated bibi...more
A quick read, but worth it. Shed some good insights on the characters in "In Search of Lost Time". Also gives addresses and some other geographical references to Proust's life and writings, that will be worth looking up on my next visit to France. Well worth reading in conjunction with Proust's writings.
not a proust buff so i can't speak to much. i can say for the uninitiated it's a nice read, a wikipedia of biographies - clean style, gets you what you need to know about him without a day by day recap. it also learned that edmund white wasn't edmund wilson. all in all an educational experience.
I can't imagine how daunting it would be to write this basically pamphlet sized biography of a writer who 1) it could be argued, essentially crafted a six volume novel where a central theme concerns the blurring of biography and fiction, and 2) has already been the subject of several extensive and excellent biographies. In the end, this winds up being a sort of precis of Tadie's recent work, which is not intended as a knock -- indeed it's a tremendous service. Also, the crisp writing had me full...more
When I finished reading "In Search of Lost Time," I looked about for a biography that wasn't 1,000 pages long and settled on this one, a mere 150-odd pages. It was, I think, a good choice. The question I might pose about it is: Is it a good choice for someone who hasn't finished the novel, or who hasn't even started it? And I think it might be. White gives you the essential facts about Proust's life mixed with some solid reasons why the "Search" is one of those books you must (at least try to) r...more
I would ask myself what o'clock it could be; I could hear the whistling of trains, which, now nearer and now
farther off, punctuating the distance like the note of a bird in a forest, shewed me in perspective the deserted
countryside through which a traveller would be hurrying towards the nearest station: the path that he followed
being fixed for ever in his memory by the general excitement due to being in a strange place, to doing unusual
things, to the last words of conversation, to farewells exch...more
farther off, punctuating the distance like the note of a bird in a forest, shewed me in perspective the deserted
countryside through which a traveller would be hurrying towards the nearest station: the path that he followed
being fixed for ever in his memory by the general excitement due to being in a strange place, to doing unusual
things, to the last words of conversation, to farewells exch...more
EW is just the best. I never regret the time I spend with him through his books. He understands both what is serious and fun about Proust. He keeps me turning the page. If you love Proust you should read this.
after devoting 3,500 pages of my life to his work, i thought i should take a little time to learn about the man.
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.
What a fascinating man! He's just inspired my new obsession for more information on his life.
Very nice quick (and very, very brief) introduction to Proust - esp. meant for those (like self) who know nothing.
A pretty succinct but interesting biography of Marcel Proust.
An excellent, short biography.
illuminating biography of a genius
Basically Proust for dummies.
A quick, enlightening read.
Really very excellent. There is a fabulous Proust bibliography at the end as well.
Excellent brief biography.
My general understanding of Proust enthusiasts is that they are totally obnoxious snobs.
That being said, White does a good job of being an obnoxious snob on an acceptable level. I found the book to be readable and pretty much worth the amount of time I spent on it. I'd recommend it for people who aren't ambitious enough to have actually read his novels yet, but might do it some day. Like me.
That being said, White does a good job of being an obnoxious snob on an acceptable level. I found the book to be readable and pretty much worth the amount of time I spent on it. I'd recommend it for people who aren't ambitious enough to have actually read his novels yet, but might do it some day. Like me.
I never read Edmund White's fiction, just his essays and bios. He did a remarkable bio on Jean Genet, and this little book is really good as well. White has a great understanding of Paris culture, so he has an understanding of the social world of Marcel Proust. I couldn't put this book down, it is such a fantastic read.
A breezy 160 pages, very readable, real life portrayal of this unique man who wrote a novel unlike any other. I learned a lot about Proust and about what led him to write the 4,500 page tome -- and after reading White's bio of him, it's clear that it couldn't have been written by anyone else!
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| 2013: The Year of...: Edmund White's "Proust" | 11 | 29 | Sep 29, 2012 07:47am |
Edmund White's novels include Fanny: A Fiction, A Boy's Own Story, The Farewell Symphony, and A Married Man. He is also the author of a biography of Jean Genet, a study of Marcel Proust, The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, and, most recently, his memoir, My Lives. Having lived in Paris for many years, he is now a New Yorker and teaches at Princeton University. He was also a membe...more
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