A Vision of Paris

by Marcel Proust, Eugène Atget (Photographer), Arthur D. Trottenberg (Editor)

Genres: Photography, Art

213 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Marcel Proust was a French novelist, best known for his 3000 page masterpiece À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time), a pseudo-autobiographical novel told mostly in a stream-of-consciousness style.

Born in the first year of the Third Republic, the young Marcel, like his narrator, was a delicate child from a bourgeois family. He was active in Parisian high society during the 80s and 90s, welcomed in the most fashionable and exclusive salons of his day. However, his position there was also one of an outsider, due to his Jewishness and homosexuality. Towards the end of 1890s Proust began to withdraw more and more from society, and although he was never entirely reclusive, as is sometimes made out, he lapsed more completely into his lifelong tendency to sleep during the day and work at night. He was also plagued with severe asthma, which had troubled him intermittently since childhood, and a terror of his own death, especially in case it should come before his novel had been completed. The first volume, after some difficulty finding a publisher, came out in 1913, and Proust continued to work with an almost inhuman dedication on his masterpiece right up until his death in 1922, at the age of 51.

Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century, and À la recherche du temps perdu as one of the most dazzling and significant works of literature to be written in modern times.

Reviews

[Sandy]

I have become enthralled by the photography of Eugene Atget. His photographs are portals to every imaginable aspect of belle époque Paris. Atget's pictures paired with the words of Marcel Proust, perfectly evoke this time when keen observation and the arts were inseparable.

[Rodreyes]

Este breve opúsculo de 60 páginas nos muestra la producción periodística de Marcel Proust, inmerso en los salones y tertulias artísticas de París.
Se sabe que "En búsqueda del tiempo perdido" es una obra fundamental del Siglo XX y que tiene 7 tomos, pero pocos saben que fue escrita mientras duró la reclusión de Proust desde los 35 años, momento en que se le diagnosticó un asma severo.
Para dar un vistazo a la pluma del genio, bien vale la pena esta colección del artículos escritos para Le Figaro y otros diarios de Francia.

[Uriah Marc Todoroff]

Read about this in a Hilton Als review published in the New Yorker a few months ago, abouta Eugene Atget exhibition in NYC. A very beautiful book to look at and peruse through. I found it to be extremely calming, soothing to the brain. The editor did a great job of selecting text that doesn't function to "explain" the photos. Instead, they complement each other atmospherically. Interesting, given that Proust was a sophisticate, and Atget was a dirty weirdo.

[Faedyl]

Entrada en el diario 16 de Faedyl desde City Bell, Buenos Aires Province Argentina en jueves, 27 de agosto de 2009

Cuando liberé este libro, me di cuenta de que mi comentario no habia quedado guardado en el journal, así que ahora vuelvo a él para dar mi parte aqui.

Este es un libro corto, pero no apto para cualquier lector. Proust ha sido un modelo para los textos modernos por la forma en que se dedica al detalle y a rescatar lo pintoresco. Se trata de los retratos de distintas personalidades de una época y un contexto muy puntual, y creo que puede resultar aburrido como una lectura más.

Es un buen texto para los que estan interesados en usos y costumbres, o los que gozan de las descripciones y detalles epocales. Quiero ser respetuosa de Proust pero bleh, que flojera...

Fae

[Mariana Orantes]

Seguimos con los libros de la editorial Astri. En esta ocasión llegó a mis manos este libro de Proust. Bonito libro donde están retratadas las tardes en diferentes jardines y salones de té. Personas, actitudes, paisajes, tonos de voz... ¡dios! es una gloria leer las descripciones de este hombre. Parece que te sitúa en el lugar exacto y no sólo utiliza, la descripción detallada y minuciosa de una cosa, sino también la descripción por los antecesores y otras formas que están detalladas en el Laocoonte de Lessing. Uno de los artículos, no diré cual, me sacó una lagrimita. Notables sus notas y artículos, una delicia del chisme parisino.

[Elizabeth Quinn]

I read this as research for my novel, My Phantom: The Memoir of Christine Daaé. I found this combination of Proust's words and Atget's photos superb.