Proust: The Search

This brief but thorough biography of Marcel Proust (1871–1922) from esteemed author and editor Taylor (Naples Declared) isn’t intended to be the definitive biography of the French novelist who wrote In Search of Lost Time. Instead, Taylor touches on the influences of Proust’s Jewish heritage, homosexuality, and debilitating asthma, as well as the pivotal event of the Dreyfus Affair, on his art and life. Among Taylor’s conclusions are that Proust did not see himself as a Jew but rather as “the non-Jewish son of a Jewish mother,” and that he protested the conviction of Alfred Dreyfus on espionage charges because he believed the French-Jewish artillery officer was innocent, rather than out of ethnic solidarity. Starting in childhood and proceeding briskly through the major events of Proust’s life, Taylor quotes liberally and wisely from Proust’s massive correspondence, early writings, essays, and interviews. In the process, he traces the complexities of Proust’s personality and painstaking artistic development from mere talent to genius, only achieved “after long years of application to his native language, and nine of servitude to Ruskin’s.” Taylor writes that “time, the only divinity Proust acknowledged, which makes dust of us, also makes us giants,” evocatively capturing the lasting importance of Proust’s masterpiece and its theme. (Oct.)