biography
pronunciation:
[proost]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1871–1922)
|
| biography:
| Novelist, born in Auteuil, NC France, of Jewish descent. A semi-invalid from asthma, he was looked after by his mother, and her death in 1905 caused him to withdraw from society, living in a sound-proofed flat, and giving himself over almost entirely to introspection. He then devoted himself to writing, and in 1912 produced the first part of what was to be the greatest novel of the 20th-c, his 13-volume masterpiece, A la recherche du temps perdu (trans Remembrance of Things Past), published the next year at his own expense. The second volume of this work, delayed by World War 1, won the Prix Goncourt in 1919. The next volumes brought him an international reputation, and he was able to complete the last six volumes (but not revise them) before his death. His massive novel, exploring the power of the memory and the unconscious, as well as the nature of writing itself, has been profoundly influential. |
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