<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Painting Proust
Review: I feel obliged to preface any comments on Painter's biography with a cautionary word. Reading this book without having read Proust's masterpiece A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, is like reading a history of Jazz, without having heard any. That said, and disregarding Painter's introductory thesis that "Proust's novel cannot be fully undersood without a knowledge of his life", the life and times of Proust is a fascinating subject in itself. His genius for conversation, and the legacy it created for him, gives his biographer plenty to work with and Painter's skill as a writer comes to the fore as he recreates the events that shaped Proust's life. The biography is written sequentially, beginning with a brief overview of late 17th centuary Paris, and culminating in Proust's death while still revising his masterpiece, in November 1922. Footnotes a plenty, Painter avoids mythologising Proust and instead, sticks to the facts with an academic's eye for detail. He occasionally offers incisive insights into Proust's work and writes in a curious style which draws on Proust's own language and favourite metaphors. In the end though, Painter's raison d'etre is to identify the people and places that shaped Proust's writing. To this end, we meet the Barons, Dukes and Duchesses who populated the upper stratosphere of Parisian society in the early nineteen hundreds, and visit the small gardens of Illiers and Auteuil, which would eventually become the Combray of his famous novel, and marvel at the chuch spires he visited while reading Ruskin. Not inerested? Well this book is not for you. For those of you who are interested in knowing from where Proust's inspiration sprang, there is no better book. One for the fans.
<< 1 >>
| 
