Proust at the Majestic: The Last Days of the Author Whose Book Changed Paris

By Richard Davenport-Hines and Richard Davenport-Hine

Book Overview

Longtemps, il s'est couch de bonne heure... Ce soir-l pourtant, Marcel Proust fera une exception, pour se rendre un d ner pas comme les autres. Nous sommes le 18 mai 1922, dans les salons de l'h tel... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 158234471X
• ISBN13: 9781582344713
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.4" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Extending Proust

The first part of the book is a fascinating examination of the guest list at a famous party given by Sydney and Violet Schiff at the Majestic Hotel in Paris near the end of Proust's life. Proust was one of the guests; so was James Joyce, although they apparently had little of substance to discuss. The party section is a bit tedious, if only because my expectation was to learn more about Proust from the outset. Once I finished the book, however, I felt that it was one of the best on Proust that I have read, probing his relationships with others as he finished his great work. I liked Ronald Hayman's biography of Proust for its examination of his creative process and the use of involuntary memory. This book is a good companion to Hayman's.