"In my days of greatest desperation I have never conceived of anything
worse than (working in) a lawyer's office." (From one of Proust's letters
to his father)
Marcel Proust was born on July 10, 1871, in Anteuil,
France, soon after
the end of the
Franco-Prussian war. His parents, Dr Adrien Proust, a
Catholic doctor, and Jeanne Weill, an upper class
Jewish woman, doted
on him throughout his childhood. Marcel was sick a lot as a child, and
suffered from severe
asthma attacks from a young age. As a result he
missed large amounts of formal schooling and was often taught by his
mother at home; when he attended school he won several
awards for
writing. Although Marcel had
a burning desire to be a
writer he
completed degrees in
philosophy and
law for the express purpose of
staying out of the job market and to please his parents. Throughout his
life Marcel wasn't once formally
employed, preferring to write
freelance articles and
stories for
magazines and
newspapers. He
was once offered a
casual job but applied for leave before he started;
the leave was continually renewed for four years until Proust's
employers-to-be gave up on him.
"His hatred of snobs was a derivative of his snobbishness, but made the simpletons (in other words, everyone) believe that he was immune from snobbishness." (Marcel Proust)
Marcel was quite popular through
high school and
college. He was a
quick study and entertained those around him with his
impersonations of
other students and teachers. Marcel hung out with the
upper class people
his father introduced him to, spending a lot of time in
salons around
Paris, where he was legendary for his
wit and
beauty. Marcel was a
night owl: he would often sleep until late afternoon, when he would rise
and dress. By the time he then arrived at a social gathering most of the
other guests would have already departed due to the late hour.
"Let us leave pretty women to men without imagination." (Marcel Proust)
After a
stint in the
army at 18 Marcel returned to his writing and
socialising. He was an
outrageous flirt with both
men and
women,
and was a friend of
Oscar Wilde after the author's
exile from
England. Marcel had close relationships with several men but fought a
duel when accused of having a
homosexual affair with one.
Marcel spent his writing time in his bedroom, a large room with
cork-lined walls. According to The Mammoth Book of Oddballs and
Eccentrics, he had a sexual obsession with meat and young butchers.
He apparently questioned a young male butcher during sexual activity,
asking "How do you kill a calf?" and
"How much does it bleed?" at the height of his passion. He also had
strange habits when visiting male brothels, showing the young men photos
of his mother and asking questions such as "What do you think of this
tart?", encouraging the men to put his mother and other relatives down.
He also reportedly bled rats to death after poking them repeatedly with
hat pins.
Towards the end of his life, as his health deteriorated, Marcel
cancelled more and more social engagements. After the deaths of his
father and mother, in 1903 and 1905 respectively, Marcel stayed in bed all
day writing, rising only to visit cafes at night after being visited by
his friends in bed. He then almost stopped leaving the house
altogether,
preferring to write letters to his friends and relatives. On the rare
occasion Marcel left the house he would interrogate his dinner-party
companions on their day-to-day routines to help him write more realistic works.
"Happiness is beneficial for the body but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind."(Marcel Proust)
In the last 9 years of his life Marcel would not see
doctors, preferring
the company and advice of his driver's wife, Celeste Albaret. Celeste
pasted his works together, brought him the
coffee he regularly demanded,
dealt with visitors and spoke to him throughout the nights while he
worked. Marcel's
last words, on November 18 1922, were
a request for a cold
beer; by the time the
ale was brought to him he
was dead.
Marcel's most popular work is Remembrance, a huge tome with an
autobiographical bent. Other works included Les Plaisirs et les
jours (his first completed book, written in his 20s, which is a
collection of stories on the idle rich), Jean Santeuil, (his first
novel), a translation of The Bible of Amiens and many articles based on his life experiences. Marcel
continually had tremendous difficulty getting his work published during
his life. His first published book, Les Plaisirs et les jours , was
so lavishly painted and decorated by his socialite friend Madeleine
Lemaire that it was very expensive and sold very few copies.
Information from www.proust.com,
gateway.library.uiuc.edu/kolbp/Proust.htm and The Mammoth Book of Oddballs
and Eccentrics.