Marcel Proust: A Life [Paperback]

Two years ago I started reading Proust again. This time I made the breakthrough and was hooked. I am now about two-thirds of the way back to the beginning, somewhere in the middle of Sodom and Gomorrah (volume 4 of 7 in the Modern Library edition). One of the things to know about reading Proust is that once you have been acclimated to the Narrator and his style, resuming the novel is like receiving a telephone call from an old friend. In a page or two it's just like old times.

Shortly, thereafter I read Edmund White's Penguin Life (1999). In his excellent bibliography, he calls Tadie's book the "best biography ever written of Proust". He also notes that at first he "seriously underestimated its worth, since it lacks narrative sweep and humor value and sometimes looks like random notes". I eagerly awaited the English translation.

Meanwhile I began reading Painter and when the Carter book came out started that too. Painter's book reads like a novel. It is beautifully written and funny, like Proust's novel itself. Tadie seems to hold it in disdain, but I intend to go back to it when I finish the rest of Proust. I read about 250 pages of Carter's book. It wasn't that bad but continually consulting the notes I noticed that a large number were references to Tadie. I stopped and decided to wait for the real thing.

I made the right decision. Tadie's book is the real thing. C'est magnifique! The amount of information is staggering, not only about Proust but also about France and the French. If you are going to read a large scale biography of Proust, this is the one. However, the question remains: Is it for everyone?

If you have begun reading Proust and have made your own breakthrough ( i.e. you have finished Swann's Way, a good part of Within A Budding Grove, and intend to keep going) then the answer is a resounding Yes. You have already shown that you can cope with massive detail. You are not intimidated by descriptions of things that you know nothing about (say Hawthorne bushes) but instead look forward to learning about them. This is the book for you, another universe to explore. Not the Narrator's but Proust's and also Tadie's. In the case of Proust , a biography written by a Frenchman seems to have additional advantages.

What if you are new to Proust and want to find out what all the excitement is about? This is not the place to start. First it assumes that you know a lot more than you probably do, both about Proust and his novel. It is true that Tadie's not strong on the narrative. There are also lots of names mentioned: from the novel, from Proust's life, from French culture. It can be hard to follow. Second is the translation. I think Tadie is generally a clear writer. The translation is often confusing. Third, Tadie assumes a certain amount of insider knowledge about French life that a non-native might not possess. Though there are occasional notes, there still remain gaps. Though I view this as an opportunity to learn, it does put some extra stress on a reader unfamiliar with the basics.

My advice? For an overview, if you want one, read Edmund White's short Penguin Life. This will orient you to Proust and his world. But above all begin reading Proust himself. One reviewer dismissed this biography by recommending the novel in place of the biography. Of course. Who would recommend reading a book about Shakespeare before Hamlet, or Joyce before Ulysses? And when you are hooked, which you will become with a little perseverance (trust me, Proust is unbelievably funny as well as profound), then return to Tadie's Marcel Proust and new doors will open for you. And you will find finally that In Search of Lost Time has become a companion for your lifetime.

Jean-Yves Tadie's biography "Marcel Proust - a Life" provides the answer. So much of Proust's personal experience, and that of his acquaintances in French high society, are to be found in "A la recherche" that you cannot fully understand Proust's work without understanding Proust's life. And an everyday biography chronicling where Proust went, what he did, and who he met, would not be sufficient. What is required is a biography which explains how Proust developed his philosophy; why the aesethic experience was so vital, and sometimes so overwhelming for him; what is was that drew him to associate with the French nobility; and most importantly, what role love played in his life. Proust, after all, is the 20th century's pre-eminent chronicler of love's passion, and its destruction through jealousy.

Tadie's biography satisfies these requirements, in a way that perhaps only a French author could do. The biography traces Proust's academic career and the philosophical influences which found their way into his novels. It is well-laced with selections from Proust's letters to his mother and father, as well as to those he loved and to his friends. It provides considerable information, and occasional speculation, on the connection to the people in Proust's life with the characters in his novels. So thoroughly immersed is Tadie in Proust's life and his writings, that his biography has occasional passages which read as if Proust wrote them himself.

It is surprising to learn how well-placed Proust was in the intellectual and artistic developments of turn-of-the-century France. He knew well, or at least met, most of the famous French authors, composers, actors, and critics, and certainly did not spend his time exclusively at high-society functions. Tadie's biography illuminates these links between Proust and such famous figures as Robert de Montesquiou, Gustave Moreau, James Whistler, Camille Saint-Saens, Stephane Mallarme, Daniel Halevy, Sarah Bernhardt, Jean Cocteau, and Gabriel Faure. Yet the biography is also filled with references to hundreds of individuals unfamiliar to American readers. Some reviewers have suggested that this is a weakness; that Tadie's biography is too detailed and Franco-centric to be of value to those who don't speak French or have a solid grounding in the France of Proust's time. But if this is true of Tadie's book, it is certainly true of Proust's novels. Proust's world is so all-encompassing, and his style is so poetic and distinctive, that he creates a desire in the reader to learn French just to savor his creativity in its original power, and to visit France to see first-hand the places which excited his extraordinary descriptions.

Tadie's biography satisfyingly entwines Proust's imaginary world with Proust's real existence. He understands Proust in a way few other biographers have. His biography will be the indispensible source for anyone wishing to travel behind the characters and experiences in "A la recherche", to the life of Proust himself.