I spent an entire summer reading Proust when I was 20 years old. It remains one of the greatest experiences of my life.

I'm 83 and reading Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" for the first time. I so wish that I had discovered him when I lived in Paris as a young man. However I am told that in order to appreciate this great work one needs to be at the right time in their life. In any case, this is the best literature I have ever read and it touches deep into my soul.

MARCEL AND I. I've been reading Proust my whole life. I'm 75, and began reading his work at 15, have kept him on nightstands, in suitcases, briefcases, bookshelves all over the world to the great amusement of my progeny, who love to see what I've stacked on whatever piece of furniture has a light on it next to the bed I'm sleeping in when they manage to catch up with me for a visit. Ah...Proust Mom, right there with the National Enquirer, latest JAMA, Architectural Digest, a treatise on particle physics.and this thing in Arabic don 't explain...

It is a shame that the narrator is not acknowledged, he is excellant

My chance to read Proust (in English translation) came courtesy of a broken ankle while living in a third floor walkup. Warmed up with Ulysses and then dove into Proust. Bliss.

I read Proust when I was unemployed and it was a really great experience. I felt like a different person after reading the entire In Search of Lost Time.

This has inspired me to revisit Proust. I got stuck reading him when I was younger, and now want to try again.

Tried numerous time to complete Proust finally in my 70 th year completed it,so worth it, I am now 2/3rds through a second reading

In Richard Ellmann's biography "James Joyce," Joyce met Proust one rainy day in Paris. The two giants happened to share a taxi. Proust asked Joyce to roll up the window, and Joyce said "No." End of story!

Reading Proust for the first time. It is a commitment of time but worth the effort. I have enjoyed it immensely.

If you try to read Proust's magnum opus like you would plow through a regular novel, you're likely to get bogged down and quit after Swann's Way if not before. Best to take it slowly, spread it out over several months, and perhaps take a break between each of the 7 books that comprise it.

The entire 12 volumes are a challenge and, so far, I've managed to read three of them (in French). What this otherwise very accomplished documentary doesn’t highlight is Proust's style, which for me is uniquely captivating. The convoluted sentences, some of them spanning over a page, have a life of their own. Reading these words is akin to physical intoxication. If you lose the thread of the meaning, it somehow isn't important; the pleasure is in the language itself.

Reynaldo Hahn, Proust's early lover, was Venezuelan, not Argentinian, born in Caracas. He moved to Paris with his family when he was five years old , never to return.

Admirable video...excellent Narrator. I loved the Debussy selections and have performed them all. Very appropriate for this Bio.

Tremendous! Enlightening, compassionate to make a reader who tried once, try again more fully equipped many years later to surrender to the world of Marcel Proust.

I love all of these biographies. You’re my new, favorite channel. Thank you!

If his mother was Jewish as stated. Marcel Proust would not be classified as "partially Jewish" but as a Jewish writer. This is because the Jewish identity is only passed down by matrilineal descent.

Amazing perspicacity and generosity of spirit - that's how I would characterize his greatest work!

Great presentation, thanks for the upload.

I've Just discovered your channel, and as well being an aspiring writer myself, I have taken a great fondness in watching as many documentaries as possible, with whatever time available, finding each one intensely inspiring and some (like the episode of Oscar Wilde's life) somewhat saddening, as the laws, social attitudes as well as acceptance towards others deemed "different" than what is allowed by those who adhere fervently and without exception to "mainstream social norms", and admonish as well as ostracize at times violently those who won't "adhere" to these so-called "social norms", a fiercely unneeded policing of other's basic human rights to engage in lifestyles that they see fit as well ways of living that doesn't harm society or those whom live within it.

Thanks for the interesting documentary. If I could only switch off the background music.

Although I found this very interesting, I agree that the music was a huge distraction.

Proust is magic!!!

Just found this video incredibly charming. The maker's adoration for Proust and Debussy strikes a strong chord with my personal preference. Thank you.

Thankyou for you’re excellent presentations of great men and women

very nice documentary. Thanks!

Interesting documentary - pity about the distracting background music, much as I love Debussy.

I'm not actually an actress but I'm so used to interacting with broad classes or circumstances of people in life and I can relate to so many back grounds!

If it were NOT for the profoundly intrusive background music, I would probably be one of your biggest fans.

Read him in French, read all the 12 volumes translated by CK Scott Moncrieff (except for the final volume; perhaps his task was too great ) And read the newer translation by Terence Kilmartin to which I was introduced by a friend,, a young radical insufficiently known poet called Niall Quinn whom I suggest you search out and read, if you have the courage....

Sounds very relaxing and established social dynamics....leserly structured ....I had some tip of this in my summer holidays at my different relations small estates ....meeting professors, writer's... engineers....as my Great Aunt hostess with mostess...and I had much breathing space and good food

Proust est un géant dans la littérature française 💐 He is so very special 💚

What a lovely video 😊

I'm so happy that Proust kept being invited. Soo important.

Thanks, Paul. 😊

Love this channel. I love reading. Proust was a poet I never read tho. I felt with all the new inventions and changes happening during his time, add the fact he never had to hussle up a meal, I felt anyone cld just look out their window and write the wonders they saw But I give him a chance 50 yrs later 😊

The piano makes it unlistenable

In Search of Lost Time... is how MOST of us know the title.

This is an extremely interesting documentary… However the background music is much too loud and often drowns out the narrators voice

I apologize for bursting in like this.. BUT that music in the background aggravates ..

Intelligent people can do what they want, genius people do the only thing they can.

Excellent.

Narrated by? Very interesting documentary. Thank you.

James Joyce. Nuff said. 🎩

Excellent video and narrator, but why does it have to have a piano playing all through, it is distracting, adds nothing and is quite unnecessary. Shame.

Excellent

VERY USEFUL

Great narration. The music is too loud though, pretty distracting

Please consider that music is as diminished by loud narratives as narratives are by loud music. Would anyone consider writing on top of a master painting?

Please try to add subtitles too. Thank you!

He "found entrance wherever he wanted" belonged to another era.

Could Someone tel me the name of the piano piece.

Alfred Agostinelli, what about Proust's hot and sexy chauffeur?

so so. the map of house and garden in Illiers is something I wish I'd seen sooner. Right now I am picking my way through the 2 volume bio by George Painter. Coal mining feels like a fair analogy. I know as much about coal mining as high society but coal mining is what comes to mind. Proust's life was not as isolated as this would make you think; his close, long relationships with his driver, his typists and the varied domestic staff who catered to his needs were crucial and valued, but there's a limit to what you can fit into a 30min doco.

Wish that music didn’t play throughout.

What's the name of the music played at the beginning?

it takes twenty minutes before they finally admit that Proust was homosexual.

Why on earth have this hideous background music? A real shame as it distracts from what could have been interesting!

I’ve never read Proust but what an excellent BIO

what is the music at the beginnning?

Only France could produce such a writer.

Good choice!

Got through Swann's Way but no more. Can't think of anything significant I missed.

Interesting documentary, though it ignores Proust's sexuality, and even gives the impression that he was heterosexual. Very remiss .

It's very difficult to relate this to others....and the natural alien divides....often I can relate to various friends but sometimes when they all meet up with me there is always some fake betrayal they go away with....so I wide up with none of them...lol

The modern footage was a mistake. At least find some archive footage that keeps us roughly in the same era please.

Coyly inaccurate on some things (Proust' homosexuality and its role in shaping the character of Albertine) but outright wrong on others: Reynaldo Hahn was Venezuelan (born in Caracas in 1874), not Argentinian, as the narrator blithely informs us.

After a good start, spoiled by referring to the Duchesse de Jermantes. The u after the g makes the g hard - thus pronounced Gurmantes, spelt Guermantes, though you later do pronounce it correctly. The composer in the novel is Vinteuil, not Vanteuil. I suspect a large proportion of viewers of this video will be Proust fans who know the books well, and are going to pick up these unnecessary errors. Gide was not the owner of the NRF, but one of the directors. It's "L' ombre de..." not "L' ambre de..."

Respect!

17:30 a picture of "Proust with his friend..." while the other friend, Lucien Daudet, had been edited out.

I believe that Reynaldo Hahn was from Venezuela.

Also, what about the petition of the intellectuals....and ' J' accuse ' by Zola ? The Dreyfuss affair was attacked from MANY quarters.

My life is filled with social extrema and middle ground....it's strange like I was in children's shelters as well and it's such a contrast....but funny actually...

How modern!

Sur la musique de la sonate n 1 de debussy un délice

明天，11月18日，是Marcel Proust馬賽爾普魯斯逝世100週末⋯⋯是為念❤️

Thank you. Or: Merci.

Il est mon alterego...

Music is so annoying. Gonna have a o check out

Not a word on the madeleine cake and the mémoire involontaire?

Annoying background music.

Bloodless to a fault.

And unless you understand Edward DeVere you won't get Shakespeare

Vinteuil, not Vanteuil.

Who is greater , Marcel Proust or James Joyce ?

At 20:11, he's already lost quite a bit of hair!

The content and expose is wonderful, the narrtor is computer generator or just verbally annoying with his fast deliverey and whiny nasal delivery.

The name is familiar 😇

I read Proust's works immediately after reading his detailed biography. His production is reminiscent of the tea-coffee relationship from Little Women. Everyone dreams of her own and of a happy marriage. The book is interesting only because the author openly hints to us that he is gay. Perhaps that is why his books were not published in our country. Just like Herve Guibert. What can I say. The whole work is boring and the dialogues in it are far-fetched.

I spent an entire Summer once eating spouts. My exclamations astonished all thowe present.

The rich and famous of that period sound boorish and snobby the real dregs of life!!!

The music is too loud and, more importantly, Proust was gay. He didn't fall in love with those women - he admired them. I won't be subscribing to this channel.

Sexist dominating Jewish Moma comment...not acceptable. This narrator is nauseatingly smug . And it is shocking not to mention the very loyal Celeste without whom Proust's work would not survive. Further....we now know the 'girls' Proust was ogling in Normandy were in fact boys...and the main one...Albertine was in fact a lad...whom Proust loved in a prolonged neurotic kind of way...until ' Albertine's' death. I have walked the Guemantes and Swann's Way twice on different occasions. Visited Aunt Leonie's house...and the village church..

Poor Thing🤣🤣🤣

voi persereikä

voi lässyn lässy

Proust was a homosexual. Hello. Anyone there?

tres viril, le gars, et illisible ! une bourgeoisie pourrissante ????

Extremely boring

Gd music!