In search of lost manuscripts: essays reveal Proust´s love of society women
(The Guardian Books News)

Previously unknown writings show how novelist´s youthful fascination with Parisian hostesses informed his classics Two lost essays by Marcel Proust about Parisian high society at the fin de siècle are to be published in English for the first time following their discovery by an American scholar. Of particular significance to academics are their revelations that the great French novelist was exploring ideas for In Search of Lost Time, his autobiographical masterpiece, around 14 years earlier than previously thought.One essay was unknown, while the other was presumed lost. Both show that the author´s fascination with aristocratic salons and society doyennes developed long before 1913, when he published his seven-part classic of French literature, with the Guermantes family among fictional characters in a narrative about the decline and fall of an aristocratic ideal. One essay, The Great Parisian Salons, dates from 1893 when Proust was just 21, and runs to around 1,850 words. It had been completely overlooked until now because Proust had written it under the pseudonym Tout-Paris in Le Gaulois, a prestigious society journal. Related: Proust`s love letters to composer go on display before Paris auction Continue reading...