Marcel Proust

Proust (1871–1922) published his masterpiece In Search of Lost Time in seven volumes, and it is considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. Proust broke with convention and changed the shape of the novel as we know it from a linear narration and plot to an intimate subjective world.

His parents had great hopes for their son, but because of his poor health and the great amount of time he spent frequenting fashionable society, they worried he would be a failure. From age 38 he spent the rest of his life writing his masterpiece. At the time of his death, he was not finished.

This letter to his mother was written less than a month after his father’s death. He wrote it in the early hours of the morning while his mother slept in another room.

Proust had an extremely close relationship with his mother, and he felt great pressure not to disappoint her. He was unable to tell her he was homosexual. He clung to her, yet resented her intrusion into his life. She chided him for being nocturnal and wanted him on a normal schedule. But he did his best work at night. He was forever a baby; she called him “my little wolf.”

In a famous scene from his book, his grandmother offers him madeleines, which he dips into an infusion of tea. The sense memory of the taste and smells of the madeleines opens up strong memories of his past. He could not grow up and write his masterpiece with all its honesty and sexuality, all the complex feelings and lack of innocence, until his mother was gone.

— Bonnie Zindel, Creative Literary Arts Editor

December, 1903 (Age 32)

My dear little Mama,

I am writing you this little note while I’m finding it impossible to sleep, to tell you that I’m thinking of you. How I would love, and how ardently I wish, to soon be able to get up at the same time as you, to have my coffee and milk by your side. To feel that the hours we sleep and the hours we are awake are distributed

over the same span of time would be, will be so charming to me. I had gone to bed at