Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust born 10 July 1871 (d. 1922)

Born into a prosperous middle-class family near Paris, Marcel-Valentin-Louis-Eugène-Georges Proust was a French intellectual, novelist, essayist and critic best known for an epic work of fiction that is regarded as one of the greatest novels of all-time - if 14 volumes written and published over 14 years can be called a novel.

À La Recherche du Temps Perdu or Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time, as it is variously known in translation, is his lifetime's work - in fact the final 3 books were revised by his brother Robert and published posthumously. The novel is at least partly autobiographical and has been described as 'one the major achievements of Modernism and a great gay novel.'

Proust was gay and is believed to have had a long-running affair with the handsome pianist and composer, Reynaldo Hahn, amongst many other affairs and relationships.

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