Laure Murat, “Proust, a family novel”, 2023 @robert_laffont
Translated from French.
Laure Murat, “Proust, a family novel”, 2023 @robert_laffont 👌🏻✨
Laure Murat comes from a “good family” 👨👩👧: some of her ancestors enjoyed their heyday at Parc Monceau in the 1900s, a period not yet known as the ‘Belle Époque’.
The Murats, descendants of the nobility of the Empire, intermarried with the Luynes, descendants of a favourite of Louis XIII 👑, and for the most part maintained the forms, appearances and etiquette. In Proust’s work, the nobility is like a scaffolding that rests on no building and stands on its own in the void (the metaphor is by Gilles Deleuze, taken up by Laure Murat).
I devoured this book, which I received the day before yesterday. It is both a wonderful essay on Proust and the Search (well-researched, precise and concise) and an autobiographical account that is never boring or self-indulgent. 👌🏻
Laure Murat’s writing skills are complemented by her intimate and profound knowledge of Proust’s work and life (including the 21-volume correspondence 📚 published by @editionsplon and extracts from “Jean Santeuil”). Added to this are numerous references to the essential works of academic criticism and a few more obscure titles, which the “happy few” will find listed at the end of the volume. 🎈
It’s been a long time since I’ve read such a sensitive, intelligent and personal piece on Proust. 🛏️🕰️
The book has just won the “2023 Prix Medicis for Essays” 🥇 and I highly recommend it!
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