Jean-Yves Tadié is our “key contemporary”.

Jean-Yves Tadié is our “key contemporary”. 🌟 He published his thesis in 1971 on “Proust and the Novel”, edited the second edition of “The Search” in the Pléiade series ✌🏻, has written several books, given hundreds of interviews and lectures, and penned numerous prefaces. He, too, is “Monsieur Proust”. 🤵🏻‍♂️

Announced during a programme on @franceinter 📻 in 2022, the publication of his memoirs was eagerly awaited. @editionsplon were kind enough to send me the first volume, which came off the press two months ago. 📓

Born on 7 September 1936, Jean-Yves Tadié spent his childhood as a frail boy, very close to his mother, suffering from asthma 😰, bullied at school, making few friends, and always with his nose in a book. In short: a Proustian childhood. His mother, a translator, worked for @la_nrf on several occasions. In the first part of this volume, one is strongly reminded of Jeanne Weil and her youngest son. 👦🏻

The story is a pleasure to read and will delight those with a nostalgic streak, as the author vividly describes France in the 1950s and 1960s, naming the books he discovered, the places he frequented and even the teachers who shaped him. 🏫

🖋️ “Getting into the Sorbonne meant fulfilling a long-held dream; it meant devoting oneself to literature, talking only about what one loves, and replacing everyday life with the world of books.” — p. 234

A model pupil, Jean-Yves Tadié passed the Agrégation and went on to become a teacher himself. Poitiers, Egypt and then Cameroon. He embarked on a long-term project: his thesis on Proust, which is due to be published (in the next volume) in the year marking the centenary of the author’s birth. The year in which Illiers was renamed @mairiedillierscombray. 🏠

With humility, he slips into the role that is rightfully his and renounces the demon of the novel:

🖋️ “I can only recount what already exists; or rather, I can distil it, analyse it, and reveal its hidden meaning and value. I am the custodian of the secrets of others – the great writers. I can recount their ideas, and sometimes their lives. That is my vocation as a critic.” 🙌🏻 — p. 221

#proustagram #jeanyvestadié #monsieurproust #mémoires #RTP #proust #marcelproust #sorbonne #concours