History Creator / MarcelProust

[[OverlyLongName Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust]] (10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic and essayist best known for his monumental ''À la recherche du temps perdu'' (''Literature/InSearchOfLostTime''; earlier translated as ''Remembrance of Things Past''). It was published in [[LongRunner seven parts between 1913 and 1927]].

Proust's father, Achille Adrien Proust, was a prominent pathologist and epidemiologist, responsible for studying and attempting to remedy the causes and movements of cholera through Europe and Asia; he was the author of many articles and books on medicine and hygiene. Proust's mother, Jeanne Clémence Weil, was the daughter of a rich and cultured Jewish family from Alsace. She was literate and well-read; her letters [[DeadpanSnarker demonstrate a well-developed sense of humour]], and her command of English was sufficient for her to provide the necessary assistance to her son's later attempts to translate John Ruskin.

%%* DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm: Doctor Cottard; once, the Narrator Towards M. Verdurin.

* {{Shoutout}}: The characters often talk about literature. The works of Creator/HonoreDeBalzac, Creator/{{Stendhal}} (''Literature/TheCharterhouseOfParma''), Racine (''Phèdre'', ''Athalie'', ''Esther'')... are mentioned, as well as many more obscure writers. In total, 180 French writers and 60 foreign writers are mentioned or alluded to. [[https://lefoudeproust.fr/2016/01/une-vraie-bibliotheque-les-livres-de-la-recherche/ Here is the full list.]]

[[OverlyLongName Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust]] (10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic and essayist best known for his monumental ''À la recherche du temps perdu'' (''In Search of Lost Time''; earlier translated as ''Remembrance of Things Past''). It was published in [[LongRunner seven parts between 1913 and 1927]].

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Played straight with the Duc de Guermantes but averted with the Duchesse, who is considerably smarter than her husband.

* AmbiguouslyGay : Robert de Saint-Loup.

* AttentionWhore: Charlus.

* BlueBlood: All the Guermantes family.

* CampStraight: The Narrator.

* CrazyJealousGuy: Saint-Loup, who gets mad if her mistress Rachel just looks at another man.
* [[DaddysGirl Daddy's Girl]]: Gilberte to Swann.

* DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm: Doctor Cottard; once, the Narrator Towards M. Verdurin.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Albertine.]]
* DyingTown: Combray.

* GentlemanAndAScholar: Swann.
* GentlemanSnarker : The Narrator, Swann and Charlus.
* GirlWatching: The Narrator does this by himself, with Albertine and her friends at Combray.
* GoodParents : The Narrator's. His Grandmother also qualifies.
* GrandeDame : The Guermantes.

* GirlInTheTower : Metaphorically, Albertine in ''La Prisonnière''.

* ItsNotPornItsArt : Elstir, the painter.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Dr. Cottard and, to a certain extent, M. de Norpois.
* LargeHam: Charlus, with a side order of DramaQueen.
* LoveHurts: The whole point of ''La Fugitive''. For ''hundreds'' of pages.
* {{Malaproper}}: The hotel manager; it's his [[FlatCharacter entire character]].
* MistakenForGay: Happens to the Narrator.

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: [[spoiler: The Narrator and Albertine.]]
* {{Ojou}}: Oriane de Guermantes, subtype SugarAndIcePersonality.

* TheProfessor: Brichot. Subverted in that he's an idiot.
* PurpleProse: Legrandin talks in this.
** The original English translation suffered from this, but although Proust wrote very long sentences he didn't actually use purple prose and more recent versions are much closer to his tone.

* {{Tsundere}}: Albertine with the Narrator. She is from the A type.

* [[MundaneMadeAwesome What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome?]]: This is the Verdurins' attitude towards their "little clan".
* WholesomeCrossdresser : Odette de Crécy
* WritersBlock
* YouRemindMeOfX: Odette reminds Swann of a painting.

[[GoodParents Proust's father]], Achille Adrien Proust, was a prominent pathologist and epidemiologist, responsible for studying and attempting to remedy the causes and movements of cholera through Europe and Asia; he was the author of many articles and books on medicine and hygiene. [[GoodParents Proust's mother]], Jeanne Clémence Weil, was the daughter of a rich and cultured Jewish family from Alsace. She was literate and well-read; her letters [[DeadpanSnarker demonstrate a well-developed sense of humour]], and her command of English was sufficient [[ActionMom for her to provide the necessary assistance to her son's later attempts to translate John Ruskin]].

* IllGirl: The Narrator is a chronically ill boy.

* ''La Prisonnière'' (''The Captive''), 1923

* AnachronicOrder: ''Swann's Way'' opens with the Narrator as a young adult in the [=1890s=], which proceeds into an extended reminiscence of his childhood home, a long episode from before his birth, and finally a brief return to his adulthood. From then on, things are more-or-less linear, albeit with occasional asides from the Narrator's present knowledge, until the end of WWI about halfway through ''Time Regained'', after which the events of several years are told in the order they occur to the Narrator rather than their chronological one, although this may not be a stylistic choice but a consequence of AuthorExistenceFailure.

* BrokenPedestal: The Narrator idiolizes Oriane de Guermantes, until he gets to know her and realizes that she is a normal woman and even a bit stupid.
* CampGay: Charlus manages to combine this trope with its near-opposite, ArmouredClosetGay. His behaviour is Camp Gay in that he tends to be ''monumentally'' bitchy, only has sex with men and loves gossip, but on the other hand he dresses absolutely straight, conducts all his sexual affairs in secrecy and takes great offence at any suggestion that he's not thoroughly manly. (Then again, he [[HairTriggerTemper takes great offence at pretty much anything.]]) Justified in-universe, insofar as although homosexuality hasn't been illegal in France since 1791 it was a potential source of social disgrace.

* DidTheyOrDidntThey : Albertine and the Narrator. Although, if they didn't, it's hard to think what else they were doing for hundreds of pages of ''La Prisonnière''.

Proust, who was [[CampGay homosexual]], was one of the first European novelists to mention homosexuality openly and at length in the parts of ''À la recherche du temps perdu'' which deal with [[CampGay the Baron de Charlus]].

* BiTheWay: Swann, Odette and so on...