Marcel Proust: A Biography - Softcover

'No biography has ever before thrown so much light on the making of a masterpiece. ' Raymond Mortimer. 'Mr Painter has done his work so well that it is hard to speak in moderate terms of his skill and unobtrusive wit. ' Anthony Powell. 'Brilliant and scholarly. . . . Mr Painter's greatest triumph is in his depiction of place and people, his revelation of the raw material of the novel. ' Angus Wilson. With A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU Marcel Proust achieved a perfect rendering of life in art, of the past created through memory. It is both a portrait of the artist and a discovery of the aesthetic by which the portrait is painted, and it was to have a seminal influence on twentieth-century literature. George Painter's work has brilliantly captured the life of the great writer in a TOUR DE FORCE of scholarly research and literary craft.

WINNER OF THE DUFF COOPER MEMORIAL PRIZE

'His research has been monumental. His judgement is penetrating, and his style exemplary... No biography has ever before thrown so much light on the making of a masterpiece.' Sunday Times

With A la Recherche du Temps Perdu Marcel Proust achieved a perfect rendering of life in art, of the past created through memory. It is both a portrait of the artist and a discovery of the aesthetic by which the portrait is painted, and it was to have a seminal influence on twentieth-century literature. George Painter's work has brilliantly captured the life of the great writer in a tour de force of scholarly research and literary craft.

'Unquestionably a masterpiece... One of the great English biographies in its scale, its style, its mastery of the material, its human understanding.' Guardian

'Superb... I can think of no more instructive commentary on the nature of the artistic process.' Sunday Telegraph

'In scholarship, perception and grace, one of the most magnificent biographies of our generation.' Scotsman

'Surely the finest and most complete literary biography written in this century... Triumphant... worthy of the master himself.' Financial Times