MARCEL PROUST'S SEARCH FOR LOST TIME

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WHO'S WHO IN PROUST

THE MAJOR CHARACTERS

Joseph Conrad observed that Proust’s genius lies in his skills of analysis. “All that crowd of personages who fill the pages of his novel in their infinite variety through all the gradations of the social scale are rendered visible to us through analysis alone.” Conrad argues that despite the physical vividness of characters such as Françoise and Charlus, there is very little actual description, and though we feel we know them so well, we have little idea of what they look like.

 Paul Nadir was the Parisian Annie Leibovitz of the Belle Époque who did portraits of many of Proust's friends. I have therefore used his photographs as the basis for my own illustrations of the characters in his great novel.

The 'naughty' sofa which Marcel donated to the brothel was inspired by the art of Edward Gorey and the 'Disgrace of Dreyfus' was copied from contemporary illustration in Le Petit Journal of January 13, 1895.

Please click on the thumbnails to the right to see my illustrations. (Use the back arrow on your browser to return to this page.)

Some of my illustrations as well as some of Paul Nadar's actual portraits have been used in the Vintage Books edition of my book, Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time.