As he explains elsewhere on this website, Patrick Alexander's book Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time was developed in response to the needs of his local reading group who tackled a new volume of Proust's novel each February, over the space of seven years.

With an eleven month gap between reading each volume, members of the group needed to be reminded who all the different characters were, and their relationships with each other. As new members joined the group during the seven year period, they needed a synopsis of the previous volumes in order understand what they had missed. Additionally there was a need for a common understanding of the political and cultural background in France of the Belle Époque when the book was written and set.

The resulting book Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time will thus prove an invaluable guide for the growing number of reading groups around the country who have chosen the ultimate literary challenge of reading the greatest (but longest) novel of the twentieth century.

Alexander's guide provides a detailed synopsis of each of the seven volumes, it lists and describes some 60 of the most important characters, it includes a brief biography of Marcel Proust - so necessary for understanding the story - and finally it places the novel within the context of the Dreyfus Affair and the artistic revolutions in France at the turn of the century. For more information about reading groups, contact us at bookgroups@proustguide.com