Cities of the plain (His Remembrance of things past)

Proust, Marcel

ISBN 10: 0394705971 / ISBN 13: 9780394705972

Published by Vintage Books, 1970

Good condition. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains. Seller Inventory # Y00F-00838

Synopsis:

In this fourth volume, Proust’s novel takes up for the first time the theme of homosexual love and examines how destructive sexual jealousy can be for those who suffer it. Sodom and Gomorrah is also an unforgiving analysis of both the decadent high society of Paris and the rise of a philistine bourgeoisie that will inevitably supplant it. Proust was born in Auteuil (the southern sector of Paris's then-rustic 16th arrondissement) at the home of his great-uncle, two months after the Treaty of Frankfurt formally ended the Franco-Prussian War. His birth took place during the violence that surrounded the suppression of the Paris Commune, and his childhood corresponds with the consolidation of the French Third Republic. Much of Remembrance of Things Past concerns the vast changes, most particularly the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the middle classes, that occurred in France during the Third Republic and the fin de siècle. Proust's father, Achille Adrien Proust, was a famous doctor 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. Her father was a banker. She was highly literate and well-read. Her letters demonstrate a well-developed sense of humour, and her command of English was sufficient for her to provide the necessary impetus to her son's later attempts to translate John Ruskin.

About the Author: Marcel Proust, born into a wealthy French family on July 10, 1871, started his writing career covering the exclusive Parisian drawing rooms. Proust was half-Jewish, which led him to support Alfred Dreyfus during the infamous anti-Semitic affair. Upon the death of his mother, Proust began a voluntary seclusion that led him to write the seven part work, In Search of Lost Time, or Remembrance of Things Past.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Cities of the plain (His Remembrance of ...
Publisher: Vintage Books
Publication Date: 1970
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Good