Customer Reviews

The World of Proust, as seen by Paul Nadar

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This is must reading (or gazing) for any serious student of Proust's IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME. Photographer Paul Nadar was a photographer for whom at one time or another virtually every member of Proust's social set and family sat for at one point or another. The value of this volume for someone reading Proust is twofold: allowing one to see high quality photographic reproductions of many of the actual models for Proust's characters, and providing a vivid picture of the way these people dressed, how they wore their hair, some of their cultural preoccupations, and what their favored accessories were.

I am not a fan of any method of reading Proust that degenerates into a study of Proust's life, that is more concerned with figuring out who the "real" Odette or Albertine or Saint-Loup was. The "real" Odette was a fictional creation by a literary genius of the first rank, and she cannot be found in any of these photographs. Not even in gazing at a photography of Robert de Montesquiou do we see Baron de Charlus, despite our knowledge that he was Proust's most important model for Charlus. But looking at these photographs breaks down the distance between Proust's world and our own. Odette may be based on several real life models, but it is helpful to know what the women that Proust knew looked like in forming our own mental picture of Odette or Gilberte or Oriane or Saint-Loup. I also find it much easier to imagine visually Proust's world after seeing precisely how those members of his social set dressed.

The book also has a great deal to teach about portrait photography in late 19th and early 20th century Paris, at least in an upper class studio. The range of photographs is fascinating, not merely in the posed photos with the subjects dressed in their finest clothes, but in the ones where various individuals appeared "in costume." This includes not merely a series of marvelous photographs of Sarah Bernhardt dressed as various characters, but men and especially women appearing in amateur theatricals. One section features a many of the more celebrated individuals of the time whom Proust either met or loosely based some of his characters on, such as Bernhardt (La Berma), Anatole France (Bergotte), Faure (Vinteuil, though only musically), and Claude Monet (one of several models for Elstir).

Physically, the book resembles a well-produced art book, with a cloth binding, high quality paper, and the highest quality reproductions. It is easily the most attractive book on Proust I have in my rather large collection of Proust titles. Not just a great book on Proust, but a beautiful one as well.

This is a must for any fan of Proust--you get to see not only what the originals for his most memorable characters (the Ducehsse de Guermantes, Swann, Charlus, Mme. verdurin) looked like, but also the interior of one of the great fin-de-siecle chateaus where one couple (the Prince and Princess Radziwell) lived. The Nadar photographs are sharp, startling and magnificent. I've wanted a book like this for years.

Indside, some of the most exultant photographic portraits to be found from the late Victorian period. Contained here, brief bios of family, friends, and acquaintances, who became the inspiration for the work of Proust. The book is bound and printed beautifully. The details of the clothing and accessories are well worth the price of this book.