Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust (1871–1922) was born in Paris, the son of a professor of medicine, and after a youth spent in society and in the writing of essays and pastiches withdrew, in failing health, to write In Search of Lost Time. Its first volume, Swann’s Way, was published at his own expense in 1913; the second won the Prix Goncourt in 1919; the last three volumes appeared after his death.