A personal take on Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, written by a woman born into the aristocratic world it describes.

Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is many things: a staggering literary achievement, an evocation of an elite milieu, a complex reckoning with memory. For Laure Murat, it was also a map of the world into which she was born—the world of the French Aristocracy. Descended from French nobility on both sides, Murat saw the châteaux and balls of In Search of Lost Time as the backdrop to her own family story, understood anew through Proust’s eyes.

In this beautiful book, Murat explores both the oppressive constraints of the aristocratic life and the fluidity and linguistic virtuosity of Proust’s astonishing seven-volume novel, which shifts focus from codes of behavior to the experience of living. In Proust, a Family Affair, Murat celebrates the emancipating power of literature and the rewards of paying close attention to a text that may, in turn, provoke a close and loving attendance to the self.

Originally published in French, Proust, a Family Affair has won the Prix Médicis and was shortlisted for France’s most coveted literary award, the Prix Goncourt. This readable, moving translation into English by Charlotte Mandell will appeal to lovers of Proust and to all readers who appreciate personal explorations of literary masterpieces.