In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower

Marcel Proust was born in Auteuil in 1871. In his twenties, following a year in the army, he became a conspicuous society figure, frequenting the most fashionable Paris salons of the day. After 1899, however, his chronic asthma, the death of his parents, and his growing disillusionment with humanity caused him to lead an increasingly retired life. From 1907 on, he rarely emerged from a cork-lined room in his apartment on boulevard Haussmann. There he insulated himself against the distractions of city life and the effects of trees and flowers -- though he loved them, they brought on his attacks of asthma. He slept by day and worked by night, writing letters and devoting himself to the completion of In Search of Lost Time. He died in 1922. James Grieve, sometime Reader in French at the Australian National University, has published a translation of the first part of Proust's work (Swann's Way, 1982) and two novels for young adults, A Season of Grannies (1987) and They're Only Human (2001)Proust, Marcel is the author of 'In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower', published 2004 under ISBN 9780670032778 and ISBN 0670032778.