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1913
1913 · Marcel Proust · France
In Search of Lost Time
NovelModernistPhilosophical Essential Modernism
An unnamed narrator's meditation on memory, love, and art, triggered by the taste of a madeleine cookie, spans his entire life and French society. Proust explores how memory and sensation resurrect the past.
Literary Significance
In Search of Lost Time revolutionized fiction through its exploration of consciousness and memory, establishing psychological realism as the novel's primary mode. It remains a monument to subjective experience.
Historical Context
Written during the Belle Epoque and Belle Epoque's decline into WWI, Proust captures the aristocratic society and modern anxieties about time, mortality, and the preservation of beauty.