Cher ami … Votre Marcel Proust – Marcel Proust im Spiegel seiner Korrespondenz / Marcel Proust et sa correspondance

Key to the World - Letters and Autographs from the Bibliotheca Proustiana Reiner Speck

The evocation of a world of memory through the savouring of a pastry dipped in a cup of tea - the famous Madeleine episode in Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" - is a key experience that no one can escape after reading this great novel. Marcel Proust was an extremely avid letter writer; after his retreat from society into his cork-panelled room, correspondence seems to be the only link between the outer and inner worlds. It is also the ferment for the genesis of his opus magnum, which extends over more than a decade and a half. Many of the themes dealt with there, both broadly and sensitively, can be found as germs in "Recherche", in some cases quoted verbatim. An international team of authors has illuminated the various contexts of the correspondence in essays: One learns new things about the addressees and their involvement in the history of publication and reception, about literary life in Paris, about Proust as a draughtsman, about his relationship with his mother, his epistolary style ... The volume offers a chronicle of his life, a contextual commentary of more than 80 illustrated original letters and a bibliographical record of the correspondence editions with numerous illustrations of the material, all of which comes from the Bibliotheca Proustiana Reiner Speck. This gives the reader the opportunity to penetrate the mystery of Proust's Écriture, which moves between the poles of lucid thought and the illegibility lamented by some recipients. Addresses, omissions, allusions and redactions provide or reveal puzzles about Marcel Proust's private life, which is shrouded in mystery.

Exhibitions:
Literturhaus Munich, 26/3 - 7/6/2009
Museum of Applied Arts Cologne, 28/6 - 6/9/2009