Marcel Proust, Les Plaisirs et les jours [Pleasures and Days]

Yasmine Richardson (Independent Scholar - Europe)
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Widely considered the greatest French novelist of the twentieth century, Marcel Proust’s first book, published at the age of twenty-five, was not a novel but a collection of short stories, poems and sketches. Most of the pieces in

Les Plaisirs et les jours

[

Pleasures and Days

] had already appeared in journals: Proust’s purpose, in bringing them together, was to make a name for himself on the literary scene, and perhaps also to assuage his parents’ request that he should, well, get a real job. Published by Calmann-Lévy at Proust’s own expense, and following three frustrating years of preparation, the book was expensive and sales were insubstantial. Disappointed, though not discouraged from writing, Proust would spend the next seventeen years perfecting the literary skill already…

3892 words

Citation: Richardson, Yasmine. "Les Plaisirs et les jours". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 January 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35862, accessed 02 December 2024.]

35862 Les Plaisirs et les jours 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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