The Evolution of Proust’s «Combray»

This book primarily investigates whether the most important work in the development of Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu was Contre Sainte-Beuve, often assigned this role, or the first, unfinished and, in Proust’s lifetime, unpublished novel, Jean Santeuil. Given the length of the final work, this book focuses on the beginning of the first volume, Du Côté de chez Swann, known as «Combray». Proust was writing his work on the French literary critic Sainte-Beuve, when it appeared to evo