College illiers combray marcel proust biography

Perhaps best known for his work “In search of Lost Time” ("À la recherche du temps perdu"), this French novelist, essayist and critic was arguably one of the most prominent artists of the 20th century France.

Born in the southern parts of Paris, in an area known as “Auteuil”, he grew up midst the violence of the suppression of the Paris Commune (as the result of the end of the Franco-Prussian war).

In fact much of In Search of Lost time touches on these vast changes he experienced at that time, in particular the fall of the aristocracy and the rise of the new French middle class towards the end of the 19th century.

Due to health problems (he had asthma), Proust ended up spending his childhood holidays away from Paris, and instead in the village of Illiers.

Combined with his time in Auteuil, Illiers very much inspired the fictional town of Combray, that feature in some of the most important scenes of In Search of Lost