Marcel Proust: A Life, with a New Preface by the Author (Henry McBride Series in Modernism and Modernity)

Marcel Proust (Henry McBride Series in Modernism and Mo) Amazon purchase; Kindle BookAlthough sometimes drowning in detail --social, intellectual, political, cultural-- this is a reliable and valuable and on the whole readable resource.Except for the crucial fact that you can't access the notes (and there are hundreds of them) as you read; and to match notes to text by reading all notes together is virtually undoable without taking (paper) notes. Click the note number, and you get only a definition; you don't go to the note. Frustrating, and for a serious reader or scholar, the book is almost unuseable --inferior to a book.This is correctable I would think without additional charges.I have other Kindle books where I can access the notes.

Some folks argue that Tadie's is the Proust bio to have, but I think Carter has the advantage of a more engaging style, as well as being as thorough factually as Tadie's. Tadie is sec, Carter is chaud.I admit that Andre Maurois. with the advantage of being French, wrote a better biography for earlier readers than either George Barker or George Painter, Painter's book being ostensibly more complete but in fact marred by his obsession with identifying every character in RECHERCHE with a real-life acquaintance or friend of Proust.Carter's short book PROUST IN LOVE is also a good read, though you do have the feeling he's making the most of his research.All the bios of Proust are worth investigating if you're a Proustian, but Carter's is the one to read if you're only going to read one.

Yale University Press deserves commendation for bringing out Carter's second edition of Marcel Proust, A Life. The second edition offers a new preface and a number of corrections to one of the three standard biographies of Proust and -- without in the least slighting Tadié or Painter's works -- likely the most readable and insightful of the three. This second edition takes advantage of Carter's research since his first edition's publication -- in particular his study Proust in Love and his editing of The Memoirs of Ernest Forssgren (Proust's valet), both brought out by YUP in 2006. It's part of YUP's tribute to Proust in this centenary year of the publication of Du coté de chez Swann (Swann's Way). The revised biography heralds the issuance this year of the first volume of the new and annotated Carter/Yale set of In Search of Lost Time, scheduled to appear over the next few years.

Great book. Thanks.

Others have writing about "content" of the biography (its comprehensive and detailed nature)I'll add only that Carter has given the reader a book that presents this wealth of information in a form that is a great pleasure just to *read* in and of itself.

This compelling biography is very detailed and it has plenty of photographs. Wonderful and telling pictures that are enhanced by Henry McBride's entertaining look at Proust, the writer, and Proust the man. All-in-all a great read about one of France's greatest writers.

A most excellent bio with material not covered previously. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Excellent so far, but I'm only less than half way through. The writer gives a lot of interesting insight into Prout's time and environment and their influence on his writing.

Detailed and fascinating - a masterful biography

A very thorough work and companion to the novels themselves

Great, comprehensive, clear walk-through of the life of Marcel Proust. To a large part based on letters from/to Proust, hence a good companion is Marcel Proust Lettres (in French, Plon, ‎978-2259312943) including many of the letters referred to in this biography.

Belle biographie détaillée de Proust par l'un des grands spécialistes américains de l'écrivain. Se lit facilement. Très agréable lecture, fouillée, solide et très fine.