"The most authoritative life of Proust ever written." (Alain de Botton, Sunday Telegraph)

"A masterpiece . . . the best biography I've ever read." (Edmund White, Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Marcel Proust was arguably the greatest writer of the twentieth century. This fascinating, definitive biography by the premier world authority on Proust redefines the way we look at both the artist and the man.

A bestseller in France, where it was originally published to great critical acclaim, Jean-Yves Tadié's life of Proust makes use of a wealth of primary material only recently made available. Marcel Proust: A Life provides a scrupulously researched and engaging picture of the intellectual and social universe that fed Proust's art, along with an indispensable critical reading of the work itself. The result is authoritative, magisterial, and a beautiful example of the art of biography.