This book offers a comprehensive analysis of young Proust's evolving conception of the world, from his early friendships and educational experiences in the 1880s to the turn of the twentieth century. It looks in detail at his early fictional and critical writings, his associations with various literary periodicals, and the social milieus in which he moved. Its primary purpose is to understand Proust as a worldly figure with concrete attitudes and ideas about such issues as social class, the relationship between art and society, the responsibilities of the writer, and the debate between materialism and idealism as seen in the context of mid- to late-nineteenth-century thought.

Autorentext

The Author: Frank Rosengarten is Professor Emeritus at the City University of New York. He received his Ph.D. in Italian from Columbia University and his Ph.D. in French from the Graduate School of the City University of New York. In addition to more than sixty articles, essays, and book reviews, Rosengarten is author of Vasco Pratolini: The Development of a Social Novelist; The Italian Anti-Fascist Press (1919-1945); and Silvio Trentin: Dall interventismo alla Resistenza. He is the editor of Antonio Gramsci Letters from Prison, 2 vols., and a co-editor of New Studies in the Politics and Culture of U.S. Communism.