The Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris museum takes us on a journey through the Paris of Marcel Proust’s major work: A la recherche du temps perdu (In search of lost time). The exhibition focuses on Marcel Proust’s relationship with Paris, where he spent most of his life and, for the first time, examines the place of the city in Proust’s novel.
The first part of the exhibition explores the Parisian world of Marcel Proust. The writer was born and died in Paris, and his life revolved around a very small area - a rectangle formed by Parc Monceau, place de la Concorde, Auteuil, Bois de Boulogne and l’Étoile. Paris was of immense importance in the emergence of Marcel Proust’s literary vocation, from his earliest writings in the late 1890s with his fellow pupils at Lycée Condorcet, to his entry into Parisian high society and meetings with people who would have a decisive influence on his life.
The second part of the exhibition provides a glimpse into the fictional Paris created by Marcel Proust. Following the architecture of A la recherche du temps perdu and through iconic city landmarks, it provides a journey through the novel and the history of the city, focusing on the work’s central characters. The city of Paris, poetically fictionalized, is the setting for the quest of the narrator, the author’s alter ego, until the final revelation of his calling as a writer.
RATP is a partner of this exhibition.
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