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Is there one key to them all?</div><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl SplScreenContentHearByle-kvEhqE ejWxsm"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH ivtvgj byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/adam-gopnik">Adam Gopnik</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2021-05-03T06:00:00-04:00" class="SplScreenContentHearPublishDate-bMGEVk gvRvVr">May 3, 2021</time><div class="SocialInsWrapper-hKMEXV ffgPVr social-ins social-ins--standard SplScreenContentHearSocialShare-gSVclr kUKgnn"><ul data-ttid="socialInslist" class="SocialInsList-cHVTIA 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1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Prot" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK eRggVV grid grid-margs grid-ems-0 SplScreenContentHearGrid-kFpOdh fLkIyA"><div class="GridItem-buujkM kHPPIF grid--em"><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn SplScreenContentHearCaptn-iOfEOv ckLUKG"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">Prot’s peers had long regard him as a society boy wh a lerary hobby.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Illtratn by Hugo Guns</span></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" 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data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><figure data-ttid="IameEmbed" class="IameEmbedWrapper-sc-dRedg cjyRVU iame-embed"><div data-ttid="IameEmbedContaer" class="IameEmbedContaer-hptgUZ fXVBaX"><div class="IameEmbedAspectRatWrapper-hFVJps BKpgQ"><iame class="IameEmbedContent-cMdiev csnuAY IameEmbedContent lazyload" height="90" width="100%" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-orig allow-popups" tle="Embedd Frame" data-src=" allowfullscreen="" allow="toplay *; encrypted-media *; clipboard-wre; toplay; fullscreen; picture--picture"></iame></div></div></figure><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">When one fds the bottom of a barrel beg energetilly scraped, is proof, at least, that whatever was once floatg on the top mt have been very lic ed. And so, havg reached the very bottom of the barrel marked “Marcel Prot,” the scrapg ntu, even unto the spltered wood. The ual n of a famo thor’s remas is more or ls set: first the (disillng) bgraphy, then the (surprisgly mundane, money-mad) letters, and fally the (pafully naked) diari, which erotic obssns that seem cur and h lerary prose look mechanilly obssive daily rerd, as wh Kenh Tynan and John Cheever. What after is mostly amic mentary.</p><p class="paywall">But wh the bgraphy, the letters, and the journals long the rearview mirror, the popular sendary works on <a href=">Prot</a> ntue to appear manic numbers. <em>Anythg</em> Protian, seems, gets published now. Not long ago, we were given a book ma up solely of his sperately pole, quelo letters to his upstairs neighbors one of his last apartment buildgs, on the Boulevard Hssmann, plag about the noise—and soundg exactly like a classic S. J. Perelman sual. In the past fifteen years or so, certaly sce the dawn of the new century, the huge succs of Ala Botton’s “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">How Prot Can Change Your Life</a>” has been followed by a ndid <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">book</a> on Prot’s sex life (by his Amerin bgrapher, William C. Carter); the <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">memoirs</a> of his Swedish valet (also eded by Carter); a <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">study</a>, by the Aun bgrapher Richard Davenport-H, of Prot’s fal days, at the Rz and the Majtic; Benjam Taylor’s <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">study</a> of Prot’s life as a distctly Jewish one; the first fully annotated versns of “Swann’s Way” (both <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">by Carter</a> and <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">by Lydia Davis</a>); Clive Jam’s long verse mentary “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Gate of Lilacs</a>”; and a <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">graphic-novel</a> versn of “Swann’s Way,” not to mentn an album by the talented Rsian-French sisters lled the Milste Duo, “The Vtil Sonata,” voted to the real-life ndidat for the mil phrase that entangled Swann’s heart and doomed his life. That’s doubtls not even half the harvt. The books are often illtrated wh the tensy of relig tracts. In one, we are given a tailed diagram of the apartment wh the rk-led room where Prot spent his reclive late years. (The room’s origal terr n be found at the Mée Carnavalet, the mm of the history of Paris.) “Lost” works appear. Jt last month, Gallimard, Paris, published “L Soixante-quze Fillets,” an early, more directly tobgraphil overture, long thought to have vanished, of them that he would later velop pth. And now, English, arriv a fearsomely slenr book, “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Myster Corrponnt</a>,” ne stori, mostly agmentary, mostly unpublished, that have only recently been redisvered, appearg as somethg between juvenilia and a sketchbook.</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">All this work attts to the reputatn of the most often attempted, most rarely summed, of all mountao morn books, Prot’s multivolume “À la Recherche du Temps Perdu,” which, first Englished as “Remembrance of Thgs Past,” is now routely more severely Frenchified as “In Search of Lost Time.” (That there are passnate bat about the varyg mers of his translators and of the tl is part of the general Protian effect.) Why some wrers get this kd of attentn—rooted enpassg appete rather than mere admiratn—and some do not is hard to know and tertg to ntemplate. Chekhov, born a earlier, is a wrer of siar stature, and his plays are genuely popular. But only specialists bate his translators, and there are no books lvg to the origals of his characters, or providg recip for Chekhovian bli, or explag how Chekhov n change your life, or prentg photographs of his timat. Prot, by ntrast, is a sort of improbable Belle Époque Tolkien, the maker of a world wh passports and maps and secret s, to which many seek entry.</p><p class="paywall">A wrer’s abily to duce this kd of fanaticism—ls cult stat than thedral stat, where we expect long l, and hope to be improved by our vis—is still myster. Prot, even after he published the first volume of his great work, 1913, would not have seemed a natural for such a role. He is, after all, the wrer who put the long “longur”—whose subject is not war and peace, or the makg and breakg of a dynasty, or, as wh Joyce, the history of lerature implanted an urban day. His terra is, rather, the strangled lov and pas of a small, fashnable circle, wh much of the novel spent wh the narrator gog back and forth to beach rorts and feelg thgs, and many more pag, particularly the middle books, where he simply tak tras, feels jealo, then feels ls jealo, then more.</p><p class="paywall">The peripheral Prot may persist as part of our search for a skeleton key to all the others—a way si. There are at least six Marcel Prots to study, and, though we’d like to say that each feeds the others, the tth is that they exist separate, sometim bafflg strata. There’s the Perd Prot, the Touloe-Ltrec-like pater of the high life of the Belle Époque, who offers an unmatched picture both of ridg the Bois and of visg the brothels near the Opéra; and the Philosophil Prot, whose thoughts on the nature of time supposedly rived om the ias of Henri Bergson and are argued to have paralleled those of Este. There’s the Psychologil Prot, whose analysis of human motiv—above all, of love and jealoy—is the real livg re of his book; and the “Perverse” Prot (as the ement scholar Antoe Compagnon refers to him), who was among the first French thors to wre que openly about homosexualy. Then there is the Polil Prot, the Jewish wrer who diagrammed the flt le that the Dreyf Affair first cracked French society, and that the war pulled apart. Fally, there’s the Poetic Prot, the <em>pathétique</em> Prot who wr the sentenc and fds the phras, and whose twilight tensy and vlet-tted charm make his Big Book one of the few that rears urge on iends rather than merely force on stunts.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="i3vah"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="h6h0rr"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">For all the speculative profundy that n be disvered the vast annotative lerature surroundg Prot, rangg om <a href=">Samuel Beckett</a>’s bleak, sctable summary to Roland Barth’s stctural appreciatn, Prot is least tertg for his philosophil pth. The profound bs Prot are the most monplace, while the monplace bs—the scriptns, the evotn of place, the characterizatns, the jok, the observatns, and, most of all, the love stori—are the most profound. His is the most ant tract of atheticism ever attempted, and unrstandg why has been the most succsful at makg nverts is the key to all the other nted Prots.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">The son of a half-Jewish Parisian grand-bourgeois fay, Prot was known, before the 1913 publitn of “Swann’s Way,” as a malic, amg, slightly absurd society boy, wh a vaguely pathetic lerary hobby. He had wrten some standard-issue athetic says and stori, which no one read, and had translated Rk’s study of the Amiens thedral. (He was an veterate Anglophile: his favore novelist was Gee Elt, and his favore novel “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Mill on the Floss</a>.”) A charmg society hanger-on, he was admired by his close iends for his lerary ditn and the extraordary flow of his letters—which are effortlsly parenthetil, slidg to digrsn and back to the ma pot wh the skill of a rally driver dippg and out of traffic at a hundred an hour. None of them, however, thought him much more than a dilettante.</p><p class="paywall">The newly published stori llected “The Myster Corrponnt” feel wispy and nsequential, but are fascatg as clu to Prot’s limatns, which, before 1913, seemed far more formidable than his talents. The stori were wrten the eighteen-neti, when he was his twenti, and then locked away a drawer while he worked on his unpublished novel, “Jean Santil,” and then on his masterwork. The tle story, at least, was hidn for an obv reason: ’s a tale of lbian love. A timid, wealthy woman disvers that the thrillg love note she has received—which sets off a fantasy of makg love to a soldier, plete wh sword and spurs—was actually wrten by her clost woman iend. Prot often ed lbian love as a way to wrg about homoerotic sire, partly bee the female kd was, if not socially acceptable, at least a standard source of athetic isson, and partly bee gave him an acceptable distance om which to wre about his own same-sex sir.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">It’s strikg how out of foc the stori seem: they have a trancelike rhythm that mak events uneventful, and an absence of narrative ph. Readg the lost tal, one rells that, although none of Prot’s ntemporari doubted his telligence, they did doubt his abily to turn his lerary bent to somethg solid. In the stori, one se what worried them: there’s every sign of a natural wrer, but no sign at all of an <em>thor</em>.</p><p class="paywall">When the first volume of “In Search of Lost Time” appeared, a year before the Great War, the shock of s excellence was ptured a lic exchange wh André Gi, the mag of the Parisian lerary scene. Apologizg for havg passed on “Swann’s Way” for his <em>Nouvelle Revue Française,</em> Gi offered an explanatn almost more sultg than the origal rejectn: “For me you were still the man who equented the ho of Mm X. and Z., the man who wrote for the <em>Figaro</em>. I thought of you, shall I nfs , as ‘<em>du côté chez Verdur</em>’; a snob, a man of the world, and a dilettante—the worst possible thg for our review.” Prot, who had money, had offered to help subsidize the publitn, which, Gi fumbl to expla, only ma seem a dub effort at buyg a reputatn. (That year, Gi nfid his journal his doubts that any Jewish wrer uld tly master the “virtu” of the French tradn.)</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">Prot rpond wh the most betiful fuck-you letter lerary history, suavely pretendg that Gi’s belatedly flatterg letter ma up for all the prev sults: “Had there been no rejectn, no repeated rejectns by the N.R.F., I should never have had your letter. . . . The joy of receivg your letter fely surpass any I should have had at beg published by the N.R.F. . . . How I should like to be able to give someone I loved as much pleasure as you have given me.” Gi, no fool, ma a firm offer to publish the rt of the novel, which the <em>Nouvelle Revue</em> did, right through to s pletn.</p><p class="paywall">The exchange unrl several aspects of Prot as a phenomenon. First, Prot land on his ntemporari wh somethg of the same revelatory shock that he livers to . Perhaps only the abpt celebry of <a href=">Karl Ove Knsgaard</a> has had the same effect our time. What ma the metamorphosis? The unimagably large space between the Prot of “The Myster Corrponnt” and the Prot of “Swann’s Way” li his learng to tst the meanrg nature of his own telligence. He found a voice by hearg his own. The one thg that Prot’s mature lerary manner is <em>not</em> is mannered. It was as natural and unimped as Mark Twa’s. His md moved exactly as his sentenc do, and his gift was to be able to trace s movements whout beg halted by other people’s lerary l.</p><p class="paywall">But the exchange wh Gi also remds of a ls high-md tth: that Prot was part of the be mon of the Fbourg Sat-Germa, and that his enthiasm for the high life—ll snobbery, as Gi did—was unmistakable. Part of the appeal of the novel is the era’s glamour. Swann go to rever om his jealoi at the still extant swank rtrant Lapéroe; when the narrator realiz that “ho, roads, avenu are as fugive, alas, as the years,” is the high season the Bois Boulogne, the most exactgly landsped park Paris. Prot had nventnal Parisian hte-bourgeois tast of the time, om dner the Rz garn to sexual olics the Right Bank brothels. He wanted the Prix Gonurt (got ), the Légn d’Honnr (got ), and membership the Adémie Française (uldn’t get ). Along wh everythg else he did that was more amilly rpectable, he offered a picture of a particularly betiful place and perd the world’s history.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Prot ont-loads his novel wh his philosophy of time. One of the oddi is that s most famo cint happens wh the first dozen pag, and is, nohels, isolated om the rt: the narrator (Protians hghtily rist intifyg him wh Prot himself, or referrg to him as Marcel, though he obvly is) eats the cmbs of a malee dipped lime-blossom tea and is sudnly thst back to his childhood at Combray. (The town was based on Illiers, an hour outsi Paris, though later volum Prot quietly moved Combray much farther north and east, so that uld participate the battl of the Great War.) His premise is that everythg remas si ourselv, cludg the past, not jt schematic outle but s full sensory elaboratn. The ltle smells and sounds are there along wh the big trmas and events. But, as rears may not rell, the memory event isn’t the unbidn associatn of a sensory clue wh a sudnly materializg memory. On the ntrary, the event is the rult of an effortful procs often met wh failure:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>Will ultimately reach the clear surface of my nscns, this memory, this old, ad moment which the magism of an intil moment has travelled so far to importune, to disturb, to raise up out of the very pths of my beg? I nnot tell. Now I feel nothg; has stopped, has perhaps sunk back to s darkns, om which who n say whether will ever rise aga? Ten tim over I mt say the task, mt lean down over the abyss. And each time the wardice that ters om every difficult task, every important enterprise, has urged me to leave the thg alone, to drk my tea and to thk merely of the worri of today and my hop for tomorrow, which n be brood over palsly.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">Prot’s celebrated acunt of time’s relativy, dancg above or outsi experience, though persuasively tailed, is not terribly origal. It’s ltle different om the one that Shakpeare had long before put Rosald’s mouth: “Time travels divers pac wh divers persons.” Its apparent likens to Este’s theory of special relativy has been much promoted, recently by the French physicist Thiblt Damour, his book “Once Upon Este.” Prot do seem to have bee polely aware of Este, though rather as a ntemporary wrer might be of strg theory—as a popular metaphor or two drawn om var newspaper wrps. But the siari are strictly limed. Este’s sight was not that “everythg is relative” but the oppose: his paradox of time are really paradox of timekeepg, and are the nsequence of his troductn of an absolute, fixed standard—the speed of light. A revival of Sol Invict worship was as reasonable an aftershock of Este’s theori as iatnal relativism. In any se, a great novel uld be wrten that timat and parallels Este, and a bad one uld be wrten that timat and parallels Este. Prot’s book mak s own light.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">The Philosophil Prot’s view of time is tied to his larger view of the primacy of md— which what we image matters more than what we see—and is this view that shas over, more profably, to the Psychologil Prot. We thk that we are livg the world, he sists, when we are livg only our mds. Aga, the first volume sets the template, oft repeated later. Charl Swann—the Jewish man-about-town, wele every livg room high, low, and middle—thks that he is sperately love wh the urtan Otte Crécy; his eventual marriage to Otte giv him the betiful child Gilberte, the first volume’s heroe, but dimish his life. The narrator’s ol analysis of motive (rmed by Swann’s retrospective regrets) reveals that Swann has merely projected his obssns onto Otte. He is love wh the face of one of the Botticelli women on the walls of the Siste Chapel; he is love wh the agment of mic om the Vtil Sonata (probably a melody of Sat-Saëns’s) that he associat wh her. He is triangulated by his own tensi.</p><p class="paywall">Above all, he is love wh his own love, wh thgs ma his own md, and when ardor ols he is dazed to disver that the great passn of his life had been for a woman he didn’t like at all, a woman “who was not my type.” This, much more than the malee memory, is the real Protian turn. Jealoy, the key emotn Prot, is self-generated; we go huntg for mors or imag of our beloved entangled wh another, to reh the pa that has bee synonymo wh love. Our emotns move right through a sequence of feelgs, om the lightt to the darkt and back aga, givg the illn of walkg the park when we are merely once aga tourg the attic.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="Two people workg at home wh an onle vio." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“Surely ’s bufferg—no one n be expected to hold a plank for this long.”</span></div><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn RponsiveCartoonCred-bKlQqO faLAFb rponsive-rtoon__cred"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT bmQtfn ptn__cred">Cartoon by Brooke Bourgeois</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" 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3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">The narrator’s objects of sire and jealoy, like Swann’s, are all women, and has long been accepted that they are almost all molled on men. What Prot memorialized as livg “ the shadow of young girls flower” was more like luxuriatg the shadow of young boys on the make. As Carter’s “Prot Love” tails, the novelist, like most wealthy gay men of his time, found lovers extensively among workg-class youths: waers at the Rz and chffrs at rorts. Not exclively so—Gilberte, the narrator’s first great love as a boy, was molled on several girls he knew—but Carter shows that Alberte, who domat the middle volum, is certaly a transmuted, if posed, versn of Prot’s beloved chffr, Aled Agostelli.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Prot suffered om a set of gay fact checkers, the person of other French wrers—Jean Cocte and Gi among them—who sffed regularly at the transparency of his disguis, potg out that the narrator’s blhe claim to have ma love to fourteen or so girls on the beach was absurd, given the reali of young women’s liv the perd, though was entirely plsible wh workg-class boys. (And his timat <em>were</em> often boys—sixteen and seventeen. We are vastly more tolerant of sexual difference today, but we police age differenc far more aggrsively.)</p><p class="paywall">Yet there is nothg humanly unnvcg about Alberte as an vented woman, or about the rg of girls on the beach as girls. That’s partly bee Prot, utterly specific about the trici of the psyche, is cleverly unspecific about physil typ: there are hardly any curvaceo bosoms or round bottoms, as Zola, jt an undifferentiated paradise of pure sensatn. On the beach, valy and exuberance are Prot’s hallmarks of attractn: “fe bodi, fe legs, fe hips, wholome, serene fac,” as he talogu them. “Bloomg cheeks” occur over and over Prot as a sirable attribute, wh a Nabokovian pun French as English.</p><p class="paywall">The anthropology of “sexual versn” domat the later volum, particularly “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Sodom and Gomorrah</a>,” wh s overheard hip flirt of attractn the urtyard between the former tailor Jupien and the baron Charl. Prot’s view of gayns would, by ntemporary standards, be nsired homophobic: he treats gay men, whom he lls “men-women,” as sufferg om a formg syndrome. Yet, whatever fensive tap dancg past the police is at work here (and Prot was arrted at least once a male brothel), the portra of male homosexualy is meant to be tritely humane. The ia of the man-woman is not a rogatn of homosexualy but an explanatn of s normalcy: people, beg people, nta oppos wh themselv. Agast the old Platonic ia that humans are longg for their missg half, the “Perverse” Prot’s pot is that they posss already. Homosexualy is neher a licly archaic transgrsn, as was for Wil’s circle London, nor a damnable perversn. It jt is. We are all double ourselv, he sisted—a formulatn that he took om Montaigne, who he knew was part Jewish and who he may have thought was homosexual.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="mfa6skl"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">There is, however, a tear wh the Matrix. As the strangled new stori “The Myster Corrponnt” remd , Prot is often strange on the subject of lbianism. In the belmed Alberte volum—which Prot, as Compagnon remds , enlarged late the game—Prot’s anxiety about Alberte’s possible lbian lov is, as Carter suggts, an extensn of Prot’s anxiety about Agostelli’s affairs wh women. The disda that Prot shows for lbian lovers seems the one unrolved spot his transposns of sir. His lbians are actually straight women who might sce his own male lover, reprented as a girl. Prot himself has a hard time keepg all the reflectns foc this hoe of mirrors.</p><p class="paywall">Even Prot’s dabblg sexual paraphilia is touched by his peculiarly expansive kd of holistic humanism. He is reported, wh what tth is hard to say, to have had a taste for sadistic sexual ruals— one particularly grotque acunt, brgg himself to climax by watchg rats forced to fight wh one another his prence. Yet the pag of his book the dramatized relatnship between celty and tenrns is so nstant that is no surprise that one might bee a mirror image of the other. In Prot, fetishized sir are not seen as tsns to an otherwise healthy persona but as naturally paired wh one. It is entirely Protian to image that the more kdns the more kk, the more appete for licy the more sire for huiatn or fetishized savagery. In the last volume of the novel, Prot has his hyper-refed Baron Charl, after payg to be beaten a brothel, prott that his punisher was not of sufficiently humble origs—not an thentic bte but only a pretend one. The joke isn’t that Charl is ridiculo wantg to be beaten by a real villa; the absurdy li only how quixotic he be the pursu of that sire.</p><p class="paywall">For Prot, there was no hypocrisy the exquise athete who wants to be roughed up or even that of the fay man who achiev climax by cursg his fay (a specific se known to him). Ined, if one wanted a scientific ördate for Prot’s visn, one might fd not Este but Jam Clerk Maxwell’s theori of electromagism, wh one sensual field perpetually flippg to s oppose by a fixed law of oscillatn. The tth of the battery is, for Prot, the tth of humankd; mt have two pol or n rry no charge.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Today, the most prent of Prots is, evably, a Polil Prot. Prot, beg both gay and Jewish, participated the two dissint cultur that are at the heart of so much mornist art. Benjam Taylor’s book, the Yale “Jewish Liv” seri, do the bt job of narratg Prot’s self-disvery as a Jew, as double-sid as his other unrstandgs, and particularly his surprisgly aggrsive role supportg the wrongly prosecuted Capta Aled Dreyf. Prot, who, though the son of a Jewish woman, was raised the Catholic Church, was astonishgly urageo durg the <a href=">Dreyf Affair</a>. He had no personal centive to take such an outspoken stand, and he uld w no pots wh the leftist opposn, sce he was regard as a illy margal figure by the people he admired. (His signature on one Dreyf petn, proudly offered, wasn’t at first even reprted the papers.)</p><p class="paywall">Taylor sists that this was a genue act of pure prciple. Prot regnized the jtice and found tolerable. There were assiated Jews—Theodor Herzl, most famoly—who beme “sgle inty” Jews durg the Dreyf Affair. Prot was not one of them. But the word “tellectual,” our current sense, was vented then, for the Dreyfards, and that was what he beme. He began to thk of himself as a republin tellectual, a cizen wh a pen and a nscience, as much as the athete he had been.</p><p class="paywall">Though the Great War cshed Prot’s Paris, the Dreyf Affair is the central exterr act of “In Search of Lost Time.” Jt as Swann realiz that the Otte for whom he sacrificed his life is an imagary creature, so the narrator realiz that the aristocrats of the Fbourg Sat-Germa are his own imagative projectn. The magic that had clung even to the name Guermant prov to be as illory as Otte’s Botticelli ra. The De Guermant’s anti-Semic rant agast the Dreyfards is not jt vile but vulgar, the kd of thg you would expect to read a cheap tabloid. Prot had always expected his aristocrats to thk stupidly; he jt didn’t expect so many to behave so shabbily. The rult was a revelatn like Swann’s: turns out that they had never really been his type.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-3 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Yet all other Prots turn back, fally, to the Poetic Prot. We hear him clearly on the Milste album; the Sat-Saëns melody, we regnize at once the world Prot has njured, s vlet pangs and wav of emotn. As he wrote a letter, “The sential purpose of mic is to awaken the myster pths of our soul (which lerature, patg, and sculpture nnot exprs).” The most mil pag of wrg that exist any language are those the sectn of “Swann’s Way” lled “Place-Nam: The Name,” voted to the romance of the adolcent Marcel and Gilberte, the dghter of Swann and Otte. Comg after the romance of the adults, repulat all of s them, though a tenrly ic register:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>Doubtls the var reasons which ma me so impatient to see her would have appeared ls urgent to a grown man. As life go on, we acquire such adrons the cultivatn of our pleasur, that we ntent ourselv wh the pleasure we rive om thkg of a woman, as I thought of Gilberte, whout troublg ourselv to ascerta whether the image rrponds to the realy. . . . But at the perd when I was love wh Gilberte, I still believed that Love did really exist outsi ourselv.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">The book dispels this illn of love, only after havg first realized perfectly here. The adolcent romance is, to be sure, very French—the two are young enough to play children’s gam the Champs-Élysé each afternoon, yet old enough to engage a memorable moment of ottage. But what one rells om “Place-Nam: The Name” is the Mozartian sound through which the miature love affair of the two children perfectly transpos—as when mic we have first heard on flute and piano to hly revoiced, on an origal-stment rerdg, by rerr and harpsichord—the adult affair of Otte and Swann. It is a tonal triumph.</p><p class="paywall">Prot has been lled a novelist of manners, meang a stunt of mor, of social ruals, but he is also a novelist of manners another sense, a wrer to whom urty is of exceptnally, almost supremely, high value. He admired the French aristocrats’ gift for makg awkward moments easier—he even serts to the book abstract tails of good manners, like the Prcs Parme’s admirg the narrator’s “Amerin” bbers, meant for bad weather, which her footmen disda. (“Wh those on, you will have nothg to fear even if starts snowg aga and you have a long way to go,” the Prcs says. “You’re pennt of the weather.”)</p><p class="paywall">This pattern of French manners, so different om the Brish upper-class hab of creatg maximum awkwardns to display stat, is not smeticized. The Duchs Guermant will soon blow past Swann’s nfsn that he is dyg wh her dismissive reply: “You mt be jokg. . . . Come and have lunch.” But manners matter, still. The most tellg of the peripheral Prots newly on hand might be found that strange volume of letters to his upstairs neighbors (translated by Davis), where he filters his ornery nrasthenia through the sieve of good manners, nstantly sendg gifts and praise along wh his plats. “Madame: I had orred the flowers for you and I am spair that they are g on a day when agast all expectatn I feel so ill that I would like to ask you for silence tomorrow Saturday,” he wr. “Yet as this requt is no way njoed wh the flowers, g them to lose all their agrance as disterted mark of rpect and to bristle wh nasty thorns, I would like even more not to ask you for this silence.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="tn515l"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="qtbonn"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">One fds Prot here pure, and necsarily ic, form. Courty is edy: s elaborate phemisms work like the slammg doors a Fey farce, alicizg the elaborate work of ways which we <em>jt</em> avoid hurtg one another’s feelgs. For Prot, manners make humankd tolerable, as the one way to pe our own evable egotisms. We fall love wh ourselv, and the only way out is not through others—the standard ethil sistence—but through art, which nnects wh others a kd of psychic work of solipsisms. Part of Prot’s humanism li his abily to lote the world exclively between our ears, whout supposg that s rince there is necsarily to be regretted.</p><p class="paywall">Prot’s still peerls origal translator, C. K. Stt Moncrieff, has been mocked, by Nabokov, among others, for makg Prot’s tl falsely Shakpearean: “Remembrance of Thgs Past” stead of the direct “In Search of Lost Time.” And yet this was a felico accint of taste, sce there is somethg genuely Shakpearean Prot’s abily to extend his sympathy to every rner of his ventn, even to people he fds ridiculo (like the Verdurs) or rpted (like Charl). They, too, have their story. Perhaps is the wholens of his humanism that explas why—spe the novel’s often bleak and disillned import—the happit hours of many rears’ liv, cludg this one, have been spent readg him. “What a lot of pa there was all the way through,” an Iris Murdoch character m about Prot. “So how was that the whole thg uld vibrate wh such a pure joy?” John Updike, too, g to Prot at a time of his own Christian doubts, found him the necsary remedy, the only credible morn relig novelist. There is happs to be found his fatalism.</p><p class="paywall">If Prot, for Updike the God-hnted neteen-fifti, was the last Christian poet, we may see him now more secular terms, as a wrer who, perversely, sought sereny not tachment and self-removal but attachment and reattachment—a monk wh a metropolan monastery. “Be here now” is the mystic’s sistence. “<em>Don’t</em> be here now” is Prot’s material motto: be there then, aga. Enjoy, emote, repeat, remember: there are worse signs for livg. ♦</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="wyw6"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__le-barrier article__body"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"><asi class="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper-iBnuqk lfXXa-D" data-ttid="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper"><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--paywall-le-barrier" role="prentatn" aria-live="pole" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--paywall-le-barrier"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></asi></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ContentWrapperGrid-fvkmBv brYtrA grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__ntaer"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><div class="ContentFooterWrapper-jVNdRG dTJkpP ArticlePageContentFooterGrid-ccsXYy eMZRHU article-body__footer"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><footer class="ContentFooterMagazeDisclaimer-gzKAqo iZIuUU" data-ttid="MagazeDisclaimerWrapper">Published the prt edn of the <a href="/magaze/2021/05/10" data-reactroot="">May 10, 2021</a>, issue, wh the headle “Peripheral Prot.”</footer></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="ContributorsWrapper-eNpWFu GWFsc ntributors" data-ttid="Contributors"><div class="ContributorBWrapper-bnVHbt gMon"><div class="ContributorBAvatar-bIGTqf eMWbvj"><a href="/ntributors/adam-gopnik"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span></a></div><div class="ContributorBContent-ubQdr jZTSSi"><div class="ContributorBHear-ledood XOIEx"></div><div class="ContributorBB-fBolsO giFhKz"><a href="/ntributors/adam-gopnik">Adam Gopnik</a>, a staff wrer, has been ntributg to The New Yorker sce 1986. He is the thor of, most recently, “<a href=">The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery</a>.”</div><div class="ContributorBFooter-brqDlv ezUmSv"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="TagCloudWrapper" class="TagCloudWrapper-gGgndx ctyZyK ContentFooterTagCloud-krQmRG ZLGh"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudSectnHear-cOforY iUEiRd bPyAoD kQQRmu">More:</span><a href="/tag/marcel-prot" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Marcel Prot</span></a><a href="/tag/novelists" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Novelists</span></a><a href="/tag/remembrance-of-thgs-past" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Remembrance of Thgs Past</span></a><a href="/tag/books" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Books</span></a><a href="/tag/novels" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Novels</span></a><a href="/tag/ench-novelists" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">French Novelists</span></a><a href="/tag/anthologi" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Anthologi</span></a></div></div></div></div><div data-ttid="ContentFooterBottom" class="ContentFooterBottom-jwWZfC kcbyiW"><div class="ContentFooterNewsletterContentWrapper-bmjtna kixtae"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper-fCqqkN jKSBhE newsletter-subscribe-form ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper-fpMElW eglIBL"><h3 class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDangeroHed-kRwWjt kbxOa-D newsletter-subscribe-form__hed ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf">Books & Fictn</h3><div class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDek-kXonvc cKOhTM newsletter-subscribe-form__k">Short stori and poems, pl thor terviews, profil, and tal om the world of lerature.</div></div><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormInputsWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormInputsWrapper-keARJE hVWbzr"><form class="form-wh-validatn NewsletterSubscribeFormValidatn-iCYa-Dt dweEln" id="newsletter" name="newsletter" novalidate="" method="POST"><span class="TextFieldWrapper-Pzdqp hNhevp text-field" data-ttid="TextFieldWrapper__email"><label class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TextFieldLabel-klrYvg iUEiRd stdEm fvoOvz text-field__label text-field__label--sgle-le" for="newsletter-text-field-email" data-ttid="TextFieldLabel__email"><div class="TextFieldLabelText-cvvxBl eeDYTb">E-mail addrs</div><div class="TextFieldInputContaer-jcMPhb oFrOs"><put type="email" aria-scribedby="privacy-text" aria-valid="false" id="newsletter-text-field-email" required="" name="email" placeholr="E-mail addrs" class="BaseInput-fAzTdK TextFieldControlInput-eFUxkf eGzzTT lglhcT text-field__ntrol text-field__ntrol--put" data-ttid="TextFieldInput__email"/></div></label><button class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv dwpimO button button--utily TextFieldButton-csBrgY edxbrw" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="subm"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN hzwRuG button__label">Sign up</span></button></span><div id="privacy-text" tabx="-1" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDisclaimer-bTVtiV bsgLJZ"><span><p>By signg up, you agree to our <a href=" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">User Agreement</a> and <a href=" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement</a>. 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summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="A Mic Podst Unlike Any Other" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Podst Dept.</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">A Mic Podst Unlike Any Other</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="A Mic Podst Unlike Any Other" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">Andrew Hickey has embarked on a heroic and wild effort to tell the history of rock mic five hundred songs.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Bill McKibben</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm kdEfwY" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Briefly Noted" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Books</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">Briefly Noted</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Briefly Noted" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">“Fir the Dark,” “A Madman’s Will,” “Elsewhere,” and “Snow Road Statn.”</div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm kdEfwY" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Master Fabulist of Amerin Fictn" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Books</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Master Fabulist of Amerin Fictn</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Master Fabulist of Amerin Fictn" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">In “Disptns,” a new llectn of stori, Steven Millhser revaliz the small-town tale, evokg the magil, the mundane, and the extravagantly madp.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" 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proust gay

A New Book and a Separate Exhibn Paris Foc on the Jewishns of the Author of ‘In Search of Lost Time.’ ‘Everybody Knew That He Was half-Jewish and Gay,’ One Expert Says, but the Jewish Influence on His Wrg Is Only Beg Clear Now

Contents:

IN SEARCH OF LOST GAY: PROT'S HOMOSEXUAL LOVE STORI WILL FALLY BE PUBLISHEDTHE TEEMED FRENCH THOR KEPT THE 1890 TAL PRIVATE BEE OF THEIR "DACY."{FONT:NORMAL 800 1.2REM/1.2 "D BOLD",SANS-SERIF;TEXT-TRANSFORM:NORMAL;LOR:HER;DISPLAY:LE-BLOCK;PADDG-BOTTOM:6PX;POSN:RELATIVE;TEXT-TRANSFORM:UPPERSE;}{BACKGROUND:#89308A;BOTTOM:0;NTENT:'';DISPLAY:BLOCK;HEIGHT:2PX;LEFT:0;POSN:ABSOLUTE;RIGHT:0;-WEBK-TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;WIDTH:100%;}{LEFT:51%;RIGHT:51%;WIDTH:0;}{FONT:NORMAL 800 1.2REM/1.2 "D BOLD",SANS-SERIF;TEXT-TRANSFORM:NORMAL;LOR:HER;DISPLAY:LE-BLOCK;PADDG-BOTTOM:6PX;POSN:RELATIVE;TEXT-TRANSFORM:UPPERSE;}{BACKGROUND:#89308A;BOTTOM:0;NTENT:'';DISPLAY:BLOCK;HEIGHT:2PX;LEFT:0;POSN:ABSOLUTE;RIGHT:0;-WEBK-TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;WIDTH:100%;}{LEFT:51%;RIGHT:51%;WIDTH:0;}CULTUREBY LTER FABIAN BRATHWAEAUGT 12, 2019/2:43 {HEIGHT:HER;DISPLAY:-WEBK-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-FLEX;DISPLAY:-MS-FLEXBOX;DISPLAY:FLEX;POSN:RELATIVE;-WEBK-FLEX-WRAP:WRAP;-MS-FLEX-WRAP:WRAP;FLEX-WRAP:WRAP;-WEBK-ALIGN-EMS:CENTER;-WEBK-BOX-ALIGN:CENTER;-MS-FLEX-ALIGN:CENTER;ALIGN-EMS:CENTER;-WEBK-BOX-PACK:CENTER;-WEBK-JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;-MS-FLEX-PACK:CENTER;JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;-WEBK-TRANSFORM-ORIG:CENTER;-MS-TRANSFORM-ORIG:CENTER;TRANSFORM-ORIG:CENTER;} IMG{HEIGHT:100%;WIDTH:100%;OBJECT-F:VER;}{HEIGHT:3652PX;WIDTH:2872PX;}THE PRT COLLECTOR/PRT COLLECTOR/GETTY IMAGMARCEL PROT, FRENCH TELLECTUAL, NOVELIST, SAYIST AND CRIC, LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURY. PORTRA OF PROT, (1871-1922), THOR OF A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU. (PHOTO BY THE PRT COLLECTOR/PRT COLLECTOR/GETTY IMAG)BY LTER FABIAN BRATHWAEAUGT 12, 2019 / 2:43 PM{"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"NEWSARTICLE","HEADLE":"IN SEARCH OF LOST GAY: PROT'S HOMOSEXUAL LOVE STORI WILL FALLY BE PUBLISHED","THUMBNAILURL":","DATEPUBLISHED":"2019-08-12T18:43:11.000+0000","DATEMODIFIED":"2019-08-12T18:43:11.000+0000","IMAGE":{"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","WIDTH":1920,"HEIGHT":1080},"URL":","THOR":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","NAME":"LOGO TV"},"MAENTYOFPAGE":{"@TYPE":"WEBPAGE","@ID":"},"PUBLISHER":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","@ID":","NAME":"LOGO TV","URL":","LOGO":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT"}},"CREATOR":"LTER FABIAN BRATHWAE","KEYWORDS":"BOOKS","ARTICLESECTN":"CULTURE"}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}MARCEL PROT'S IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME IS THE LONGT, GAYT BOOK YOU'VE NEVER READ. PUBLISHED SEVEN VOLUM BETWEEN 1913 AND 1927 (AND TOTALG 4,000 PAG), 'S NSIRED ONE OF THE MOST FLUENTIAL LERARY WORKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY. BUT WHILE PROT, A NOTED HOMOSEXUAL, TOUCH UPON QUEER THEM HIS MAGNUM OP, SEEMS HE SAVED THE JUICIT STUFF FOR {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}PROT WROTE NE STORI THE 1890S DURG HIS 20S, AS HE WAS DISVERG AND G TO TERMS WH HIS HOMOSEXUALY. OR, RATHER, AVOIDG G TO TERMS. THE STORI WERE TEND FOR HIS LLECTN OF POEMS AND SHORT STORI, PLAISIRS ET L JOURS (PLEASUR AND DAYS), PUBLISHED 1896. PROT ULTIMATELY CID NOT TO CLU THEM, BUT THIS FALL THE STORI—CLUDG A MIX OF FAIRY TAL, FANTASY, AND DIALOGU WH THE AD—WILL FALLY SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY WHEN THEY ARE PUBLISHED THEIR ORIGAL FRENCH UNR THE TLE LE MYSTéRIX CORRPONDANT (THE MYSTER CORRPONNT), 97 YEARS AFTER PROT'S {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}THE TELLECTUAL, NOVELIST, SAYIST, AND CRIC—WHO IS BASILLY WHAT FRANCE WOULD LOOK LIKE IF WAS A PERSON—GETTY(ORIGAL CAPTN) PICTURE SHOWS A SEATED PORTRA OF FRENCH NOVELIST, MARCEL PROT(1871-1922). UNDATED PHOTO CIR {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}—WAS KNOWN TO BE GAY, BUT HE STILL CLUTCHED THAT CLOSET DOOR TIGHT EVEN WHILE GALLIVANTG AROUND, CISG FOR THAT JE NE SAIS CK. IN A PIQUE OF MASC-FOR-MASC REALNS, PROT EVEN CHALLENGED REVIEWER JEAN LORRA TO A DUEL 1897 FOR SUGGTG PROT'S RELATNSHIP WH FELLOW NOVELIST LUCIEN DT WAS MORE THAN PLATONIC. THE TWO MEN DID THE WHOLE PISTOLS AT 25 PAC THG, BOTH MISSG EACH OTHER AND EMERGG OM THE STANDOFF UNSTHED—MUCH LIKE PROT'S {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}STILL, HE WASN'T FOOLG ANYBODY—MARCEL PROT? HER? PROT BGRAPHER—AND A GAY LERARY IN HIS OWN RIGHT—EDMUND WHE WROTE OF PROT BEG "EAGER TO MAKE LOVE TO OTHER YOUNG MEN" BUT "EQUALLY TERMED TO AVOID THE LABEL 'HOMOSEXUAL.'" FOR PROT, WRG ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY WAS ONE THG, BUT BEG A HOMOSEXUAL WAS BEYOND THE 19TH-CENTURY PALE. WHICH IS KD OF {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}FOR NTEXT, PROT DUELED FOR HIS "HETEROSEXUAL" HONOR TWO YEARS AFTER OSR WIL WAS TRIED FOR SOME GAY SH THE U.K. WIL SPENT TWO YEARS JAIL, LIVED THE RT OF HIS BRIEF LIFE EXILE, AND DIED PENNILS AND ALONE 1900 AT AGE 46. SOOOOOOO, THE 1890S MAY NOT HAVE BEEN THE BT TIME TO ACT ON HOMOSEXUAL IMPULS, THOUGH WAS CLEARLY A UFUL (PUN TEND) TIME TO WRE ABOUT {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}LUC FRAISSE, A PROFSOR AT THE UNIVERSY OF STRASBOURG WHO EDED THE FORTHG LE MYSTéRIX CORRPONDANT, WROTE OF THE STORI:{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}WHOUT DOUBT HE NSIRED THAT BEE OF THEIR DACY, THEY ULD HAVE OFFEND A SOCIAL I WHERE STRONG TRADNAL MORALS PREVAILED. [...] THE AWARENS OF HOMOSEXUALY IS EXPERIENCED AN EXCLIVELY TRAGIC WAY, AS A CURSE. WE DON’T FD, ANYWHERE, THOSE IC NOT TRODUCED HERE AND THERE THROUGHOUT IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME, WHICH GIVE THE WORK ALL THE LORS OF LIFE, EVEN THE DARKT {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}GOOD {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}FRENCH PUBLISHG HOE ÉDNS FALLOIS IS RELEASG THE LLECTN THIS OCTOBER TO CI WH THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF PROT WNG FRANCE’S MOST PRTIG LERARY AWARD, THE PRIX GONURT. PLANS FOR AN ENGLISH TRANSLATN HAVE YET TO BE ANNOUNCED, BUT LET'S HOPE THE FRENCH DON'T KEEP ALL THAT MOODY 19TH-CENTURY HOMOSEXUAL LONGG TO {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;CLEAR:BOTH;}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;MARG:0 TO;WIDTH:90%;M-WIDTH:288PX;MAX-WIDTH:1440PX;M-HEIGHT:194PX;}LATT NEWS

Ne gay love stori by French thor Marcel Prot are set to be published this fall for the first time. The stori take the form of "fairytal, fantasy * proust gay *

Touchg on them of homosexualy, the stori were wrten by Prot durg the 1890s, when he was his 20s and puttg together the llectn of poems and short stori that would bee Plaisirs et l jours (Pleasur and Days).

He cid not to clu GuiFamo books that were only found or published posthumolyShowMrice by EM ForsterForster’s tale of same-sex love early 20th-century England, which follows a young gay man om his schooldays, through universy and beyond, was origally wrten 1913-14 and was regularly revised durg his lifetime. But although he showed to iends, cludg Christopher Isherwood, he didn’t try to get published, believg that he uld never get away wh a gay love story wh a happy endg. “Prot is his 20s, and most of the texts evoke the awarens of his homosexualy, a darkly tragic way, that of a curse … In different ways, the young wrer transpos, sometim barely, the timate diary he uld not wre.

LE GAY PROT

”Prot never publicly acknowledged his homosexualy, gog so far as to fight a duel wh a reviewer who had suggted, accurately, that he was gay. “At the same time that Prot was eager to make love to other young men, he was equally termed to avoid the label ‘homosexual’, ” wr Edmund Whe his bgraphy of the French novelist.

“Years later he would tell André Gi that one uld wre about homosexualy even at great length, so long as one did not ascribe to onelf. This b of lerary advice is herent wh Prot’s general closetedns – a secretivens that was all the more absurd sce everyone near him knew he was gay. ”Fraisse said the domant theme of the stori was the analysis of “the physil love so unjtly nied” that Prot wr of À la recherche, “ terms that announce and forhadow Sodome et Gomorrhe”, the fourth volume of the seri which the thor tackl homosexual love.

MARCEL PROT’S LOST GAY LOVE STORI TO FALLY BE PUBLISHED

“The awarens of homosexualy is experienced an exclively tragic way, as a curse. Prot often ed lbian love as a way to wrg about homoerotic sire, partly bee the female kd was, if not socially acceptable, at least a standard source of athetic isson, and partly bee gave him an acceptable distance om which to wre about his own same-sex ’s strikg how out of foc the stori seem: they have a trancelike rhythm that mak events uneventful, and an absence of narrative ph.

As Carter’s “Prot Love” tails, the novelist, like most wealthy gay men of his time, found lovers extensively among workg-class youths: waers at the Rz and chffrs at rorts.

IN SEARCH OF THE LOST TIME OF A GAY JEWISH NOVELIST

Not exclively so—Gilberte, the narrator’s first great love as a boy, was molled on several girls he knew—but Carter shows that Alberte, who domat the middle volum, is certaly a transmuted, if posed, versn of Prot’s beloved chffr, Aled suffered om a set of gay fact checkers, the person of other French wrers—Jean Cocte and Gi among them—who sffed regularly at the transparency of his disguis, potg out that the narrator’s blhe claim to have ma love to fourteen or so girls on the beach was absurd, given the reali of young women’s liv the perd, though was entirely plsible wh workg-class boys. Prot’s view of gayns would, by ntemporary standards, be nsired homophobic: he treats gay men, whom he lls “men-women, ” as sufferg om a formg syndrome. Yet, whatever fensive tap dancg past the police is at work here (and Prot was arrted at least once a male brothel), the portra of male homosexualy is meant to be tritely humane.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* PROUST GAY

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grid-full-bleed grid-no-gap SplScreenContentHearMa-fNigKG daohZh"><div class="GridItem-buujkM eHLzLy grid--em"><div class="SplScreenContentHearTleBlock-sCMXE jActCi"><div data-ttid="ContentHearRubric"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX dZhWBL bric SplScreenContentHearRubric-cLHEJQ ildzkT"><a class="RubricLk-gRWSOU fgWnkQ bric__lk" href="/magaze/books"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Books</span></a></div></div><h1 data-ttid="ContentHearHed" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SplScreenContentHearHed-lcUSuI iUEiRd NbxED dfelga">What We Fd When We Get Lost Prot</h1><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SplScreenContentHearDek-emptdL iUEiRd wOnsu dJrDEb">There are six Marcel Prots. Is there one key to them all?</div><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl SplScreenContentHearByle-kvEhqE ejWxsm"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH ivtvgj byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/adam-gopnik">Adam Gopnik</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2021-05-03T06:00:00-04:00" class="SplScreenContentHearPublishDate-bMGEVk gvRvVr">May 3, 2021</time><div class="SocialInsWrapper-hKMEXV ffgPVr social-ins social-ins--standard SplScreenContentHearSocialShare-gSVclr kUKgnn"><ul data-ttid="socialInslist" class="SocialInsList-cHVTIA 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1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Prot" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK eRggVV grid grid-margs grid-ems-0 SplScreenContentHearGrid-kFpOdh fLkIyA"><div class="GridItem-buujkM kHPPIF grid--em"><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn SplScreenContentHearCaptn-iOfEOv ckLUKG"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">Prot’s peers had long regard him as a society boy wh a lerary hobby.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Illtratn by Hugo Guns</span></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" 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data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><figure data-ttid="IameEmbed" class="IameEmbedWrapper-sc-dRedg cjyRVU iame-embed"><div data-ttid="IameEmbedContaer" class="IameEmbedContaer-hptgUZ fXVBaX"><div class="IameEmbedAspectRatWrapper-hFVJps BKpgQ"><iame class="IameEmbedContent-cMdiev csnuAY IameEmbedContent lazyload" height="90" width="100%" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-orig allow-popups" tle="Embedd Frame" data-src=" allowfullscreen="" allow="toplay *; encrypted-media *; clipboard-wre; toplay; fullscreen; picture--picture"></iame></div></div></figure><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">When one fds the bottom of a barrel beg energetilly scraped, is proof, at least, that whatever was once floatg on the top mt have been very lic ed. And so, havg reached the very bottom of the barrel marked “Marcel Prot,” the scrapg ntu, even unto the spltered wood. The ual n of a famo thor’s remas is more or ls set: first the (disillng) bgraphy, then the (surprisgly mundane, money-mad) letters, and fally the (pafully naked) diari, which erotic obssns that seem cur and h lerary prose look mechanilly obssive daily rerd, as wh Kenh Tynan and John Cheever. What after is mostly amic mentary.</p><p class="paywall">But wh the bgraphy, the letters, and the journals long the rearview mirror, the popular sendary works on <a href=">Prot</a> ntue to appear manic numbers. <em>Anythg</em> Protian, seems, gets published now. Not long ago, we were given a book ma up solely of his sperately pole, quelo letters to his upstairs neighbors one of his last apartment buildgs, on the Boulevard Hssmann, plag about the noise—and soundg exactly like a classic S. J. Perelman sual. In the past fifteen years or so, certaly sce the dawn of the new century, the huge succs of Ala Botton’s “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">How Prot Can Change Your Life</a>” has been followed by a ndid <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">book</a> on Prot’s sex life (by his Amerin bgrapher, William C. Carter); the <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">memoirs</a> of his Swedish valet (also eded by Carter); a <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">study</a>, by the Aun bgrapher Richard Davenport-H, of Prot’s fal days, at the Rz and the Majtic; Benjam Taylor’s <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">study</a> of Prot’s life as a distctly Jewish one; the first fully annotated versns of “Swann’s Way” (both <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">by Carter</a> and <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">by Lydia Davis</a>); Clive Jam’s long verse mentary “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Gate of Lilacs</a>”; and a <a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">graphic-novel</a> versn of “Swann’s Way,” not to mentn an album by the talented Rsian-French sisters lled the Milste Duo, “The Vtil Sonata,” voted to the real-life ndidat for the mil phrase that entangled Swann’s heart and doomed his life. That’s doubtls not even half the harvt. The books are often illtrated wh the tensy of relig tracts. In one, we are given a tailed diagram of the apartment wh the rk-led room where Prot spent his reclive late years. (The room’s origal terr n be found at the Mée Carnavalet, the mm of the history of Paris.) “Lost” works appear. Jt last month, Gallimard, Paris, published “L Soixante-quze Fillets,” an early, more directly tobgraphil overture, long thought to have vanished, of them that he would later velop pth. And now, English, arriv a fearsomely slenr book, “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Myster Corrponnt</a>,” ne stori, mostly agmentary, mostly unpublished, that have only recently been redisvered, appearg as somethg between juvenilia and a sketchbook.</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">All this work attts to the reputatn of the most often attempted, most rarely summed, of all mountao morn books, Prot’s multivolume “À la Recherche du Temps Perdu,” which, first Englished as “Remembrance of Thgs Past,” is now routely more severely Frenchified as “In Search of Lost Time.” (That there are passnate bat about the varyg mers of his translators and of the tl is part of the general Protian effect.) Why some wrers get this kd of attentn—rooted enpassg appete rather than mere admiratn—and some do not is hard to know and tertg to ntemplate. Chekhov, born a earlier, is a wrer of siar stature, and his plays are genuely popular. But only specialists bate his translators, and there are no books lvg to the origals of his characters, or providg recip for Chekhovian bli, or explag how Chekhov n change your life, or prentg photographs of his timat. Prot, by ntrast, is a sort of improbable Belle Époque Tolkien, the maker of a world wh passports and maps and secret s, to which many seek entry.</p><p class="paywall">A wrer’s abily to duce this kd of fanaticism—ls cult stat than thedral stat, where we expect long l, and hope to be improved by our vis—is still myster. Prot, even after he published the first volume of his great work, 1913, would not have seemed a natural for such a role. He is, after all, the wrer who put the long “longur”—whose subject is not war and peace, or the makg and breakg of a dynasty, or, as wh Joyce, the history of lerature implanted an urban day. His terra is, rather, the strangled lov and pas of a small, fashnable circle, wh much of the novel spent wh the narrator gog back and forth to beach rorts and feelg thgs, and many more pag, particularly the middle books, where he simply tak tras, feels jealo, then feels ls jealo, then more.</p><p class="paywall">The peripheral Prot may persist as part of our search for a skeleton key to all the others—a way si. There are at least six Marcel Prots to study, and, though we’d like to say that each feeds the others, the tth is that they exist separate, sometim bafflg strata. There’s the Perd Prot, the Touloe-Ltrec-like pater of the high life of the Belle Époque, who offers an unmatched picture both of ridg the Bois and of visg the brothels near the Opéra; and the Philosophil Prot, whose thoughts on the nature of time supposedly rived om the ias of Henri Bergson and are argued to have paralleled those of Este. There’s the Psychologil Prot, whose analysis of human motiv—above all, of love and jealoy—is the real livg re of his book; and the “Perverse” Prot (as the ement scholar Antoe Compagnon refers to him), who was among the first French thors to wre que openly about homosexualy. Then there is the Polil Prot, the Jewish wrer who diagrammed the flt le that the Dreyf Affair first cracked French society, and that the war pulled apart. Fally, there’s the Poetic Prot, the <em>pathétique</em> Prot who wr the sentenc and fds the phras, and whose twilight tensy and vlet-tted charm make his Big Book one of the few that rears urge on iends rather than merely force on stunts.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="i3vah"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="h6h0rr"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">For all the speculative profundy that n be disvered the vast annotative lerature surroundg Prot, rangg om <a href=">Samuel Beckett</a>’s bleak, sctable summary to Roland Barth’s stctural appreciatn, Prot is least tertg for his philosophil pth. The profound bs Prot are the most monplace, while the monplace bs—the scriptns, the evotn of place, the characterizatns, the jok, the observatns, and, most of all, the love stori—are the most profound. His is the most ant tract of atheticism ever attempted, and unrstandg why has been the most succsful at makg nverts is the key to all the other nted Prots.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">The son of a half-Jewish Parisian grand-bourgeois fay, Prot was known, before the 1913 publitn of “Swann’s Way,” as a malic, amg, slightly absurd society boy, wh a vaguely pathetic lerary hobby. He had wrten some standard-issue athetic says and stori, which no one read, and had translated Rk’s study of the Amiens thedral. (He was an veterate Anglophile: his favore novelist was Gee Elt, and his favore novel “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Mill on the Floss</a>.”) A charmg society hanger-on, he was admired by his close iends for his lerary ditn and the extraordary flow of his letters—which are effortlsly parenthetil, slidg to digrsn and back to the ma pot wh the skill of a rally driver dippg and out of traffic at a hundred an hour. None of them, however, thought him much more than a dilettante.</p><p class="paywall">The newly published stori llected “The Myster Corrponnt” feel wispy and nsequential, but are fascatg as clu to Prot’s limatns, which, before 1913, seemed far more formidable than his talents. The stori were wrten the eighteen-neti, when he was his twenti, and then locked away a drawer while he worked on his unpublished novel, “Jean Santil,” and then on his masterwork. The tle story, at least, was hidn for an obv reason: ’s a tale of lbian love. A timid, wealthy woman disvers that the thrillg love note she has received—which sets off a fantasy of makg love to a soldier, plete wh sword and spurs—was actually wrten by her clost woman iend. Prot often ed lbian love as a way to wrg about homoerotic sire, partly bee the female kd was, if not socially acceptable, at least a standard source of athetic isson, and partly bee gave him an acceptable distance om which to wre about his own same-sex sir.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">It’s strikg how out of foc the stori seem: they have a trancelike rhythm that mak events uneventful, and an absence of narrative ph. Readg the lost tal, one rells that, although none of Prot’s ntemporari doubted his telligence, they did doubt his abily to turn his lerary bent to somethg solid. In the stori, one se what worried them: there’s every sign of a natural wrer, but no sign at all of an <em>thor</em>.</p><p class="paywall">When the first volume of “In Search of Lost Time” appeared, a year before the Great War, the shock of s excellence was ptured a lic exchange wh André Gi, the mag of the Parisian lerary scene. Apologizg for havg passed on “Swann’s Way” for his <em>Nouvelle Revue Française,</em> Gi offered an explanatn almost more sultg than the origal rejectn: “For me you were still the man who equented the ho of Mm X. and Z., the man who wrote for the <em>Figaro</em>. I thought of you, shall I nfs , as ‘<em>du côté chez Verdur</em>’; a snob, a man of the world, and a dilettante—the worst possible thg for our review.” Prot, who had money, had offered to help subsidize the publitn, which, Gi fumbl to expla, only ma seem a dub effort at buyg a reputatn. (That year, Gi nfid his journal his doubts that any Jewish wrer uld tly master the “virtu” of the French tradn.)</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">Prot rpond wh the most betiful fuck-you letter lerary history, suavely pretendg that Gi’s belatedly flatterg letter ma up for all the prev sults: “Had there been no rejectn, no repeated rejectns by the N.R.F., I should never have had your letter. . . . The joy of receivg your letter fely surpass any I should have had at beg published by the N.R.F. . . . How I should like to be able to give someone I loved as much pleasure as you have given me.” Gi, no fool, ma a firm offer to publish the rt of the novel, which the <em>Nouvelle Revue</em> did, right through to s pletn.</p><p class="paywall">The exchange unrl several aspects of Prot as a phenomenon. First, Prot land on his ntemporari wh somethg of the same revelatory shock that he livers to . Perhaps only the abpt celebry of <a href=">Karl Ove Knsgaard</a> has had the same effect our time. What ma the metamorphosis? The unimagably large space between the Prot of “The Myster Corrponnt” and the Prot of “Swann’s Way” li his learng to tst the meanrg nature of his own telligence. He found a voice by hearg his own. The one thg that Prot’s mature lerary manner is <em>not</em> is mannered. It was as natural and unimped as Mark Twa’s. His md moved exactly as his sentenc do, and his gift was to be able to trace s movements whout beg halted by other people’s lerary l.</p><p class="paywall">But the exchange wh Gi also remds of a ls high-md tth: that Prot was part of the be mon of the Fbourg Sat-Germa, and that his enthiasm for the high life—ll snobbery, as Gi did—was unmistakable. Part of the appeal of the novel is the era’s glamour. Swann go to rever om his jealoi at the still extant swank rtrant Lapéroe; when the narrator realiz that “ho, roads, avenu are as fugive, alas, as the years,” is the high season the Bois Boulogne, the most exactgly landsped park Paris. Prot had nventnal Parisian hte-bourgeois tast of the time, om dner the Rz garn to sexual olics the Right Bank brothels. He wanted the Prix Gonurt (got ), the Légn d’Honnr (got ), and membership the Adémie Française (uldn’t get ). Along wh everythg else he did that was more amilly rpectable, he offered a picture of a particularly betiful place and perd the world’s history.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Prot ont-loads his novel wh his philosophy of time. One of the oddi is that s most famo cint happens wh the first dozen pag, and is, nohels, isolated om the rt: the narrator (Protians hghtily rist intifyg him wh Prot himself, or referrg to him as Marcel, though he obvly is) eats the cmbs of a malee dipped lime-blossom tea and is sudnly thst back to his childhood at Combray. (The town was based on Illiers, an hour outsi Paris, though later volum Prot quietly moved Combray much farther north and east, so that uld participate the battl of the Great War.) His premise is that everythg remas si ourselv, cludg the past, not jt schematic outle but s full sensory elaboratn. The ltle smells and sounds are there along wh the big trmas and events. But, as rears may not rell, the memory event isn’t the unbidn associatn of a sensory clue wh a sudnly materializg memory. On the ntrary, the event is the rult of an effortful procs often met wh failure:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>Will ultimately reach the clear surface of my nscns, this memory, this old, ad moment which the magism of an intil moment has travelled so far to importune, to disturb, to raise up out of the very pths of my beg? I nnot tell. Now I feel nothg; has stopped, has perhaps sunk back to s darkns, om which who n say whether will ever rise aga? Ten tim over I mt say the task, mt lean down over the abyss. And each time the wardice that ters om every difficult task, every important enterprise, has urged me to leave the thg alone, to drk my tea and to thk merely of the worri of today and my hop for tomorrow, which n be brood over palsly.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">Prot’s celebrated acunt of time’s relativy, dancg above or outsi experience, though persuasively tailed, is not terribly origal. It’s ltle different om the one that Shakpeare had long before put Rosald’s mouth: “Time travels divers pac wh divers persons.” Its apparent likens to Este’s theory of special relativy has been much promoted, recently by the French physicist Thiblt Damour, his book “Once Upon Este.” Prot do seem to have bee polely aware of Este, though rather as a ntemporary wrer might be of strg theory—as a popular metaphor or two drawn om var newspaper wrps. But the siari are strictly limed. Este’s sight was not that “everythg is relative” but the oppose: his paradox of time are really paradox of timekeepg, and are the nsequence of his troductn of an absolute, fixed standard—the speed of light. A revival of Sol Invict worship was as reasonable an aftershock of Este’s theori as iatnal relativism. In any se, a great novel uld be wrten that timat and parallels Este, and a bad one uld be wrten that timat and parallels Este. Prot’s book mak s own light.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">The Philosophil Prot’s view of time is tied to his larger view of the primacy of md— which what we image matters more than what we see—and is this view that shas over, more profably, to the Psychologil Prot. We thk that we are livg the world, he sists, when we are livg only our mds. Aga, the first volume sets the template, oft repeated later. Charl Swann—the Jewish man-about-town, wele every livg room high, low, and middle—thks that he is sperately love wh the urtan Otte Crécy; his eventual marriage to Otte giv him the betiful child Gilberte, the first volume’s heroe, but dimish his life. The narrator’s ol analysis of motive (rmed by Swann’s retrospective regrets) reveals that Swann has merely projected his obssns onto Otte. He is love wh the face of one of the Botticelli women on the walls of the Siste Chapel; he is love wh the agment of mic om the Vtil Sonata (probably a melody of Sat-Saëns’s) that he associat wh her. He is triangulated by his own tensi.</p><p class="paywall">Above all, he is love wh his own love, wh thgs ma his own md, and when ardor ols he is dazed to disver that the great passn of his life had been for a woman he didn’t like at all, a woman “who was not my type.” This, much more than the malee memory, is the real Protian turn. Jealoy, the key emotn Prot, is self-generated; we go huntg for mors or imag of our beloved entangled wh another, to reh the pa that has bee synonymo wh love. Our emotns move right through a sequence of feelgs, om the lightt to the darkt and back aga, givg the illn of walkg the park when we are merely once aga tourg the attic.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="Two people workg at home wh an onle vio." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“Surely ’s bufferg—no one n be expected to hold a plank for this long.”</span></div><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn RponsiveCartoonCred-bKlQqO faLAFb rponsive-rtoon__cred"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT bmQtfn ptn__cred">Cartoon by Brooke Bourgeois</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 8.34782C8.432 10.22 9.08751 12.6141 11.0007 13.6949C11.1888 13.8012 11.382 13.8908 11.5785 13.9642C11.7819 14.0403 12.0058 13.9485 12.1147 13.764C12.2794 13.4849 12.1103 13.1276 11.8083 12.9992C11.7041 12.9549 11.6014 12.9044 11.5007 12.8475C10.0658 12.0368 9.57417 10.2413 10.4026 8.83712L12.4026 5.44715C13.2311 4.04298 15.0658 3.56187 16.5007 4.37257C17.9356 5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 6.92464 12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc iOlxjf alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">The narrator’s objects of sire and jealoy, like Swann’s, are all women, and has long been accepted that they are almost all molled on men. What Prot memorialized as livg “ the shadow of young girls flower” was more like luxuriatg the shadow of young boys on the make. As Carter’s “Prot Love” tails, the novelist, like most wealthy gay men of his time, found lovers extensively among workg-class youths: waers at the Rz and chffrs at rorts. Not exclively so—Gilberte, the narrator’s first great love as a boy, was molled on several girls he knew—but Carter shows that Alberte, who domat the middle volum, is certaly a transmuted, if posed, versn of Prot’s beloved chffr, Aled Agostelli.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Prot suffered om a set of gay fact checkers, the person of other French wrers—Jean Cocte and Gi among them—who sffed regularly at the transparency of his disguis, potg out that the narrator’s blhe claim to have ma love to fourteen or so girls on the beach was absurd, given the reali of young women’s liv the perd, though was entirely plsible wh workg-class boys. (And his timat <em>were</em> often boys—sixteen and seventeen. We are vastly more tolerant of sexual difference today, but we police age differenc far more aggrsively.)</p><p class="paywall">Yet there is nothg humanly unnvcg about Alberte as an vented woman, or about the rg of girls on the beach as girls. That’s partly bee Prot, utterly specific about the trici of the psyche, is cleverly unspecific about physil typ: there are hardly any curvaceo bosoms or round bottoms, as Zola, jt an undifferentiated paradise of pure sensatn. On the beach, valy and exuberance are Prot’s hallmarks of attractn: “fe bodi, fe legs, fe hips, wholome, serene fac,” as he talogu them. “Bloomg cheeks” occur over and over Prot as a sirable attribute, wh a Nabokovian pun French as English.</p><p class="paywall">The anthropology of “sexual versn” domat the later volum, particularly “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Sodom and Gomorrah</a>,” wh s overheard hip flirt of attractn the urtyard between the former tailor Jupien and the baron Charl. Prot’s view of gayns would, by ntemporary standards, be nsired homophobic: he treats gay men, whom he lls “men-women,” as sufferg om a formg syndrome. Yet, whatever fensive tap dancg past the police is at work here (and Prot was arrted at least once a male brothel), the portra of male homosexualy is meant to be tritely humane. The ia of the man-woman is not a rogatn of homosexualy but an explanatn of s normalcy: people, beg people, nta oppos wh themselv. Agast the old Platonic ia that humans are longg for their missg half, the “Perverse” Prot’s pot is that they posss already. Homosexualy is neher a licly archaic transgrsn, as was for Wil’s circle London, nor a damnable perversn. It jt is. We are all double ourselv, he sisted—a formulatn that he took om Montaigne, who he knew was part Jewish and who he may have thought was homosexual.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="mfa6skl"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">There is, however, a tear wh the Matrix. As the strangled new stori “The Myster Corrponnt” remd , Prot is often strange on the subject of lbianism. In the belmed Alberte volum—which Prot, as Compagnon remds , enlarged late the game—Prot’s anxiety about Alberte’s possible lbian lov is, as Carter suggts, an extensn of Prot’s anxiety about Agostelli’s affairs wh women. The disda that Prot shows for lbian lovers seems the one unrolved spot his transposns of sir. His lbians are actually straight women who might sce his own male lover, reprented as a girl. Prot himself has a hard time keepg all the reflectns foc this hoe of mirrors.</p><p class="paywall">Even Prot’s dabblg sexual paraphilia is touched by his peculiarly expansive kd of holistic humanism. He is reported, wh what tth is hard to say, to have had a taste for sadistic sexual ruals— one particularly grotque acunt, brgg himself to climax by watchg rats forced to fight wh one another his prence. Yet the pag of his book the dramatized relatnship between celty and tenrns is so nstant that is no surprise that one might bee a mirror image of the other. In Prot, fetishized sir are not seen as tsns to an otherwise healthy persona but as naturally paired wh one. It is entirely Protian to image that the more kdns the more kk, the more appete for licy the more sire for huiatn or fetishized savagery. In the last volume of the novel, Prot has his hyper-refed Baron Charl, after payg to be beaten a brothel, prott that his punisher was not of sufficiently humble origs—not an thentic bte but only a pretend one. The joke isn’t that Charl is ridiculo wantg to be beaten by a real villa; the absurdy li only how quixotic he be the pursu of that sire.</p><p class="paywall">For Prot, there was no hypocrisy the exquise athete who wants to be roughed up or even that of the fay man who achiev climax by cursg his fay (a specific se known to him). Ined, if one wanted a scientific ördate for Prot’s visn, one might fd not Este but Jam Clerk Maxwell’s theori of electromagism, wh one sensual field perpetually flippg to s oppose by a fixed law of oscillatn. The tth of the battery is, for Prot, the tth of humankd; mt have two pol or n rry no charge.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Today, the most prent of Prots is, evably, a Polil Prot. Prot, beg both gay and Jewish, participated the two dissint cultur that are at the heart of so much mornist art. Benjam Taylor’s book, the Yale “Jewish Liv” seri, do the bt job of narratg Prot’s self-disvery as a Jew, as double-sid as his other unrstandgs, and particularly his surprisgly aggrsive role supportg the wrongly prosecuted Capta Aled Dreyf. Prot, who, though the son of a Jewish woman, was raised the Catholic Church, was astonishgly urageo durg the <a href=">Dreyf Affair</a>. He had no personal centive to take such an outspoken stand, and he uld w no pots wh the leftist opposn, sce he was regard as a illy margal figure by the people he admired. (His signature on one Dreyf petn, proudly offered, wasn’t at first even reprted the papers.)</p><p class="paywall">Taylor sists that this was a genue act of pure prciple. Prot regnized the jtice and found tolerable. There were assiated Jews—Theodor Herzl, most famoly—who beme “sgle inty” Jews durg the Dreyf Affair. Prot was not one of them. But the word “tellectual,” our current sense, was vented then, for the Dreyfards, and that was what he beme. He began to thk of himself as a republin tellectual, a cizen wh a pen and a nscience, as much as the athete he had been.</p><p class="paywall">Though the Great War cshed Prot’s Paris, the Dreyf Affair is the central exterr act of “In Search of Lost Time.” Jt as Swann realiz that the Otte for whom he sacrificed his life is an imagary creature, so the narrator realiz that the aristocrats of the Fbourg Sat-Germa are his own imagative projectn. The magic that had clung even to the name Guermant prov to be as illory as Otte’s Botticelli ra. The De Guermant’s anti-Semic rant agast the Dreyfards is not jt vile but vulgar, the kd of thg you would expect to read a cheap tabloid. Prot had always expected his aristocrats to thk stupidly; he jt didn’t expect so many to behave so shabbily. The rult was a revelatn like Swann’s: turns out that they had never really been his type.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-3 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Yet all other Prots turn back, fally, to the Poetic Prot. We hear him clearly on the Milste album; the Sat-Saëns melody, we regnize at once the world Prot has njured, s vlet pangs and wav of emotn. As he wrote a letter, “The sential purpose of mic is to awaken the myster pths of our soul (which lerature, patg, and sculpture nnot exprs).” The most mil pag of wrg that exist any language are those the sectn of “Swann’s Way” lled “Place-Nam: The Name,” voted to the romance of the adolcent Marcel and Gilberte, the dghter of Swann and Otte. Comg after the romance of the adults, repulat all of s them, though a tenrly ic register:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>Doubtls the var reasons which ma me so impatient to see her would have appeared ls urgent to a grown man. As life go on, we acquire such adrons the cultivatn of our pleasur, that we ntent ourselv wh the pleasure we rive om thkg of a woman, as I thought of Gilberte, whout troublg ourselv to ascerta whether the image rrponds to the realy. . . . But at the perd when I was love wh Gilberte, I still believed that Love did really exist outsi ourselv.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">The book dispels this illn of love, only after havg first realized perfectly here. The adolcent romance is, to be sure, very French—the two are young enough to play children’s gam the Champs-Élysé each afternoon, yet old enough to engage a memorable moment of ottage. But what one rells om “Place-Nam: The Name” is the Mozartian sound through which the miature love affair of the two children perfectly transpos—as when mic we have first heard on flute and piano to hly revoiced, on an origal-stment rerdg, by rerr and harpsichord—the adult affair of Otte and Swann. It is a tonal triumph.</p><p class="paywall">Prot has been lled a novelist of manners, meang a stunt of mor, of social ruals, but he is also a novelist of manners another sense, a wrer to whom urty is of exceptnally, almost supremely, high value. He admired the French aristocrats’ gift for makg awkward moments easier—he even serts to the book abstract tails of good manners, like the Prcs Parme’s admirg the narrator’s “Amerin” bbers, meant for bad weather, which her footmen disda. (“Wh those on, you will have nothg to fear even if starts snowg aga and you have a long way to go,” the Prcs says. “You’re pennt of the weather.”)</p><p class="paywall">This pattern of French manners, so different om the Brish upper-class hab of creatg maximum awkwardns to display stat, is not smeticized. The Duchs Guermant will soon blow past Swann’s nfsn that he is dyg wh her dismissive reply: “You mt be jokg. . . . Come and have lunch.” But manners matter, still. The most tellg of the peripheral Prots newly on hand might be found that strange volume of letters to his upstairs neighbors (translated by Davis), where he filters his ornery nrasthenia through the sieve of good manners, nstantly sendg gifts and praise along wh his plats. “Madame: I had orred the flowers for you and I am spair that they are g on a day when agast all expectatn I feel so ill that I would like to ask you for silence tomorrow Saturday,” he wr. “Yet as this requt is no way njoed wh the flowers, g them to lose all their agrance as disterted mark of rpect and to bristle wh nasty thorns, I would like even more not to ask you for this silence.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="tn515l"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="qtbonn"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">One fds Prot here pure, and necsarily ic, form. Courty is edy: s elaborate phemisms work like the slammg doors a Fey farce, alicizg the elaborate work of ways which we <em>jt</em> avoid hurtg one another’s feelgs. For Prot, manners make humankd tolerable, as the one way to pe our own evable egotisms. We fall love wh ourselv, and the only way out is not through others—the standard ethil sistence—but through art, which nnects wh others a kd of psychic work of solipsisms. Part of Prot’s humanism li his abily to lote the world exclively between our ears, whout supposg that s rince there is necsarily to be regretted.</p><p class="paywall">Prot’s still peerls origal translator, C. K. Stt Moncrieff, has been mocked, by Nabokov, among others, for makg Prot’s tl falsely Shakpearean: “Remembrance of Thgs Past” stead of the direct “In Search of Lost Time.” And yet this was a felico accint of taste, sce there is somethg genuely Shakpearean Prot’s abily to extend his sympathy to every rner of his ventn, even to people he fds ridiculo (like the Verdurs) or rpted (like Charl). They, too, have their story. Perhaps is the wholens of his humanism that explas why—spe the novel’s often bleak and disillned import—the happit hours of many rears’ liv, cludg this one, have been spent readg him. “What a lot of pa there was all the way through,” an Iris Murdoch character m about Prot. “So how was that the whole thg uld vibrate wh such a pure joy?” John Updike, too, g to Prot at a time of his own Christian doubts, found him the necsary remedy, the only credible morn relig novelist. There is happs to be found his fatalism.</p><p class="paywall">If Prot, for Updike the God-hnted neteen-fifti, was the last Christian poet, we may see him now more secular terms, as a wrer who, perversely, sought sereny not tachment and self-removal but attachment and reattachment—a monk wh a metropolan monastery. “Be here now” is the mystic’s sistence. “<em>Don’t</em> be here now” is Prot’s material motto: be there then, aga. Enjoy, emote, repeat, remember: there are worse signs for livg. ♦</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="wyw6"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__le-barrier article__body"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"><asi class="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper-iBnuqk lfXXa-D" data-ttid="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper"><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--paywall-le-barrier" role="prentatn" aria-live="pole" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--paywall-le-barrier"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></asi></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ContentWrapperGrid-fvkmBv brYtrA grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__ntaer"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><div class="ContentFooterWrapper-jVNdRG dTJkpP ArticlePageContentFooterGrid-ccsXYy eMZRHU article-body__footer"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><footer class="ContentFooterMagazeDisclaimer-gzKAqo iZIuUU" data-ttid="MagazeDisclaimerWrapper">Published the prt edn of the <a href="/magaze/2021/05/10" data-reactroot="">May 10, 2021</a>, issue, wh the headle “Peripheral Prot.”</footer></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="ContributorsWrapper-eNpWFu GWFsc ntributors" data-ttid="Contributors"><div class="ContributorBWrapper-bnVHbt gMon"><div class="ContributorBAvatar-bIGTqf eMWbvj"><a href="/ntributors/adam-gopnik"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span></a></div><div class="ContributorBContent-ubQdr jZTSSi"><div class="ContributorBHear-ledood XOIEx"></div><div class="ContributorBB-fBolsO giFhKz"><a href="/ntributors/adam-gopnik">Adam Gopnik</a>, a staff wrer, has been ntributg to The New Yorker sce 1986. He is the thor of, most recently, “<a href=">The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery</a>.”</div><div class="ContributorBFooter-brqDlv ezUmSv"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="TagCloudWrapper" class="TagCloudWrapper-gGgndx ctyZyK ContentFooterTagCloud-krQmRG ZLGh"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudSectnHear-cOforY iUEiRd bPyAoD kQQRmu">More:</span><a href="/tag/marcel-prot" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Marcel Prot</span></a><a href="/tag/novelists" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Novelists</span></a><a href="/tag/remembrance-of-thgs-past" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Remembrance of Thgs Past</span></a><a href="/tag/books" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Books</span></a><a href="/tag/novels" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Novels</span></a><a href="/tag/ench-novelists" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">French Novelists</span></a><a href="/tag/anthologi" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Anthologi</span></a></div></div></div></div><div data-ttid="ContentFooterBottom" class="ContentFooterBottom-jwWZfC kcbyiW"><div class="ContentFooterNewsletterContentWrapper-bmjtna kixtae"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper-fCqqkN jKSBhE newsletter-subscribe-form ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf"><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper-fpMElW eglIBL"><h3 class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDangeroHed-kRwWjt kbxOa-D newsletter-subscribe-form__hed ContentFooterNewsletterForm-hKeYwa liPqcf">Books & Fictn</h3><div class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDek-kXonvc cKOhTM newsletter-subscribe-form__k">Short stori and poems, pl thor terviews, profil, and tal om the world of lerature.</div></div><div data-ttid="NewsletterSubscribeFormInputsWrapper" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormInputsWrapper-keARJE hVWbzr"><form class="form-wh-validatn NewsletterSubscribeFormValidatn-iCYa-Dt dweEln" id="newsletter" name="newsletter" novalidate="" method="POST"><span class="TextFieldWrapper-Pzdqp hNhevp text-field" data-ttid="TextFieldWrapper__email"><label class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TextFieldLabel-klrYvg iUEiRd stdEm fvoOvz text-field__label text-field__label--sgle-le" for="newsletter-text-field-email" data-ttid="TextFieldLabel__email"><div class="TextFieldLabelText-cvvxBl eeDYTb">E-mail addrs</div><div class="TextFieldInputContaer-jcMPhb oFrOs"><put type="email" aria-scribedby="privacy-text" aria-valid="false" id="newsletter-text-field-email" required="" name="email" placeholr="E-mail addrs" class="BaseInput-fAzTdK TextFieldControlInput-eFUxkf eGzzTT lglhcT text-field__ntrol text-field__ntrol--put" data-ttid="TextFieldInput__email"/></div></label><button class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv dwpimO button button--utily TextFieldButton-csBrgY edxbrw" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="subm"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN hzwRuG button__label">Sign up</span></button></span><div id="privacy-text" tabx="-1" class="NewsletterSubscribeFormDisclaimer-bTVtiV bsgLJZ"><span><p>By signg up, you agree to our <a href=" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">User Agreement</a> and <a href=" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement</a>. 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SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Podst Dept.</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">A Mic Podst Unlike Any Other</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="A Mic Podst Unlike Any Other" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">Andrew Hickey has embarked on a heroic and wild effort to tell the history of rock mic five hundred songs.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Bill McKibben</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm kdEfwY" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Briefly Noted" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Books</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">Briefly Noted</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Briefly Noted" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">“Fir the Dark,” “A Madman’s Will,” “Elsewhere,” and “Snow Road Statn.”</div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm kdEfwY" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Master Fabulist of Amerin Fictn" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Books</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Master Fabulist of Amerin Fictn</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Master Fabulist of Amerin Fictn" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">In “Disptns,” a new llectn of stori, Steven Millhser revaliz the small-town tale, evokg the magil, the mundane, and the extravagantly madp.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Charl McGrath</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm kdEfwY" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="How “Wter Kills” Nails the Paranoid Style" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">The Front Row</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">How “Wter Kills” Nails the Paranoid Style</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="How “Wter Kills” Nails the Paranoid Style" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">William Richert’s 1979 neo-noir ph the nspiracy-theory genre to s lims.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Richard Brody</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm kdEfwY ad ad--read-more"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--read-more" data-no-id="dgp6mu"></div></div></div><div class="SummaryCollectnGridToActnWrapper-gnReGN eGayfk"></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="TaboolaWrapper-hMVdpE iYfBhy"><div class="TaboolaWidgetWrapper-egPIjc hkSrgt TaboolaWidget-eUSdED hQCCRa" data-ttid="TaboolaWidgetWrapper"><div class="TaboolaWidgetContent-iBEQTO eXroXG TABOOLA" id="taboola-below-article-thumbnails---f" data-ttid="TaboolaWidgetContent"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--footer should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--footer" data-no-id="1qqcug"></div></div></div></div></div></ma><div class="BasePageMaFooterFiller-hTlZph jSriYf page__ma-footer-filler"></div><div 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