Marcel Proust, du coté de la Mère, MAHJ

  

I’ve been eating and painting madeleines for 2 days thanks to Marcel Proust, Maison Angelina, Mado Paris and Boulanger de la Tour. It feels like longer. 

I missed the  Marcel Proust exhibit at Carnavalet. I didn’t want to miss the exhibit at MAHJ (Marcel Proust, du coté de la Mère). It’s on till 28, August, 2022 in the Marais. 

The first segment focuses on Jeanne, Proust’s mamma, a woman of great culture, born into wealth and privilege and privately well-educated in all areas. Women were not allowed to attend school then. In many ways she educated her son, having him translate texts into English, traveling alone with him to Venice.

Wikipedia says: “Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel In Search of Lost Time, originally published in French in 7 volumes between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. 

The paintings in this exhibit are simply wonderful, lent from many sources. Monet was his favorite painter. There are several. 

Proust spent summers in the beach-side resorts of  Trouville-sur-mer. 

Deauville

And Cabourge, hobnobbing with other Parisian writers, musicians and artists of renown. These Normandie towns became the Balbec in ‘In Search of Lost Time’. 

The first loyal patron “At the Ritz, no one pushes you around," asserted Marcel Proust, explaining why the great Impressionist writer was so enamoured of the grand hotel. Present at the inauguration, he was invited to countless receptions and hosted many dinners of his own. 

You can too take tea at the Salon de Proust.Why not? 

The exhibit displays some of the 75 notebooks Proust scribbled his first drafts of his books into. His contemporaries thought him a snob, which he was, an effete, a charmer. No one wanted to publish his first book, Swan’s Way. It was turned down famously by Andre Gide, who had not even read it. (Later he apologized profusely and begged to publish the later books)!So Proust paid editors Grasset to publish it, just like writers are self-publishing today on Amazon. You can find the only bi-lingual version here. He won the Legion d’Honneur for the books.

I haven’t read all 7 books 📚 but I intend to start. I saw the movies, listened 2 times to the BBC dramatization and read the comic book. This doesn’t count. You’re supposed to read In Search of Lost Time at least 4 times in your life according to one expert (there are many opinions out there). 2022 is the centennial of Proust’s death. There will be another exhibit at BnF in October. Last year was the 150th anniversary of his birth. Have you read Proust?

I’ve definitely more than fulfilled my quota of Proustian madeleines. Though recently it was discovered in a first draft, the famously fluted cookie was originally a piece of toast with honey🍯. Fortunately for the cookie world, Proust changed that by the third draft👏 Thank you for reading Parisbreakfast☺️

Gift 🎁 yourself a Proustian madeleine, Paris letters 💌 & maps 🗺 in my Etsy shop. XOXO 🐻☺️❤️🍓