Marcel Proust (Penguin Lives)

Marcel Proust, now enjoying a major renaissance, has at last found a biographer who himself once produced the "finest French novel written in English" ( "The Nation" ). For Edmund White -- author of an award-winning biography of Jean Genet and of the classic gay novel "A Boy's Own Story," and known for his own haunting evocation of times past -- this portrait is the exquisite expression of a lifetime spent contemplating Proust. Proust teaches us to truly savor the master's delicate perfection of style and his strange, charismatic personality -- not just the recluse obsessively rewriting his one massive work through the night, but the yearning, lonely boy; the dazzling wit and darling of Parisian salons; the seeker of fame; and the unhappy closeted homosexual whom this book is the first to explore openly. From the frothiest gossip to the deepest angst, here is a gem to be treasured not only by literati and students, but by anyone looking for an introduction to an enduring genius.