Une Chambre Mentale: Proust's Solitude

This article explores questions of the phenomenology of space in relation to Proust and suggests connections between the conditions of production of A la recherche du temps perdu and the quality of sensation that Proust sought to evoke in his novel. The essay examines the biography of Proust and how his famous solitariness has been seen as integral to the understanding of Proust's modernity and myth. Drawing on the work of recent historians of Paris, the article goes on to explore preoccupation with interiority in late nineteenth century France, arguing that far from simply being a flight from society reflected historical changes in the conception of the urban scene and in particular a new accent on privacy and the private interior that emerged out of the rebuilding of Paris in the period of the Second Empire and early Third Republic.