À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs

Marcel Proust, the asthmatic son of bourgeois Parisian Jews, began frequenting literary salons while still in high school. After an enjoyable military service, he published a volume of stories, essays and poems, Les Plaisirs et les jours (Pleasures and Days) most of which had been previously published in magazines. After the crushing death of his parents, Proust began writing what would become his life's work, the seven-volume psychological and metaphorical memoir À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). He continued to work to complete it until his death from lung disease.