The American Proust: American Art and Culture in A la recherche du temps perdu

From dentistry to Barnum's circus, running water to celluloid, The American Proust examines how the many and varied Americans influences in late C 19th France feature heavily in Proust's depiction of a world undergoing rapid technological, economic, sexual and cultural change. Central to the book is a detailed examination of the specific uses to which Proust put his reading of Emerson and Poe, and his appreciation of Whistler an A la recherché relationship between art and memory.