About the Society
The Proust Society of America is a permanent program of The Center for Fiction. Established in 1997, the Society's mission is to encourage the reading, study and enjoyment of the works of Marcel Proust (1871-1922), whose primary achievement, À la recherche du temps perdu, continues to be considered by most critics as one of the world's great works of fiction, almost a century after its composition was begun.
The Society presents several lectures for the public, which are free to Proust members, holds an annual dinner to commemorate Proust's birthday, and sends additional information through its regular e-mail list.
The Society now hosts three reading discussion groups at the Library. Group I is for people reading Proust for the first time. Group II is for people who have read Proust at least once, and Group III offers a much closer reading for those further advanced.
The Proust Society Discussion Groups
Group I will begin reading the last book, Time Regained, at the September session. People interested in attending those sessions should contact the Library by email at info@centerforfiction.org or by phone at 212.755.6710.
Group I meets at 5:30pm the first Wednesday of every month.
Group II meets at 5:30pm the third Thursday of every month.
Group III meets at 5:30pm the first Tuesday of every month.
A Proust Society Membership is required for registration. Membership to the Proust Society includes full membership to The Center for Fiction.
Click here to see the reading list for Proust Groups I and II
The Proust Society Annual Lectures
2009 Eric Karpeles, "Paintings in Proust"
2007 Evelyne Bloch-Dano on Madame Proust
2006 Richard Howard
2004 Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "The Weather in Proust"
2003 Lydia Davis, "Hammers and Hoofbeats: Rhythm and Structure in the Sentences of Swann's Way"
2002 Roger Shattuck, "Snobbery and Slumming in Proust's Novel"
2001 The Marcel Proust Film Festival and Panel Discussion
2000 William C. Carter, "The Vast Structure of Recollection: From Life to Literature"
1999 Andre Aciman, "The Proustian Stroke"
1998 Mary Ann Caws, "Art in À la recherche du temps perdu"
1997 Phyllis Rose, "The Year of Reading Proust"
The Annual Proust Birthday Dinner Talk
2003 Dr. Mark Calkins, "Dilaté ŕ la limite de la satisfaction: Involuntary Memory and the "Birth" of the Novel"
2002 Alexandra Leaf, "Dining in the Proust Years"
2001 Anka Muhlstein, "Proust and Homosexuality"
2000 Valerie Steele, "Proust and Fashion"
1999 Shirley King, "Dining with Monsieur Proust"
Other Lectures
2006 Joan T. Rosasco, "Proust's Wager"
Click here to read the text of Ms. Rosasco's paper. (PDF)
Become a Member of the Proust Society
"She (Marcel's mother) sent for one of those squat plump little cakes called "petites madeleines," which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell ? I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure invaded my senses..."
Center for Fiction
Proust Acquisitions
Books by Marcel Proust
Buy Remembrance of Things Past
Articles, Reviews, Letters, and Rebuttals
(click on the book covers below to purchase online)
Paintings in Proust
by Eric Karpeles, featured speaker of the 2009 Lecture.
Andre Aciman's review of Lydia Davis' translation of Swann's Way.
Lydia Davis' letter to Andre Aciman.
Review of William C. Carter's book, Proust in Love.
A book review of
A Night at the Majestic.
Other Proust Links
FRENCH PROUST DISCUSSION BOARD
ITALIAN PROUST SITE
THE KOLB-PROUST ARCHIVE
ECCLESIASTICAL PROUST ARCHIVE