The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 9 October 2006
by Céleste Albaret
Marcel Proust, author of one of the most significant works of literature in the 20th century, was also famous for his utter seclusion during the closing years of his short life, as he was working furiously to complete the massive book. Proust suffered from lifelong and crippling asthma attacks during a time when a frequent treatment was "fumigation" or even smoking. He would never, however, have lived as long if it wasn't for the affectionate attention of his housekeeper, cook, maid, nurse and right-hand woman, Céleste Albaret. For the last nine years of Proust's life, as his seclusion grew more hermetic, Albaret lived with him in his apartment and acted as his interface with the world at large. After his death in 1922, Albaret went on to keep an inn with her husband Odilon, who had been Proust's driver. She, herself, kept a hermetic silence about her time with M. Proust, until 1972, when she dictated over seventy hours of tape which were then transcribed into this fascinating personal memoir. Albaret joined Proust's staff late in 1912, as a courier taking copies of the first volume of A la Recherche du Temps Perdu to Proust's friends and admirers. As the staff fell away, due to exhaustion, illness or war, Céleste remained and forged a powerful bond with Marcel. She tells us of Proust's dwindling activities, his relationships with people who formed the basis of characters in his book, his fading health and the strong habits that kept him stable in is last years. She, also, is acutely aware of the mythology that grew up in the fifty years after Proust's death. Many times in her story, she attempts to directly refute rumor and myth, as well as accounts in purportedly authoritative biographies. She expresses a powerful loyalty to Proust's memory while professing a devotion to the truth. It is hard to say if what she says about Proust is more formed by what was said about him after his death, or of what he said in his books. She seems to support his own self-created myths and denies much of what is generally accepted about him today. So, is she an advocate for Proust? Or was she so devoted to him that his blind spots became hers? Much of this doubt is also expressed in an introduction by André Aciman. But, despite these doubts, there is a touching, loving quality in Albaret's account. It is a window as much into her own character as that of Marcel Proust. A remarkable story from the one eye-witness who should know, but across a void of time that alters, softens and even strengthens myth. Still, it is a critical piece of the romantic puzzle that was Marcel Proust.