LGBT People Of History Part Twelve Marcel Proust

Valentin Louis Georges Eugene Marcel Proust was born in Auteuil near Paris in 1871. He suffered asthma for almost the entirety of his life. Partly because of this he was bullied at school. However he did manage to serve for a year in the French Army. He was baptised a Catholic but never practiced the religion He attended the Sorbonne and studied law.

He had a pathologically close relationship with his mother.

He was a famous essayist, critic and novelist. A closeted homosexual he was among the first European writers and novelists to mention homosexuality openly and at great length. He does so in his most famous work “A Le Recherche Du Temps Perdu” (“In Search Of Lost Time”).

His attitude towards his sexuality was couched in contemporary attitudes to the subject. As long as it was kept out of the public eye it was acceptable. He seemed to have a pronounced libido and enjoyed making love to young men. Lucien Daudet and Reynaldo Hahn were amongst his lovers. He also wrote at great length about the subject without outing himself. An example of life at time is the ‘duel’ which was ‘fought’ between Proust and another man after one accused the other publicly of being homosexual. Seemingly they fired the bullets above each other’s heads!

Proust was devastated at the death of his mother in 1905 and from then on became more and more reclusive turning day into night. He died in 1922 and is interred in Pere Lachaise, Paris.

Callum and Ian.

Thanks to Wikipedia.

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