this year, one of the most ambitious exhibitions at the French National Library (BNF) centers on Marcel Proust, marking the anniversary of his death on November 18. Titled “Marcel Proust. The Factory of a Work,” the show traces the creative process behind In Search of Lost Time, the monumental sequence of seven novels that stands among the great achievements of 20th-century literature. Thanks to the BNF’s extensive archive of Proust materials, visitors are invited to step into the making of a literary masterpiece and to experience it as a circular, non-linear journey rather than a single, linear narrative.
The exhibition runs through January 22 and features 350 pieces, including numerous hand-edited manuscripts by Proust himself. Guests follow the publication order of the seven volumes that comprise In Search of Lost Time, with each room dedicated to one volume. The journey begins with the opening volume, Swann’s Way, published in 1913, and extends to Time Regained, published posthumously in 1927, five years after the author’s death from pneumonia at age 51. This sequence diverges from the author’s own writing chronology, as he often drafted initial sections and final sections concurrently.
Ancestors of Proust’s Madeleine
the structure of In Search of Lost Time continued to evolve from the inside out. Nathalie Mauriac, a renowned Proust scholar and curator involved in the show, notes that Proust repeatedly revised and enlarged the manuscript. “She managed to print 250 pages at once, which reveals a playful, impulsive side of the writing process,” Mauriac observes, highlighting the unique sequential creation that underpins the work. In Search of Lost Time is frequently described as a luminous portrait of Belle Époque France, initially conceived as a two-volume project but ultimately expanding to seven volumes. The result is a sprawling, ambitious opus that captures a complex cultural moment more than a fixed endpoint.
The exhibition not only reveals the internal development of the structure but also showcases some of the author’s best-known passages. Original manuscripts are displayed with numerous strikethroughs and handwritten additions. Visitors can see how the text changed over time, and some pages are projected onto walls to illustrate how the manuscript evolved in a sequence of revisions. This display helps demystify the craft behind Swann’s Way’s opening line, Longtemps, suis couchée de bonne heure, and the evolution of the phrase Time Regained itself, which transformed through years of revision.
An especially revealing detail concerns the genesis of one of Proust’s most famous chapters: the scent and memory triggered by a cake. The tutor-narrator’s childhood recollections hinge on a sensory cue, and the exhibition traces how the early manuscript choices shifted from stale bread to a toasted bun, then to a donut in the final version. This evolution helps explain why the cake scene is among the most iconic moments in 20th-century literature.
Manuscripts, paintings and period costumes
Beyond the large number of original manuscripts on display, the show presents material made public for the first time, including the early draft known as Soixante Quinze Feuillets. In addition, famous paintings cited in Proust’s novels appear in the galleries. A notable example is Claude Monet’s Rouen Cathedral, showcased alongside satirical illustrations of period dress and characters from certain episodes of Time Regained. The exhibition benefits from collaborations with France’s leading museums, including the Louvre, D’Orsay, and the Palais Galliera, which contribute fashion history materials to contextualize the era depicted in Proust’s work.
The exhibition appeals to a wide audience, from general readers discovering a landmark 20th-century novel to scholars who want to study the author’s original texts and revisions. It also invites a broader contemplation of a literary project that helped shape the transition from 19th-century realism to avant-garde tendencies. While the show offers a rich panorama of manuscripts and visual materials, it is structured to illuminate the creative processes that underlie a work of lasting influence.