Friday, March 27, 2009

Proust and Food

Well-researched article about Proust and Food. I didn't know he spent the last years living on coffee and croissants. Well, there are worse things. Pepsi and French fries? Pizza and beer?
Consider.
The Other Odette

2 comments:

Story teller - Krishnadas Dwija said...

I am glad to see that you are getting on with Proust. I am a little stuck of late. Not it the best of my spirits... obviousely you can't read Proust any other way.

Nice bits about his eating habits and flowers etc. I do the same with classic and historic authors, expecially orientals. Reading SundaraKanda in the forests of malnad is an unparrelled experience.

Keep us informed. Good luck

Bradford said...

Actually, according to Professor William C. Carter in his biography of Marcel Proust, in his last months Proust ate and drank almost nothing but ice cream and iced beer.

This is because on May 1, 1922, Proust took a very large dose of dry adrenaline without diluting it properly, which "severely burned his digestive tract." After this he had a high fever for several weeks and had Odilon Albaret bring him ice cream from the Ritz, because it was the only thing he could swallow. As a result of all of this, "from that time on Proust ate and drank little other than ice cream and iced beer from the Ritz."