{"product_id":"proust-class-and-nation-edward-j-hughes-9780199609864","title":"Proust, Class, and Nation","description":"Writing in 1927, Julien Benda described France as being afflicted by the twin scourges of narrow, class-based politics and rabid nationalism. He nevertheless identified Marcel Proust (who had died in 1922) as a writer who had refused to embrace the ideological narrowness of his age. Edward J.\u003cbr\u003eHughes seeks to assess how Proust and his novel \u003cem\u003eA la recherche du temps perdu\u003c\/em\u003e might be understood in relation to issues of class and nation. \u003cem\u003eA la recherche\u003c\/em\u003e was produced in momentous times. As an extended textual construction, first conceived of in 1908 and the last tranche of which appeared\u003cbr\u003eposthumously almost two decades later, it was assembled against a backdrop of major historical events: pre-war tensions in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair and the Separation of Church and State (issues on which Proust had campaigned publicly); the First World War and the atmosphere of narrow\u003cbr\u003enationalism and Germanophobia which the conflict generated; and the continuing polarization in class politics in the years after the First World War. These all find echoes in \u003cem\u003eA la recherche\u003c\/em\u003e and Hughes establishes how the exposure given to questions of class and nation needs to be understood\u003cbr\u003ehistorically. He demonstrates that the frequently entrenched positions of Proust's contemporaries at times square with the language and images of social conservativism to be found in \u003cem\u003eA la recherche\u003c\/em\u003e. Yet alongside that, Hughes unearths evidence that points to Proust as a free-floating, often playful, \u003cbr\u003eiconoclast and radical commentator who, as Theodor Adorno observed, resisted bourgeois compartmentalization.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Edward J. Hughes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0199609861\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780199609864\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/07\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 316\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.90d","brand":"Edward J. Hughes","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47419025064191,"sku":"9780199609864","price":165.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_89c852f4-5c43-4739-8230-9d38b83f17fa.jpg?v=1761508988","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/proust-class-and-nation-edward-j-hughes-9780199609864","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}