Secular chronicles of Marcel Proust

The article examines that part of the creative heritage of the French writer Marcel Proust (1871-1922), which until now has not become the subject of scientific study: secular chronicles. The connection between the genre and the art of small talk is shown, on the one hand, and with Proust’s journalistic practice on the other. The “original elements” of the genre were revealed: a salon portrait of the 17th century, a memoir of Saint-Simon, moral essays, a Parisian chronicle, newspaper notes-reports on secular events. Proust’s secular chronicles are considered in the context of moral essays belonging to the pen of Proust’s predecessors, French writers of the 19th century (Victor de Jouy, Balisson de Rougemont, Paul de Kock, Delphine de Girardin), as well as chronicles that were written for the Parisian periodicals by major French writers of the 19th century (Maupassant, France, Barres et al.). At the same time, traits that distinguish Proust’s secular chronicles from both moralistic essays and newspaper chronicles of his predecessors have been revealed. The most important features of Proust’s secular chronicles are described: focus on the description of secular salons, structural laconicism and chamber, memoir character, presence of “curriculum hotes” (guest list), “marionetteness” of images, complimentary. The connection of secular chronicles with Proust’s collection “Joys and Days” (1896) and the concept of secularism presented in it as a universal entity is shown. The conclusion is made about the place of secular chronicles in the work of Proust, which served as preparatory materials and prologue to his “In Search of Lost Time”. The article in its author’s translation cites pro-Russian’s chronicle “In The Light” which was not published earlier in the Russian language.