Withdrawing from the glittering high society he had so avidly courted, Marcel Proust spent the last decade of his life in virtual isolation, writing and revising Remembrance of Things Past. This program focuses on an intriguing dramatization of part seven of Proust’s magnum opus, in which narrator Marcel attends a reception for the new Princesse de Guermantes and discovers his life’s true vocation in the process. Professor Michel Butor, of Geneva University, and translator Terence Kilmartin add keen insights into the novel’s philosophical exploration of time, memory, and individual creativity. (60 minutes)