Proust & his banker : in search of time squandered / Gian Balsamo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Balsamo, Gian, 1949- author.

Contributor:

Class of 1953 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922.

Proust, Marcel.

Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922--Finance, Personal.

Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922--Friends and associates.

Hauser, Lionel.

Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922--Criticism and interpretation.

Novelists, French--20th century--Biography.

Novelists, French.

Criticism and interpretation.

Friends and associates.

Finance, Personal.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xx, 265 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Proust and his banker

Place of Publication:

Columbia, South Carolina : University of South Carolina Press, [2017]

Summary:

" What Marcel Proust wanted from life most of all was unconditional requited love, and the way he went after it -- smothering the objects of his affection with gifts -- cost him a fortune. To pay for such extravagance, he engaged in daring speculations on the stock exchange. The task of his cousin and financial adviser, Lionel Hauser, was to make sure these speculations would not go sour. In Proust and His Banker, Gian Balsamo reveals that Proust was quite aware of the advantageous trade-off between financial indulgence and artistic inspiration; his liberal squandering of money provided the grist for fictional characters and incidents of surprising effectiveness, both in the artistic sphere and later on in the commercial one. But Hauser was not aware of this odd aspect of Proust's creativity, nor could he have been since the positive returns from the writer's masterpieces were late in coming. Focusing on more than 350 letters between Proust and Hauser and drawing on records of the Rothschild Archive and financial data assembled from the twenty-one-volume Kolb edition of Proust's letters, Balsamo reconstructs Proust's finances and provides a fascinating window into the writers creative and speculative process. Balsamo carefully follows Proust's financial activities, including investments ranging from Royal Dutch Securities to American railroads to Eastern European copper mines, his exchanges with various banks and brokerage firms, his impetuous gifts, and the changing size and composition of his portfolio. Successes and failures alike provided material for Proust's fiction, whether from the purchase of an airplane for the object of his affections or the investigation of a deceased love's intimate background. Proust was, Balsamo concludes, a master at turning financial indulgence into narrative craftsmanship, economic costs into artistic opportunities. Over the course of their fifteen-year collaboration, the banker saw Proust squander three-fifths of his wealth on reckless ventures and on magnificent presents for the men and women who struck his fancy. To Hauser the writer was a virtuoso in resource mismanagement. Nonetheless, Balsamo shows, we owe it to the altruism of this generous relative, who never thought twice about sacrificing his own time and resources to Proust, that In Search of Lost Time was ever completed. "-- Provided by publisher.

"Focusing on more than 350 letters between Proust and Hauser and drawing on records of the Rothschild Archive and financial data assembled from the twenty-one-volume Kolb edition of Proust's letters, Balsamo reconstructs Proust's finances and provides a fascinating window into the writer's creative and speculative process. Balsamo carefully follows Proust's financial activities, including investments ranging from Royal Dutch Securities to American railroads to Eastern European copper mines, his exchanges with various banks and brokerage firms, his impetuous gifts, and the changing size and composition of his portfolio. Successes and failures alike provided material for Proust's fiction, whether from the purchase of an airplane for the object of his affections or the investigation of a deceased love's intimate background. Proust was, Balsamo concludes, a master at turning financial indulgence into narrative craftsmanship and economic costs into artistic opportunities. Over the course of their fifteen-year collaboration, the banker saw Proust squander three-fifths of his wealth on reckless ventures and on magnificent presents for the men and women who struck his fancy. To Hauser the writer was a virtuoso in resource mismanagement. Nonetheless, Balsamo shows, we owe it to the altruism of this generous relative, who never thought twice about sacrificing his own time and resources to Proust, that In Search of Lost Time was ever completed"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Sentimental Financier 12

Chapter 2 Old Mistresses From The Stock Exchange 17

Chapter 3 A Friend's Heart 24

Chapter 4 Enter Albert Nahmias 30

Chapter 5 Suckers and Believers 35

Chapter 6 Blind Eyes 43

Chapter 7 Enter Alfred Agostinelli 48

Chapter 5 A Wing's Wild Blow 61

Chapter 9 Enter Albertine Simonet 66

Chapter 10 Wartime Finance 72

Chapter 11 The Cobbler and the Banker 78

Chapter 12 A Ruined Man 84

Chapter 13 Opium and Dynamite 91

Chapter 14 The Cry of the Valkyries 102

Chapter 15 The Mistrust of Friendship 114

Chapter 16 Enter Henri Rochat 119

Chapter 17 A Fairy-Tale Princess and an American Tennis Player 125

Chapter 18 In Search of Time Squandered 131

Chapter 19 The Three Levers of the New World 136

Chapter 20 Turning Caresses into Gold 144

Chapter 21 Love's Bookkeeper 153

Chapter 22 Mission Accomplished 161

Chapter 23 Words Like a Hail of Blows 178

Chapter 24 Financial Comeback 200

Chapter 25 A Relativity Theory of Sex 207

Chapter 26 Suicidal Obstinacy 218

Chapter 27 Ars Longa, Vita Brevis 228.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1953 Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Balsamo, Gian, 1949- author. Proust and his banker

ISBN:

9781611177367

1611177367

OCLC:

960837605