Marcel Proust, author of the series of novels “In Search of Lost Time,” is rightly called the creator of “the greatest French book of the 20th century.” Having devoted many years to studying the life and work of Proust, Andre Maurois wrote, perhaps, the most comprehensive biography of the famous recluse. Thanks to the letters and diaries of Proust cited in Maurois’s book, where the latter openly talks not only about his creative insights, but also about the vices that oppress him, the reader is presented with a full-blooded image of a brilliant writer in all his greatness and earthly imperfection. Published in Russian for the first time .