Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

De Botton wonders whether the artist can be separated from the work and whether any examination as to the merits of art should also include a survey of the artist's biography. Proust decidedly felt that a piece of art should be evaluated separately from the artist, and that the artist is in fact unimportant in any judgement of the art he or she produced. Perhaps appropriately, then, Proust's writing is logical and wise, whereas his life by contrast was filled with missteps and both physical and psychological misery.

To begin with, Proust had an extremely overbearing mother, who encouraged a nurse-patient relationship with Proust and who caused Proust to be helpless and clinging. Proust would have conversations in letters with his mother about the quality of his stool or the effectiveness of sleep. Proust could do nothing without his mother and...