Primarily interested in the world of art, symbolism, and memory, Proust nevertheless considers the social aspects of his society in the many volumes of his work. He writes of the prewar years (1900-1914) and the strik ing social mobility that characterizes this period. At this point, the old aristocracy was collapsing, to be replaced by the bourgeoisie and several Jewish and American families. The glimpse into Mme. Verdurin's salon at the beginning of the "Swann in Love" shows a bourgeois salon, replacing the old aristocracy so popular in French history. Odette de Crecy, the object of Swann's love, is a member of this circle, and her daughter Gilberte will follow the same evolution in the society of her times. Painter states that Proust wrote the great obituary of the French nobility whom he had loved all his life.

Proust writes of a very circumscribed society during...