1. Is Proust a unworldly Neurotic? 

 1-Proustaverses: 

Proust is an oversensitive and over-intelligent man who seems to be a world-alienated recluse trapped in a self-made prison from which he spies on a fading social class and then writes an unreadable book about it. 

He needs literary tricks (the Petite Madeleine, the uneven paving stones, the starched napkin, etc.) to invent a red thread that justifies his thousands of pages and holds them together with duct tape. 

1- Proustophiles: 

From the many testimonies of his friends, Proust emerges as a sensitive and erudite aesthete, endowed with great intelligence and an even greater talent. Anne de Noailles, the aristocratic poetess, and Proust are called the funniest conversationalists in Paris. 

To put it bluntly, he used the first three decades of his life to infiltrate the mondaine world, observe it, and write pieces about it. After the death of his father (1903) and especially after the death of his mother (1905), he goes through a difficult mourning period. He does not write a single literary line for months, something that had never happened since his childhood. 

After his six-week stay with Dr. Paul Sollier, his day-night rhythm is a little better, he has used less medication all those weeks and has found the courage to work again. Marcel Proust himself claims that he came out worse than he went in, but the fact is that from then on he writes valuable proto-texts (Journèes de lectures, Impressions de route et automobile, 1907). 

In addition, he wrote a number of unfinished exercises and études (Jean Santeuil, Le Dossier contre Sainte-Beuve, les 75 Feuillets) that function as a breeding ground and incubator for the ISOLT. These works end his incubation period. Marcel is ready for the Great Journey. The major protagonist, ‘The Narrator’ is about to float to the surface.