Description
Book SynopsisA charming, funny, poignant collection of twenty-three letters from Marcel Proust to his upstairs neighbour
Trade Review‘A collection of letters to the neighbours about noise would seem unpromising material for a book, unless they were written by Marcel Proust, who was so sweet, kind, funny and charming, that his letters are a delightful surprise’ ***** Daily Telegraph
‘A delight. This slim book is special, not only because it reveals details of Proust’s life, but also in its simple celebration of friendship’ Observer
‘Translator Lydia Davis … reveals Proust’s brilliant, darting mind at work in an unfettered, conversational manner’ Arts Desk
‘Nearly as famous as Marcel Proust’s madeleine is his cork-lined bedroom at 102 Boulevard Haussmann, where he lay in bed and wrote most of A la Recherche du temps perdu …Letters to the Lady Upstairs gives us an oblique portrait of this closeted life.’ Times Literary Supplement
‘A haunting portrait of a friendship both evanescent and intense between two people who lived within earshot of one another, separated only by a few inches of plaster and floorboard, but who scarcely ever met’ New Statesman
‘Full of wit and playful decorum’ New Yorker
‘A trove of charming correspondence from literature’s most famous “noise phobic”’ Kirkus
