Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way, and His Little Madeleine

French novelist Marcel Proust was born on this day today July 10th in 1871.  In his famous novel  ”À la Recherche du Temps Perdu” (“In Search of Lost Time” or “Remembrance of Things Past”), he writes with such endearment about the “petite madeleine” his mother and aunt Léonie would comfort him with.

 Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

Swann’s Way (Remembrance of Things Past, Volume One) can be downloaded for Free at Google Books (no kindle needed, just a computer or tablet). Proust talks about his “madeleine” on p.61:

“And suddenly the memory returns. The taste was that of the little crumb of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before church-time), when I went to say good day to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of real or of lime-flower tea.”

Enjoy the book or a madeleine or both!