Abstract: Though the author of À la recherche du temps perdu did not aspire to be a mirror image of his era, Proust is so associated with the Belle Époque that many are only familiar with him through exhibitions and festivals celebrating the period. Yet Proust placed his hero in a traditional Catholic family, and he depicts provincial village life with as much detail as he does Parisian life. This “frivolous” period also produced a wealth of philosophical thought, the substratum of which, in À la recherche, constitutes the last reserve of the nineteenth century.
