Proust in Darwin's Garden: Understanding Man through Nature

The article investigates Darwin’s presence in In Search of Lost Time with a view to shedding light on the extent to which the interest in the theories elaborated by the English naturalist and, in general, the vision of the relations between man and nature that emerged after the publication of his works in late Nineteenth-century European culture, had an impact on the way Proust analysed and attempted to account for certain aspects and attitudes of human beings. After reconstructing the context of Darwinian reception in France and of the training of the young Marcel Proust, the article focuses on the first pages of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which we find the most elaborate reference to Darwin in Proust’s entire oeuvre, in relation to the homosexual encounter between the characters Monsieur de Charlus and Jupien; the article then develops a number of reflections on the presence of classical-literary references and scientific theories in these same pages and in other passages in the monumental seven-volume novel.