Proust, Sartre, and the Idea of Love

The idea of love is central to the works of Marcel Proust and Jean-Paul Sartre. For both it is the desire to possess the consciousness of the other—an impossible ideal. Despite Sartre’s own admissions, scholars have failed to note the similarities between the two. In this essay, I argue that Sartre’s reading of the novel—both the period in which he read it and the method he employs in interpreting it—illustrates Proust’s influence on his text and offers a new approach to the study of the Recherche.