Letters to the Lady Upstairs by Marcel Proust

Letters to the Lady Upstairs by Marcel Proust (author),‎ Lydia Davis (translator)

A charming, funny, poignant collection of twenty-three letters from Marcel Proust to his upstairs neighbour

102 Boulevard Haussmann, an elegant address in Paris’s eighth arrondissement.

Upstairs lives Madame Williams, with her second husband and her harp. Downstairs lives Marcel Proust, trying to write In Search of Lost Time, but all too often distracted by the noise from upstairs.

Written by Proust to Madame Williams between the years 1909 and 1919, this precious discovery of letters reveals the comings and goings of a Paris building, as seen through Proust’s eyes. You’ll read of the effort required to live peacefully with annoying neighbours; of the sadness of losing friends in the war; of concerts and music and writing; and, above all, of a growing, touching friendship between two lonely souls.

Letters to the Lady Upstairs - Reviews

‘Delightful. Big news for Proustians’ Daily Telegraph

‘If you have suffered from noisy neighbours, you will sympathize with Marcel Proust’ Times Literary Supplement

‘A haunting portrait of a friendship 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

Letters to the Lady Upstairs - About the Author

Marcel Proust is the one of the world's most famous writers. Renowned for his epic novel in seven volumes, In Search of Lost Time, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists of all time. He lived at 102 Boulevard Haussman between 1907 and 1919 and died in 1922.

Lydia Davis is a prize-winning translator of French literature and the author of one novel and six short-story collections. She won the Man Booker International Prize in 2013.