Lorenza Foschini Bücher

Durch Zufall stößt die Journalistin Lorenza Foschini auf einen Parfümfabrikanten in Frankreich, der jahrzehntelang alles sammelte, was einmal Marcel Proust gehörte. In einer amüsanten Reportage erzählt die Autorin, wie Jacques Guérin wegen einer Blinddarmentzündung 1929 an den Arzt Robert Proust gerät, den Bruder von Marcel Proust. Von da an kennt Guérin nur noch ein Ziel: alles in seinen Besitz zu bringen, was je dem berühmten Schriftsteller gehörte. So rettet er wertvolle Manuskripte für die Literaturgeschichte, und auch die Toilettenartikel und den berühmten Mantel, in dem Proust zuweilen schlief, spürt er auf. Eine ungewöhnliche und faszinierende Erzählung über eine mitreißende Leidenschaft.

"Jacques GuErin was a prominent businessman at the head of his family's successful perfume company, but his real passion was for rare books and literary manuscripts. From the time he was a young man, he frequented the antiquarian bookshops of Paris in search of lost, forgotten treasures. The ultimate prize? Anything from the hands of Marcel Proust." "GuErin identified with Proust more deeply than with any other writer, and when illness brought him by chance under the care of Marcel's brother, Dr. Robert Proust, he saw it as a remarkable opportunity. Shamed by Marcel's extravagant writings, embarrassed by his homosexuality, and offended by his disregard for bourgeois respectability, his family had begun to deliberately destroy and sell their inheritance of his notebooks, letters, manuscripts, furni-ture, and personal effects. Horrified by the destruction, and consumed with desire, GuErin ingratiated himself with Marcel's heirs, placating them with cash and kindness in exchange for the writer's priceless, rare material remains. After years of relentless persuasion, GuErin was at last rewarded with a highly personal prize, one he had never dreamed of possessing, a relic he treasured to the end of his long life: Proust's overcoat."--Book jacket.

Set in Naples in 1959, the story revolves around Renato Caccioppoli, a brilliant mathematician and pianist with a rich cultural background and a lineage linked to anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. His life, marked by intellectual prowess and storytelling charm, ends tragically when he takes his own life in his home. The narrative explores themes of genius, despair, and the complexities of identity, providing a poignant glimpse into the mind of a man who struggled with profound personal demons.