Editing Marcel Proust (section)

===Personal life===
Proust is known to have been [[Homosexuality|homosexual]]; his sexuality and [[Same-sex relationship|relationships with men]] are often discussed by his biographers.<ref>Painter (1959), White (1998), Tadié (2000), Carter (2002 and 2006)</ref> Although his housekeeper, [[Céleste Albaret]], denies this aspect of Proust's sexuality in her memoirs,<ref>Albaret (2003)</ref> her denial runs contrary to the statements of many of Proust's friends and contemporaries, including his fellow writer [[André Gide]]<ref>Harris (2002)</ref> as well as his [[valet]] Ernest A. Forssgren.<ref>Forssgren (2006)</ref>

Proust never openly disclosed his homosexuality, though his family and close friends either knew or suspected it. In 1897, he fought a duel with writer [[Jean Lorrain#Duel|Jean Lorrain]], who publicly questioned the nature of Proust's relationship with Proust's lover<ref>{{cite web |last=White |first=Edmund |title=Marcel Proust |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/white-proust.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710132920/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/white-proust.html |archive-date=10 July 2018 |access-date=2 May 2022}}</ref> [[Lucien Daudet]]; both duellists survived.<ref>{{cite web |author=Hall, Sean Charles |date=12 February 2012 |title=Dueling Dandies: How Men Of Style Displayed a Blasé Demeanor In the Face of Death |url=http://www.dandyism.net/2024/04/15/dueling-dandies/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190911060214/http://www.dandyism.net/2012/02/12/dueling-dandies |archive-date=11 September 2019 |access-date=6 November 2024 |website=Dandyism}}</ref> Despite Proust's public denials, his romantic relationship with composer [[Reynaldo Hahn]]<ref name="carter"/> and his infatuation with his chauffeur and secretary, Alfred Agostinelli, are well documented.<ref>{{cite news|work=Salon|date=1 June 2000|title=Proust's dearest pleasures: The best of a slew of recent biographies points to the author's conscious self-closeting|author=Whitaker, Rick|url=http://www.salon.com/2000/06/01/proust/|access-date=18 May 2016|archive-date=5 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605041544/http://www.salon.com/2000/06/01/proust/|url-status=live}}</ref> On the night of 11 January 1918, Proust was one of the men identified by police in a raid on a male [[brothel]] run by Albert Le Cuziat.<ref>Murat, Laure (May 2005). "Proust, Marcel, 46 ans, rentier: Un individu 'aux allures de pédéraste' fiche à la police", ''La Revue littéraire'' 14: 82–93; Carter (2006)</ref> Proust's friend [[Paul Morand]] openly teased Proust about his visits to [[Male prostitution|male prostitutes]]. In his journal, Morand refers to Proust, as well as Gide, as "constantly hunting, never satiated by their adventures ... eternal prowlers, tireless sexual adventurers."<ref>Morand, Paul. ''Journal inutile, tome 2: 1973 – 1976'', ed. Laurent Boyer and Véronique Boyer. Paris: Gallimard, 2001; Carter (2006)</ref>

The exact influence of Proust's sexuality on his writing is a topic of debate.<ref>Sedgwick (1992); O'Brien (1949)</ref> However, ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]'' discusses homosexuality at length and features several principal characters, both men and women, who are either homosexual or [[Bisexuality|bisexual]]: the Baron de Charlus, Robert de Saint-Loup, Odette de Crécy, and Albertine Simonet.<ref>Sedgwick (1992); Ladenson (1999); Bersani (2013)</ref> Homosexuality also appears as a theme in ''[[Les plaisirs et les jours]]'' and his unfinished novel, ''[[Jean Santeuil]]''.

Proust inherited much of his mother's political outlook, which was supportive of the [[French Third Republic]] and near the [[Classical liberalism|liberal]] [[Centrism|centre]] of French politics.<ref name="Hughes">{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Edward J.|title=Proust, Class, and Nation|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=19–46}}</ref> In an 1892 article published in ''Le Banquet'' entitled "L'Irréligion d'État", Proust condemned extreme [[Anti-clericalism|anti-clerical]] measures such as the expulsion of monks, observing that "one might just be surprised that the negation of religion should bring in its wake the same [[fanaticism]], intolerance, and persecution as religion itself."<ref name="Hughes" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Carter |first1=William C. |title=Marcel Proust: A Life, with a New Preface by the Author |date=2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=346}}</ref> He argued that [[socialism]] posed a greater threat to society than the Church.<ref name="Hughes" /> He was equally critical of the right, lambasting "the insanity of the conservatives," whom he deemed "as dumb and ungrateful as under [[Charles X of France|Charles X]]," and referring to [[Pope Pius X]]'s obstinacy as foolish.<ref name="Watson">{{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=D. R. |title=Sixteen Letters of Marcel Proust to Joseph Reinach |journal=The Modern Language Review |date=1968 |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=587–599 |jstor=3722199 |doi=10.2307/3722199 }}</ref> Proust always rejected the bigoted and illiberal views harbored by many priests at the time, but believed that the most enlightened clerics could be just as progressive as the most enlightened secularists, and that both could serve the cause of "the advanced liberal Republic".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sprinker |first1=Michael |title=History and Ideology in Proust: A la Recherche Du Temps Perdu and the Third French Republic |date=1998 |publisher=Verso |pages=45–46}}</ref> He approved of the more moderate stance taken in 1906 by [[Aristide Briand]], whom he described as "admirable".<ref name="Watson" />

Proust was among the earliest [[Dreyfus Affair|Dreyfusards]], even attending [[Émile Zola]]'s trial and proudly claiming to have been the one who asked [[Anatole France]] to sign the petition in support of [[Alfred Dreyfus]]'s innocence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bales |first1=Richard |title=The Cambridge Companion to Proust |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00bale |url-access=limited |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00bale/page/n21 21]}}</ref> In 1919, when representatives of the right-wing [[Action Française]] published a manifesto upholding [[French colonialism]] and the [[Catholic Church]] as the embodiment of civilised values, Proust rejected their nationalistic and chauvinistic views in favor of a [[Classical liberalism|liberal]] [[Pluralism (political philosophy)|pluralist]] vision which acknowledged [[Christianity in France|Christianity]]'s [[Culture of France|cultural legacy in France]].<ref name="Hughes" /> [[Julien Benda]] commended Proust in ''La Trahison des clercs'' as a writer who distinguished himself from his generation by avoiding the twin traps of nationalism and class sectarianism.<ref name="Hughes" />

Because of his allergies and frequent asthma attacks, and the misunderstanding of the disease at the time,<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Marcel Proust (1871-1922): reassessment of his asthma and other maladies |date=2000 |pmid=10853866 |url=https://publications.ersnet.org/content/erj/15/5/958 |last1=Sharma |first1=O. P. |journal=The European Respiratory Journal |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=958–960 |doi=10.1034/j.1399-3003.2000.15e25.x }}</ref> Proust was considered a [[Hypochondriasis|hypochondriac]] by his doctors. His correspondence provides some clues on his symptoms.{{Clarification needed|date=January 2024}} According to Yellowlees Douglas, Proust suffered from the [[Ehlers–Danlos syndromes#Vascular EDS|vascular subtype of Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Douglas |first=Yellowlees |date=2016-05-01 |title=The real malady of Marcel Proust and what it reveals about diagnostic errors in medicine |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27063078/ |journal=Medical Hypotheses |volume=90 |pages=14–18 |doi=10.1016/j.mehy.2016.02.024 |issn=1532-2777 |pmid=27063078 |access-date=15 November 2022 |archive-date=15 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221115120604/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27063078/ |url-status=live }}</ref>