One Year In Search of Lost Time ~ 2015 discussion

Is Proust really an excellent observer of sociology and social dynamics?
James Grieve, the translator of Penguin's ISOLT Vol. 2, makes following controversial, but interesting statement in the preface, which might upset some Proustians:

I think it is misleading too to speak of Proust’s sharp ‘powers of observation’, of ‘the immensity of his social canvas’, to say he has ‘a grasp of how society works’ and gives ‘a vast panorama of society’. 6 Proust’s book is much more about the power of covert sexual transgressiveness to undermine a social order founded on class, snobbery and money. True, his characters include duchesses and scullery-maids, ambassadors and liftboys. But there is little in between. And they are all seen from a perspective which likens them to one another. Proust needed little evidence in support of his generalizations. He certainly professes a sort of Balzacian expertise in diagnosing the ills of the social body; but his sociology is hampered by the shallowness of his sample and by his prizing of introspection over observation of externals. This should surprise no one: he was a cosseted Parisian whose Right-bank world was narrow, who preferred to live in the past, in bed, in a cork-lined room, who rarely travelled and never did a day’s work.

Proust, Marcel (2003-10-02). In Search of Lost Time: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower Vol 2 (pp. xiii-xiv). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

Then he proposes Proust's real strength, which...

... lie in his analysis of the ordinary, his close acquaintance with feelings, the pessimism of his examination of consciousness, his diagnosis of the unreliability of relationships and the incoherence of personality, his attentiveness to the bleak truths he has to tell of time, of its unrelenting wear and tear, its indifferent outlasting of all human endeavour, its gradual annulment of our dearest joys and even our cruellest sorrows, voiding them of all that once made them ours. (...)

(p. xiv).

I do think he has a point in that Proust's sample of society is heavily skewed towards carefree noble or rich persons, and it's hard to compare these characters to most people today, who have a regular working schedule. I also read a review of an equally large-scale novel deemed 'The British Proust' which praised it for its more realistic and common characters over Proust, but i don't remember the title.
Still, I think many of Proust's social, more so the psychological observations apply to most people.

What do you think?

Was the British one A Dance to the Music of Time?

Simon wrote: "Is Proust really an excellent observer of sociology and social dynamics?
James Grieve, the translator of Penguin's ISOLT Vol. 2, makes following controversial, but interesting statement in the pref..."

Honestly, I've never heard that Proust was a 'sociologist' -- but then I haven't read widely of him at all -- more that he was a 'psychologist' of sorts and I can agree with the latter.

Just last night, while reading this week's section, I thought of much of what you write above. His observations of the upper class have little or nothing to do with the 'lower' classes; they have to do with the strata within this upper class. It's quite claustrophobic.

Yes, it was A Dance to the Music of Time: 1st Movement, Barbara, thanks!
Teresa, i'd probably agree as i wrote above that Proust's great observations are rather psychological (or even neuroscientific) than social. And his non-representative sample of people in the novel does worry me.