9. Marcel Proust wrote in isolation, with the French author’s agoraphobia keeping him free from the many distractions of city life
Marcel Proust is widely regarded as a true literary titan. Above all, the Frenchman is best known for his epic work In Search of Lost Time. Published in 7 installments between 1913 and 1927, the work is a massive 3,000 pages long. How did Proust find the time to write such a lengthy literary masterpiece? Well, being agoraphobic was, in this regard, a blessing. Proust’s fear of going outside helped him sit down, undisturbed, and write an estimated 230 pages of polished prose a year for more than a decade.
According to the legend, Proust lived in the center of Paris. Rather than enjoying the views afforded by his upmarket apartment, he fitted thick curtains and had them closed at all times. He also had the walls of his main writing room fitted with cork to make them soundproof. Free from outside interference, Proust would stay in bed, in complete solitude, simply concentrating on his writing. Indeed, it’s believed that the author spent as much as 90% of his time sat or lying in bed. Certainly, he never regretted his circumstances. Instead, he embraced solitude and, as his writing shows, had a genuine aversion to people and dreaded setting foot outside of his apartment.
Some Proust scholars believe that a serious childhood illness was the cause of his agoraphobia. It may well be that this trauma, combined with his constant problems with asthma, meant that he was simply afraid of going outside into downtown Paris lest he catches something. Certainly, his later years suggest that this was the case. For the final three years of his life, Proust stayed at home at all times, sleeping during the day and then waking to take one single meal and then write through the night.