Celeste, the woman behind Marcel Proust

2022 marks the centenary of Marcel Proust's death. On this occasion, exhibitions and publications multiply. But comic book author Chloé Cruchaudet offers an offbeat look by focusing on Celeste, the servant of the great man or how Proust's shadow now passes into the light. A fan's story The subtitle of the first volume, "Of course, Monsieur Proust," shows the complexity of Chloé Cruchaudet's project. Rather than a biography of the writer, she drew the portrait of Céleste Albaret, governess and secretary of Marcel Proust until his death. His role was to ensure his tranquility so that he could devote himself to his work. This woman lived in the shadow of the most recognized French writer in the world but seems to have left no trace in history. This step aside in history is a specialty of the scriptwriter, illustrator and colorist Chloé Cruchaudet. Far from writing vast frescoes on great history, Cruchaudet paints intimate but complex portraits that are just as revealing of the era as a battle account. She had been interested in the children's crusade in the Middle Ages and a transvestite deserter in Bad Gender during the First World War. It returns to the same period but passes from the working classes to the elite. Celeste is therefore not a traditional biography but we learn a lot about Proust. He lives on in the memories of his oldest friends. Passages from La Recherche emerge from the book during the writer's working sessions. Newly hired, it is Celeste who delivers the first copies of the first volume of The Search for Lost Time. Proust is an exclusive master and Celeste serves as his models to bring out these memories. This book is also a journey back in time. Even if he focuses on the very rich bourgeoisie, we discover the opulent interiors and technical changes: the first automobiles, the beginnings of sound recordings … War is also present. Proust was certainly spared, but his Norman hotel was requisitioned. Chloé Cruchaudet's drawing is also out of the commonplace. The layout refuses edges to geometric boxes but it opts for a free form according to the colorization or the meaning it wants to give to the reading. In addition, each page of Celeste offers a very wide variety of compositions as during the moments when inspiration triggers Proust's writing. The colors in watercolor make the work even more human. It is both very precise as for the car but also more synthetic in the background of the boxes. The designer plays on inking or its absence to separate reality and visions of different characters. The reader follows Proust's discovery in the footsteps of Celeste. Initially, his face is stylized until Celeste sees him. A woman's story Without any didacticism, Celeste is also a committed book. The book begins in 1956. Celeste lives with her husband Odilon in a small Parisian apartment but dandies flock to meet the woman who knew the great man. Her husband does not appreciate this celebrity especially since he is allergic to madeleines. Yet it is through him that she meets Proust. Taxi, he had the writer as a regular customer and offered to hire her to prevent her from getting bored. Totally in her time, she has a shy character and fades behind her husband. Entering the master bedroom is an adventure worthy of fairy tales as illustrated by Chloé Cruchaudet. However, she also knows what she doesn't want. We can conclude the quality of the edition by Soleil in its Noctambule collection, the solid but grainy cover invites to touch. The first page contains the motifs of old books. If Celeste may seem at first glance as a gadget in the context of Proust's centenary, Chloé Cruchaudet's talent makes it a striking comic. Far from the classic biography without invention, it offers a vision by the side of the writer much richer and touching. It paints a portrait of an environment and scratches certain well-known characters (Gide) or anonymous (Celeste's husband). Discover other historical comics through the chronicles on A Revolutionary Feminist in the Workshop and The Two-headed Snake.