A biographical note on Marcel Proust's Professor Cottard.
A medical practitioner, Professor Cottard, features in Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, which has been described as one of the supreme achievements of world literature. Proust modelled the character of Cottard on the real-life Parisian neurologist and psychiatrist Dr Jules Cotard (1840-1889). Marcel Proust's father, Dr Adrien Proust, was an eminent Parisian surgeon and a contemporary of Cotard. A review of the biographical literature (in French) relating to Dr Jules Cotard and an analysis of his published work (in English and French) have revealed a striking parallelism between the lives of the fictional Cottard and Jules Cotard.
Pearn
John
J
Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland 4029, Australia. j.pearn@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Gardner-Thorpe
Christopher
C
D005197:Famous Persons; D005602:France; D049672:History, 19th Century; D008093:Literature, Modern / Q000266:history*; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D009462:Neurology / Q000266:history*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*