Why did Marcel Proust leave Jean Santeuil unfinished?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Portrait of French author Marcel Proust, seated with his hand resting thoughtfully against his chin, wearing a dark suit and looking directly at the camera. — Marcel Proust French author Marcel Proust wrote what is considered one of the supreme achievements of modern fiction, the seven-part autobiographical novel *À la recherche du temps perdu* (1913–27; *In Search of Lost Time*).

Marcel Proust abandoned his early autobiographical novel Jean Santeuil in 1899 after discovering the art criticism of the English writer John Ruskin.1

This encounter prompted Proust to seek a new artistic direction, shifting his focus toward the beauty of nature and Gothic architecture as symbols of humanity's relationship with eternity. This shift in perspective led him to abandon the project in favor of translating Ruskin’s works and pursuing a different philosophical approach to his writing, which eventually helped him develop the mature prose style found in his later masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time.1