Proustian

adjective

Proust·​ian ˈprü-stē-ən 

: of, relating to, suggestive of, or associated with Marcel Proust or his writings: such as

a

: marked by a complex, highly detailed style

In spite of its Proustian sentences and its surrealist feints, Krasznahorkai's novel is in fact a rather elementary tale.

—Robert Boyers

… as she described the mid-20th-century Schenectady city-parks tennis scene in Proustian detail, the hours flew by like anvils.

—Charles Leerhsen

b

: relating to or evoking the recall of a forgotten memory

… there is something Proustian about the tea sandwich. For some people, it evokes warm memories of church socials, showers, Mom's bridge-club luncheons, and similar white-glove occasions.

—Evelyn Battaglia

… Terry had already started a fire using several cords of dried hickory, whose smell can induce Proustian reveries in southerners everywhere.

—Pat Conroy

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The author of a previous book on urban foraging that received the M.F.K. Fisher Book Prize, Chin writes with a Proustian flourish about scrumptious foodscapes, and her new book — a valentine to four generations of her Asian American ancestors — plays to her strengths. —Rhoda Feng, Washington Post, 27 Apr. 2023

And then there are those cherry cordials, my Proustian cookie. —Reggie Nadelson, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1923, in the meaning defined above