A medical practitioner, Professor Cottard, features in Marcel Proust's À 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.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ProustM.Within a Budding Grove [À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs]. 1918. In: MoncrieffCK Scott, trans. À la recherche du temps perdu, Vol. 2, Part I. London: Chatto and Windus, 1972: p. 1.
2.
Proust, Marcel (1871–1922). In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Micropaedia (15th edn). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1974: vol. VIII, pp. 256–7.
3.
ProustM (op. cit. ref. 1): 4.
4.
Ibid.: 4–5.
5.
Ibid.: 99.
6.
PainterGD. Marcel Proust. A Biography. London: Chatto and Windus, 1959: vol. I, p. 2.
7.
Ibid.: 331.
8.
PearnJHGardner-ThorpeC.Jules Cotard (1840–1889). His life and the unique syndrome which bears his name. Neurology (Minneapolis)2002; 58: 1400–3. See also Gardner-ThorpeCPearnJ.CotardJules (1840–1889). Letter. Neurology (Minneapolis)2003; 60: 153.
9.
RittiA.Eloge du Docteur Jules Cotard [from a paper read at the annual public lecture of the Sociétè Medico-Psychologique, on 30 April 1894]. Paris: Imprimeric de la Cour d'Appel, 1894: pp. 1–10.
10.
BourgeoisM.Jules Cotard et son syndrome Cent and après. Annales Medico-Psychologiques1980; 138: 171–80.
11.
Gardner-ThorpeCPearnJH. Cotard's syndrome: reports of two patients, with a review of the extended spectrum of “délire des négations”. European Journal of Neurology2003 (submitted).
12.
CotardJ.Du délire hypochondriaque dans une forme grave de la melancolic anxieuse. Annales Médico-Psychologiques1880; 4: 1–7.
13.
CotardJ.Etudes sur le maladie cerebrale et mentales. Paris: J D Baillière, 1891: p. 348.
