French version/version française
Arts
- WRITERS: poets, novelists, playwriters, literary critics (almost all the most important ones and many minor writers)
- JOURNALISTS
- DIRECTORS AND EDITORS OF NEWSPAPERS AND REVIEWS
- PUBLISHERS: most of the big publishing houses of the time (Gallimard, Grasset, Fasquelle, Fayard, etc.)
- DIRECTORS OF THEATERS
- ACTORS AND ACTRESSES (such as Sarah Bernhardt, Réjane, etc.)
- DANCERS (such as Nijinsky, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, etc.)
- MUSICIANS: composers, instrumentalists, conductors, singers (opera singers such as Melba, Caruso, or popular singers such as Yvette Guilbert, Mistinguett)
- PAINTERS: Manet, Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, Renoir, etc.
- SCULPTORS: Rodin
- ARCHITECTS: Eiffel, Vaudoyer
- ART CRITICS AND HISTORIANS: Ruskin, Walter Pater, Berenson
- ART COLLECTORS
- ART DEALER
- AUTOGRAPH AND RARE BOOK DEALERS: Charavay
- FURNITURE MAKERS (such as Emile Gallé)
- JEWELERS (such as Lalique, Cartier)
- FASHION DESIGNERS (such as Paul Poiret, Worth, Reboux, Fortuny…)
University
- PROFESSORS
- SCHOLARS: influential researchers in the humanities (such as Bergson, Emile Mâle, Gaston Paris) and in the sciences (such as Claude Bernard, Pierre and Marie Curie, Branly, Edison, Einstein, Poincaré)
- LIBRARIANS
Members of Academies
- Most of the members of the French Academy alive during Proust’s time, and many future members are represented in the files
Politics
- STATESMEN: Presidents of the Republic, secretaries of state, “présidents du conseil” (= heads of the government)
- REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATORS
- DIPLOMATS: French and foreign (such as Ambassadors of the U.S.A. in Paris at the time)
- LEADERS OF POLITICAL PARTIES
Business and Finance
- ADMINISTRATORS OF BIG COMPANIES (such as the de Wendel family, owners of the steel industry of Lorraine; the Renault family, owners of Renault car factories; Louis Blériot, aviation pioneer and owner of an airplane factory)
- ENGINEERS
- BANKERS (such as the Rothschilds, the Finaly, the Mirabaud, the Germain)
- BROKERS
Medicine
- Proust’s father and brother were famous doctors, in touch with many famous doctors of the time
Military
- HIGH COMMAND: most of the army leaders during World War I (Joffre, Foch, Haig, Hindenburg)
- OFFICERS: Most of Proust’s friends were officers during the war.
- SOLDIERS
Religion
- CATHOLIC: popes, cardinals, bishops
- PROTESTANT: pastors, clergymen
- JEWISH: rabbis
High Society
- CLUBMEN
- LADIES WITH A “SALON”: Most of the influential “salons” of the time, and their hostesses, are represented in the files.
- ARISTOCRACY
Servants
- CHAUFFEURS (such as Odilon Albaret or Agostinelli)
- HOTEL STAFF (such as those at Cabourg)
- HOUSEKEEPERS (such as Céleste Albaret)
- WAITERS (such as those at the Ritz)