The Fugitive

Marcel Proust · 1871–1922 · France

Originally Albertine disparue (French)

Why it matters

Albertine flees and dies offstage, and the narrator's grief becomes a case study in how completely memory can outlast the person it clings to, and how indifference eventually replaces even the deepest pain. Also published as Albertine Gone.

At a glance

Shorter and more emotionally direct, though still tracking grief's minute fluctuations.