Marcel Proust

About Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust was a towering figure in modernist literature, primarily recognized for his monumental seven-volume novel, À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). His pioneering exploration of involuntary memory, subjective time, and the deep analysis of consciousness cemented his legacy, leading to his #481 rank in MIT's Historical Popularity Index. Although his lifespan (1871 - 1922) places him in the turn of the 20th century, his literary contributions continue to influence writers and thinkers globally.

In terms of contemporary digital recognition, Proust garners approximately 605K annual Wikipedia views in 2025. This places his modern attention roughly on par with his historical significance, as indicated by his attention gap factor of ~1x. To provide context, this view count is significantly lower than that of other writers like Virginia Woolf (#929 importance, 1.4M views) or Isaac Asimov (#920 importance, 1.6M views), who rank lower historically but command more than double the online attention. Conversely, he is far more viewed than historically crucial but less-searched figures such as Mehmed the Conqueror (#128 importance, 97K views).

Despite maintaining a relatively proportional level of attention, the data suggests a slight erosion of his current online footprint, with his year-over-year change showing a -3.1% decline and a -7% drop in momentum between the first and third quarters of 2025.