Which Marcel Proust novel features a character who is working on an essay ?
Proust described what he was working on in a letter to a friend : " I have in progress : a study on the nobility , a Parisian novel , an essay on Sainte - Beuve and Flaubert , an essay on women , an essay on pederasty ( not easy to publish ) , a study on stained - glass windows , a study on tombstones , a study on the novel " .