Proust was a French novelist and essayist known for his masterpiece À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927. Proust was born into a wealthy middle class family. His father, a Catholic, was a prominent physician, while his mother, who was Jewish, was well read and influenced his intellectual development. Though he did not practice the Catholic faith under which he was brought up, it nevertheless informed the penetrating observation of French culture and history that characterizes much of his work.