Proust’s overcoat: The true story of one man’s passion for all things Proust By Lorenza Foschini, Portobello, £7.99

Readers are obsessed with the printed word, collectors with objects. Sometimes, the two obsessions intersect. This book tells the true story of a reader and book lover who became a collector of everything related to the life of Marcel Proust.

In the process of telling this story, Lorenza Foschini recreates a small but exclusive part of the Parisian artistic and cultural world in which Jean Genet, Jean Cocteau, Violette Leduc and Pablo Picasso make cameo appearances.

At the heart of the story is Jacques Guerin, who had his appendix removed by Robert Proust, the brother of Marcel. This fortuitous meeting in 1929 opened up for Guerin the possibility of acquiring the personal effects of Marcel Proust.

Proust was an illegitimate child of the lady who took over the perfume company known as Parfums d’ Orsay. By 1936, the son, Jacques, ran the business and ran it successfully. But the primary focus of his life lay elsewhere: rare books, precious manuscripts and artists’ papers.

As a collector of books, he noticed one day a bookshop on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, just across from Hermes. The owner of the shop informed him that a few minutes earlier he had bought some proofs corrected by Proust. The seller had also informed him that he wanted to sell Proust’s desk and bookcase.

For Guerin, this was a revelation since he knew from his meeting with the novelist’s brother that many pieces of furniture belonging to the novelist had been inherited by the brother, Robert. In the latter’s apartment, he had actually seen tall stacks of notebooks which were the complete works of Marcel Proust.

Guerin knew, when he visited the bookshop, that Robert Proust was dead. He soon discovered that Robert’s widow was disposing of the furniture and other stuff in the apartment. He met the man, one Monsieur Werner, who had been given the responsibility of the removal and the disposal of the contents of the flat. This set Guerin off on the quest to acquire as many of the effects of Marcel Proust as he could lay his hands on.

Through Foschini’s retelling of Guerin’s successful quest, the reader not only learns of the hard and shrewd negotiations with Werner but also of some aspects of the relationships within the Proust family. The book thus becomes a document to be used by future biographers of the novelist.

Foschini, occasionally, illuminates her narrative about Guerin’s obsession with telling quotations from Proust’s great novel, In Search of Lost Time. This is a book as much about Proust and his world as about Guerin and his obsession.

Above all, this is a book that reveals to its readers the significance of small things and of details. “Objects of little value, furniture of questionable taste,’’ writes the author, “in fact the most common things can reveal unsuspected passions.’’ She recreates the world of In Search of Lost Time through the story of the discovery of lost things belonging to Proust. Even an old, threadbare overcoat has something to reveal.

This book is an exquisite little gem that will be treasured by all who love Proust, literature and biography.