The term célèbre appears 88 times in Marcel Proust's novel À la recherche du temps perdu (translated as Remembrance of Things Past, 1922‑1931, and, recently, In Search of Lost Time, 2002) and presents an essential term if one is to acquire a nuanced understanding of the aesthetic dimension of this oeuvre. Certain architectural works may be célèbres and, of course certain aristocratic families as well. Robert de Saint-Loup gives his nobility an aesthetic turn, being ‘famed for the smartness of his clothes’. The singular quality of his appearance ‘must correspond to a life different from that led by other men’, and this observation is certainly preponderant for the narrator's choice of Saint-Loup as his best friend. Celebrity also touches important scientists or doctors, although the Recherche demonstrates how public fame can be combined with professional mediocrity in other circumstances (as with Sorbonne professor Brichot or doctor Cottard).

In a wider context, the word célèbre is regularly used to determine a major aspect of an artist's life. Regarding the great expectations of the protagonist of the Recherche we read that his fervent wish to be famous is frustrated during the greatest part of the work. This ensures that his desire, unsatisfied as it is, becomes all the more obsessive. In the theatre his admiration is reserved for the actresses – particular to his attention l’illustre Berma and the profusion de gloire she amasses. However, his idol eventually embodies the evanescence of glory as, in the final volume, she is both eclipsed by the most vulgar Rachel and paralyzed by illness. The imaginary character of her status is revealed when her fictitious name figures between those of historical personages: ‘I classified, in order of talent, the most distinguished: Sarah Bernhardt, Berma, Bartet, Madeleine Brohan, Jeanne Samary; but I was interested in them all’.

However, this constitutes the counterpart of another phenomenon that predicts the final goal of the oeuvre, namely that often the beginnings of a creator are rather obscure and it is only after a significant period, or even after death, that celebrity occurs. The composer Vinteuil is the principal example, but the same principle applies to Elstir who is first presented as the young, all too pretentious Biche, whilst Mundane Octave becomes a fine author and even super snob Legrandin eventually writes good poetry.