Book Description
For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin’s acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation to take into account the new definitive French editions of À la recherche du temps perdu (the final volume of these new editions was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989).
Customer Reviews:
Moments of the radiance of the eternal caught on paper........2007-06-20
If someone told me ten years ago that one day I would read 4,000 pages of dense, hypeliterate ramblings, filled with single sentences that sometimes go on for at least ten pages, I would have thought myself more crazy than the guy who wrote them. Two years after reading all of Proust, incredibly, I find myself longing to spend afternoons again immersed in it. Such is the beauty of this momumental work.
While James Joyce's Ulysses deserves to be considered the best and greatest novel of the 20th century, I think it's fair to say that it's doubtful that any writer will ever reach the majesty and breathtaking beauty found in Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". Proust is not great for the 20th c., it's great for all time.
Marcel Proust & my book "Archetypes for Writers".......2007-03-04
Like others who've read and reviewed Proust's opus here, I did not read it in one consistent long read. I read the first ten pages and put it down for a year. I then read up to page 100 and put it down again for six months. Thereafter, pregnant with my first child, I read through all the rest.
I found Proust immeasurably easy and pleasant to read. The long sentences are almost musical and facilitate rather than impede understanding of Proust's deep insights.
Further, despite Proust's own unhappiness, I have never been happier reading a book. Nor have I ever felt so "let into" a person's life as I did reading him.
But, as important as my joy in reading Proust was the fact that it was Proust's masterpiece -- and most especially the last volume (Past Recaptured, by the old title) and particularly Chapter 3 of that volume -- that confirmed much of what I already secretly and silently knew and had begun developing into a method for finding one's own already-existing characters inside oneself, which I had already started teaching and continued to teach for twenty years (first in my own business and then at the New School University in NYC) and finally developed into my book "Archetypes for Writers: Using the Power of Your Subconscious" (available on Amazon).
Proust's value for me was not in his exquisitely minute and drawn-out descriptions of drinking tea or misstepping on a cobblestone (which both triggered the reliving of lost moments for Proust). It is a misunderstanding of Proust to think that that is all he is about. (There was, in fact, an entire acting method developed out of this view (called "method acting").)
Rather, I found Proust's understanding of character valuable. He knew the power of juxtaposition -- which he called "mental gymnastics" and "the miracle of analogy."
I found his articulation of the "extra-temporal being" or "the man freed from the order of time" valuable -- that which I have called to my students: the "author self," the self that knows the whole story of all one's characters: the beginning, the middle, the end -- without having to wait for anything to happen -- a knowledge that almost presupposes the non-existence of time, in an Einsteinian sense -- and something which I have found is naturally developed through the use of the skill I called "arkhelogy" or "doing archetypes."
The habit or skill of "being in the moment" -- something that is a primary skill enumerated in my book -- is also something of what Proust reveals (he calls it a "minute freed from the order of time")
Proust practiced suspending moments in his mind in order to reclaim his past, but it is also a central skill possessed by all great novelists -- for, how do you experience the life of another if you do not grasp and suspend in your own mind the moments in which that person lives and breathes?
And this brings me to another concept that Proust knew and realized in his work (but did not express in the way I do), which was something I had learned from my years in the theater: analogy. Proust talked about analogy in the context of the juxtaposition of two moments. But analogy is also about making analogies between oneself and others (something which Proust called "substitutions"). In other words, finding how to "relate" to another, how to feel what the other feels. This, of course, is a human ability, but it is also a skill that can and should be encouraged and practiced. Proust achieved this level of understanding of his fellow humans to a high degree.
Finally, there is Proust's recognition that "in fashioning a work of art we are by no means free, that we do not choose how we shall make it but that it is pre-existent to use and therefore we are obliged, since it is both necessary and hidden, to do what we should have to do if it were a law of nature, that is to say to discover it." Similarly, one of the main premises in my book is that one's character's and their stories already exist and that one needs only to learn how to find them -- which is, of course, what all the rest of Proust's novel is about (and my exercises teach one to do).
I owe a great debt to Proust. Apart from my sense of love for his language, his words, his phrases, not to mention his insights into people and events, Proust was for me the major impetus behind the development of both the book "Archetypes for Writers" and the course out of which the book grew.
Lost Time? Not at all........2007-01-05
Reading Proust is a major undertaking, a life-changing event for some, if only the committment of time is considered. This edition is superbly translated from the French, and loses very little (as my undergraduate French is concerned). The text[s] allow one immerse in Proust and the turn-of-the-century life of an upper class family. As an academic I see so many uses for this material, but as a reader it's a pleasurable experience to take in a true genius who can spend seven wonderful pages describing and elaborating on taking tea. Well-worth the small amount of money.
On reading Proust........2006-10-09
I've just finished reading The Search for Lost Time and I'd like to share a few thoughts.
First, commit to reading the whole thing, all seven volumes, all million+ words. However if the commitment frightens you (as it should) first read Swann's Love, the middle part of the first volume.
Second, if you commit don't be afraid to take a break and leave the book aside. I began reading it fifteen years ago, and read Swann's Love several times before finally getting a one volume omnibus and reading the whole thing. It took me eight months, during which I freely allowed myself to read other books.
Third, don't read Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life until you're reached the final volume. It's a wonderful book, but if you want to read the Search, then De Botton's little book is a "digestif" that will help you put Proust in perspective.
Fourth, you don't have to read Proust. No one does. If you don't enjoy reading the Search, leave it alone. Proust never liked the title "The Search for Lost Time" and I think he might have actually preferred the now discredited original English translation title "Remembrance of Things Past".* In French Lost Time (Temps Perdu) implies a waste of time, and Proust was very conscious of having wasted the first forty years of his life.
Lastly, I wouldn't worry too much about the translation. I read the Search in French and it struck me that translating Proust wouldn't be much harder than reading him. The essence of Proust's style is not dramatic rhetoric, it is patient and painstaking descriptions and explanations. He wants the reader to understand something very complex and subtle: his or her own self. You'll find the drama in his philosophy. His sentences are long, convoluted, dreamy, full of meandering turns, but Proust doesn't use French the way, for instance, La Fontaine or Hugo do. Most of Proust's meaning will survive the translation, very little will be lost.
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
*I was wrong there, Proust hated the "Remembrance..." title. See the comments for details.
Vincent
Ne plus ultra.......2006-09-10
In my sixty-five years I have read most of the West's great literature and much of its trash. But this was the culminating experience. Read Proust and die.
I would suggest reading the new translations (by various translators) now being published by Penguin, which Amazon is selling.
Amazon.com
This is a genius-level piece of writing that manages to blend literary biography with self-help and tongue-in-cheek with the profound. The quirky, early 1900s French author Marcel Proust acts as the vessel for surprisingly impressive nuggets of wisdom on down-to-earth topics such as why you should never sleep with someone on the first date, how to protect yourself against lower back pain, and how to cope with obnoxious neighbors. Here's proof that our ancestors had just as much insight as the gurus du jour and perhaps a lot more wit. De Botton simultaneously pokes fun at the self-help movement and makes a significant contribution to its archives.
Book Description
Alain de Botton combines two unlikely genres--literary biography and self-help manual--in the hilarious and unexpectedly practical How Proust Can Change Your Life.
Who would have thought that Marcel Proust, one of the most important writers of our century, could provide us with such a rich source of insight into how best to live life? Proust understood that the essence and value of life was the sum of its everyday parts. As relevant today as they were at the turn of the century, Proust's life and work are transformed here into a no-nonsense guide to, among other things, enjoying your vacation, reviving a relationship, achieving original and unclichéd articulation, being a good host, recognizing love, and understanding why you should never sleep with someone on a first date. It took de Botton to find the inspirational in Proust's essays, letters and fiction and, perhaps even more surprising, to draw out a vivid and clarifying portrait of the master from between the lines of his work.
Here is Proust as we have never seen or read him before: witty, intelligent, pragmatic. He might well change your life.
Customer Reviews:
A well written and thoughtful book.......2007-05-12
Several friends and I decided to read this book to learn about life. It is thoughtfully written and an entertaining to read. The author has a style of writing that is clear, introspective and interesting. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about themselves and about the world.
N'allez pas trop vite !.......2007-01-15
Yes, don't go so fast...stop, savor and enjoy the many extraordinary pleasures of the ordinary things which are strewn around your everyday life.
This gem of a book is filled with these kind of delightful bon-mots distilled from Proust's life and works. Alain De Botton's entertaining,educating and often illuminating book belongs to a unique genre. It is is part literary criticism, part exploration of Proust's life and work and a part self-help manual.
I gained a lot of perspectives from this book, on topics as varied as
"How to read for myself" to "How to be a better friend". This book also opened up two interesting authors for me ...Marcel Proust and am now itching to read his oeuvre as well as Alain De Botton's body of work (especially his treatise on architecture)
I am sure i will go back to this book from time to time for a dose of some witty and well articulated "life lessons".
Slim but nicely written.......2007-01-12
I have to appreciate Alain de Botton's graceful prose and neat (if somewhat arbitrary) categorizations of human problems. The title is more or less a joke--this is not liable to institute sweeping changes in your life, but may change your perspective on certain matters, which is more or less changing your life, I suppose. It made a very good before-bed book.
Proust and me.......2006-10-20
From being a bit of a science fiction junkie (because there was no sex in it) I've become a bit of a literature junkie. Joseph Conrad probably started it, but the non-SF novels of Philip K Dick had a big influence too. Gradually I've explored Turgenev, Huysmans, ETA Hoffman - as well as more traditional fare such as Dostoevsky, Eliot, Sands ..... (And the less traditional - Anna Kavan, WH Hudson, and so on). But not Proust.
I'm not sure why I picked up 'How Proust Can Change Your Life' - perhaps I was looking for something - anything - that would change my life. I recognise that my view of Proust is entirely coloured by de Botton's view, but even so I am amazed at what I read. It's not that I think there is anything especially good about Proust - a battling, struggling individual who just happened to have a way with words - with lots and lots of them. But I do see so much of myself in Proust. And I can understand why some people don't get it: to see the world the way Proust did (as described by de Botton anyway). For example, to be free of the mask of familiarity that devalues so much of the - no, it's not beauty of the world although that's what de Botton calls it - it's the reality of the world. And yet, if what de Botton is describing is accurate, it is something I share with Proust. And, with that overwhelming view of the world, I can understand why so much of Proust's life was 'degraded', 'diminished', 'withdrawn' - scattered with bursts of escaping but having to return to the seclusion.
Will I read Proust for myself? I am unsure if I can. I am unsure if I will be able to resist. If this book doesn't mean a lot to you on first reading, I suggest you read it again. It's not such a labour to do so. Keep an eye open for surprising views of things, and let me assure you that such sensitivities do exist - although I have no reason why.
The one thing I would have liked with this book is a list of references. Since Proust wrote so much - where do de Botton's quotes come from. There are authors quoted too, without specific refernce to where the quote came.
How de Botton can change your reading of Proust.......2006-10-09
My 2006 reading project was to get through Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time and De Botton's book was a great help at the end.
I love Proust's long meandering dreamy sentences describing the things and people the narrator encounters, but I tend to tune out when Proust explains his theories on how memory works, on how we should appreciate a work of art, of how we should read a book, etc.
De Botton concentrates precisely on the parts of Proust I find most tedious, and in his short book he gives us a sampling of Proust's philosophical approach to life. What's more, De Botton takes pertinent passages in ISoLT and contrasts them with how Proust actually lived his own life. Sometimes Proust writes one way but lives a different way; for example he was a great friend, generous and attentive, but he writes that friendship is a waste of time. Which is his true opinion? Probably not that friendship is a waste of time... But the point is that De Botton breathed life into parts of Proust I previously dismissed, including the last hundred pages where the narrator finally experiences the "how and why" of his life.
I'm always a little suspicious of self-help books. Too often they're written by quacks and sometimes the advice they give can be dangerous. I'm also always open to good advice and De Botton showed to my surprise that Proust is full of genuinely helpful hints on how to live better. I bought How Proust Can Change Your Life because I was interested in Proust not because I wanted to change my life; the helpful hints are a fringe benefit.
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
Book Description
Marcel ProustÂ's In Search of Lost Time is one of the most entertaining reading experiences in any language and arguably the finest novel of the twentieth century. But since its original prewar translation there has been no completely new version in English. Now, Penguin Classics brings ProustÂ's masterpiece to new audiences throughout the world, beginning with Lydia DavisÂ's internationally acclaimed translation of the first volume, SwannÂ's Way.
Customer Reviews:
Immerse yourself in a rich, dense world of descriptive thought.......2007-08-31
I think people make too much of the 'difficulty' of Proust's writing, and I'm no over-educated super-literary snob, either (probably sufficiently proven in this sentence alone). Don't be scared off by the reviews claiming to have not been able to get through it. Sure you need to concentrate, hopefully without interruption, while reading Proust, but is that so bad? Isn't that a big part of what reading is all about?
Swann's Way is a rich and elegant tapestry, reflected nicely in the beautiful new cover design. It feels like a volume of pure thought of the first order - ruminative, peripatetic, placid, and somehow effortless and simple, despite the highly embroidered language. However, the language is not merely complex for complexity's sake, but to convey the intricacy of the thought therein, and, when combined with the gentle, steady pacing from which Proust never wavers, creates the feeling of wisdom itself unfolding on the page. It is a welcome antidote to the concoctions of the most "brilliant" contemporary authors being trumpeted today, that often leave you with nothing other than a fleeting amazement at the cleverness of the author.
After every reading session I felt richer and wiser, and more able to face the world with the same thoughtfulness that the narrator does (this doesn't mean that I was able to, mind you, just felt so). To me that's what reading is all about, and if that's wrong...then I don't wanna be right.
Unreadable.......2007-07-30
This was not a book I could pick up and read. Although I read the intro and a study guide and was keenly anticipating reading one of the greatest books ever written, I was unable to. I read the first Combray twice and still did not understand sections I had read. I felt defeated, disappointed, and stupid. The book, for me, requires intense concentration - no distractions or noise while reading - a virtually impossible scenario in my world. After reading the synopsis in the back of the book I wasn't sure I would want to pursue this even in a study group or classroom situation. It sounded dry and boring and I'm not sure it would be worth the effort for me.
something you should simply do..........2007-06-04
Reading Proust is one of those things that simply should be done. Swann's Way is 400+ pages of almost unbelievable prose, a river, a torrent of words, phrases, paragraphs that sweeps you along through it seemingly without conscious effort or care to the all too quick end.
This book is simply staggering, I can't think of any other way to describe it or explain it. It simply must be read.
There is an old saying that everyone should see Paris before they die. The same sentiment is true for Proust - you should simply do it.
Fine translation..........2007-03-01
Before reading Lydia Davis's translation, I'd wandered half-way into Scott Moncrieff's original version before getting lost. I'd read a review of this edition by Christopher Hitchens, who faults Davis's prose in comparison to Moncrieff/Kilmartin's. I feel however, that Proust's sentence-construction is so complex that the modernized language is a tremendous asset. This is a fine introduction to Proust; it comes with an introductory essay, a complete set of notes (which is very much needed), and a brief synopsis at the back (which could actually be a little more thorough).
compare the translations first!.......2007-02-21
Just as a general note with Proust translations, compare them in a bookstore before you buy any of them.
There is the original C.K. Scott Moncrieff translation, which is beautiful, though based on a flawed edition put together shortly after Proust's death (especially the later books in the set).
Then there is Terrence Kilmartin's revision, which is based on a much better French edition. You can still find editions of this used, and occasionally new as well. I prefer this one, as Kilmartin didn't change most of the truly beautiful language that Moncrieff rendered except in a few places to clarify confusing sentences.
D.J. Enright, who worked with Kilmartin, made further revisions after the latter's death, whose work (so he says) was incomplete. His reworking is based on yet an even newer edition of the French text, though with fewer changes than the previous French edition had from the original. I feel that Enright modernized the language too much. He claims French hasn't changed much as a language compared to English since the early 20th Century, so to approximate how it would read to a French person today, it needs to be put into more comtemporary language. I don't care for it personally.
I've read some of these other, altogether new translations, which is a good effort considering the potential for incoherence you might have reading a revision of a revision of a translation (whew!). They're not bad, but nowhere near as much of a "new standard" as, say, the Pevear-Volokhonsky translations of Dostoevsky, which give the reader a clearer original while still using beautiful and idiomatic English.
But back to Proust. Decide for yourself! Compare an old version of Moncrieff's translation to his revisors, and then check out these new ones published by Penguin.
And better yet, if you understand French at all, look at a French copy and just absorb the rhythm, the flow of the words, and find a translation that feels the same.
I can't tell you how many times I've spoken to people who hated foreign books in translation, only to find out they read a translation that reads like a textbook and not like something that was meant to be enjoyed!!
Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to Proust provides a broad account of the major features of Marcel Proust's great work A la recherche du temps perdu (1913-1927). The specially commissioned essays, by acknowledged experts on Proust, address a wide range of issues relating to his work. Progressing from background and biographical material, the chapters investigate such essential areas as the composition of the novel, its social dimension, the language in which it is couched, its intellectual parameters and its humor.
Customer Reviews:
Slightly uneven, but overall a solid introduction to Proust.......2002-07-02
This is an excellent and helpful introductory set of essays by leading Anglo-American Proust scholars that will prepare any beginner for working his or her way through Proust's masterpiece. As in any anthology, some of the essays are more rewarding than others. Many of the pieces provide a stellar introduction to Proust and Proust's world, while some (especially some of the later essays in the volume) are as impenetrable as some of Proust's own longer and unfathomable sentences. Nonetheless, anyone unfamiliar with Proust will come away well prepared to read and study Proust's masterpiece. A word of warning: if it is important to you not to know plot details (though Proust is hardly about plot; it isn't the destination in Proust, it is the getting there that counts) before reading a book, then you might want to consider skipping this. Personally, I believe that Proust is one of those rare authors about whose tale one needs to know as much as possible before reading.
The volume is apt to be of less value to Proust scholars, or even serious readers who have read the biographies by either Carter or Tadie, or the critical works of Roger Shattuck, or others (both Carter and Shattuck have essays in this volume). The best essays in the collection tend to be those that are more introductory in nature. The weaker essays tend to be those that are more specialized and focused on specific issues in Proust.
Overall, however, I encourage anyone needing an introductory work on Proust to consider spending some time working through the essays in this book.
Customer Reviews:
You've come this far, don't stop now.......2007-02-18
If you've read the first four volumes of the Penguin Modern Classic, Proust's In Search of Lost Time, then don't let the publication restriction in the US stop you from buying the British text versions. Except for minor presentation, they are exactly the same that will be published in the US when the copyrights expire. The only differences (which are hardly a great obstacle to the enjoyment of reading the novel), are the footnotes in back and the original French lyrics which Proust occasionally quotes from in the body of the work -- apparently the British assume we colonial philistines do not know as much French as they do.
The introduction to The Fugitive I found hugely welcome -- British translator Carol Clark is unapologetically direct in summing up for us what the previous 4 volumes have been about -- a long wished for insight as I have been dying to know up to this point whether or not I have been truly getting Proust all along.
The curse and the blessing is that Proust died before he could give the final sign off on these manuscripts before publication. A curse because he most certainly would have removed or resolved many errors, and extended or rewritten many parts which are its weakest sections. A blessing in that, to be sure, there are in this and the next volume several obvious errors which a good copy editor would have detected and eliminated, but with time have become such a part of Proustian lore that they can no more be removed than say Jimmy Durante's nose shortened or Richard Burton's pockmarks removed or Marilyn Manson's makeup wiped clean.
And if one has lasted this long, the addiction to Proust's peregrinations from the plot to discuss seemingly unrelated topics and issues in minute detail - as seen from the other end of binoculars, as Roger Shattuck writes in Proust's Binoculars- one will not be at all bothered about any perceived sloppiness in these last two volumes. On the contrary, one will feel proud to detect them for oneself, and have a private chuckle about it as Proust is forgiven for what would be unacceptable by today's publishing standards.
SO don't wait four more years - you'll not care by then or have forgotten much of the threads of the protean plot which keeps all volumes tied into one - for most of what is written in these last volumes is the rich reward the reader deserves after having hung in there until the end, to discover the final fate and full identities of all the rich and lively characters we have come to love - Charlus and St Loup, Albertine and Gilberte, oh, and Mme Potbus' maid - remember her?
The Prisoner and the Fugitive translated by Carol Clark
This is almost a novel within the novel as it deals in two parts with the final resolution of the narrator's relationship to Albertine, this character who, more so than any other, the narrator has kept directly from the reader's curious view and desire to know her in her own voice.
Finding Time Again translated by Ian Patterson
The fates of the rest of the characters are revealed, and the narrator in this last volume himself ages (or catches up to the age at which he began telling this long story -- and we will learn why he had to write it all before his death, as the line between fiction and reality between Marcel the narrator and Marcel the famed French writer nearly disappears). This is the volume where, winding down at last from what was always a nebulous plot to one last social scene,like a curtain call, all the characters take their final bows together in old age (either still alive or in the narrator's memory of them). And there are some great surprises left to discover, which hopefully too much reading of Proustian criticism, biographies, and reviews hasn't already revealed to the `well informed but too reluctant to read A la Recherché du Temps Perdu for themselves' lover of literature.
again, a misleading heading.......2005-03-12
Though it bears the title of Proust's seven-volume masterpiece, this is actually just the final volume, called "Finding Time Again" in this new translation. This particular book would be the British paperback edition, for the American press run has so far only given us four volumes, all of which are for sale on Amazon in a uniform style.
There are small but real differences between the British and American editions. With their greater tolerance for continental foibles, the Brits retained French punctuation, using dashes instead of quotation marks for conversation. They also retained the French wherever Proust makes a literary reference, providing a translation in the notes; in the American edition, this policy is reversed.
In reading the first two volumes ("Swanns' Way" and "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower") I noticed typographical errors that might well have resulted in converting the British to the American languages, rather than from French to English. For example, on page 95 of "In the Shadow" there is the phrase "Professor Cottard and his wife were not to partake of the pleasure" when the sentence should actually read "NOW to partake," since Swann has decided to introduce the Cottards to the Duchesse! Not earthshaking, but it does rather spoil Proust's little joke.
In short, these British paperbacks will serve very nicely if the American reader is in a hurry to complete the novel, and they may also be more free of errors. But I will probably wait for the uniform hardcover Viking volumes.
I haven't read Mr. Patterson's translation of volume seven, but I give it five stars based on the company it keeps.
Customer Reviews:
a must for any writer.......2005-11-09
I have had 5 books published (nonfiction) and have been working on a novel. I wish I had studied this book when I was a student. It is superb--essential, in my opinion, for anyone writing fiction. It is not, however, an easy read.
Besides being a writer, I am also a doctor and a commercial aircraft pilot. This book reminds me of getting an instrument rating, when "the lights come on" in understanding aviation. For the first time, I feel that I truly understand the nature of narrative.
The Seminal Work in Narrative Theory.......2002-02-24
This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to look seriously at narrative theory. Genette's analysis of the construction of time in narrative discourse is the still the model for theorists writing since then. Such categories as order, frequency, and duration in the narrative presentation of story-time show how narrative decisions on the part of authors can have dramatically different rhetorical effects. Genette views these narrative strategies as a form of rhetorical figuration and gives them terms drawn from classical rhetoric (e.g., "prolepsis" for a flashing forward, "analepsis" for a flashback). Genette's work is one of the clearest of all the French theorists of the 1970s and 1980s who became popular among literary critics and theorists in the US. His work is easily the most empirical of his academic geration of French theorists and perhaps the most likely to be useful in generations to come.
Much theory, though not for the faint hearted.......2000-10-12
Genette is one of the biggest-names in stylistic literary criticism around. One would imagine that this means his works are read far and wide, though this is not always the case.
Narrative Discourse samples essays from Figures III, Genette's most well read collection of essays. The theme of all of the essays is structure and presentation in the narrative, itself a topic which has only recieved a high place in the study of narrative in recent history. This collection gives the reader the basics of Genette's own view of narrative, but stands itself incomplete without criticism (which is presented and answered in Narrative Discourse Revisited).
Genette's ideas besides, this volume is difficult reading for the simple reason that information is not easily locatable and one is required to sift through the beach to find a sand dune: in other words, a person does ALL the work even if you want to double check the meaning of a single major term. This is another reason to get Narrative Discourse Revisited, where Genette actually explains in simple, straitforward terms his own ideas on narrative.
One unfortunate note on the translation is the original terms as they appeared in French are not included in the text. Instead, terms were applied which seem to add more confusion that clarity, such as the term recit in French being simply translated as narrative and histore translated as "story", neither of which are very accurate considering their respective english meaning.
In short, if you are going to buy this buy the other as well. It will save a lot of headaches in the end.
Book Description
The first and best known volume of one of the landmarks of world literature. Available separately for those who want to approach Proust carefully!
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Download Description
Swann's Way, the first part of A la recherche de temps perdu, Marcel Proust's seven-part cycle, was published in 1913. In it, Proust introduces the themes that run through the entire work. The narrator recalls his childhood, aided by the famous madeleine; and describes M. Swann's passion for Odette. The work is incomparable. Edmund Wilson said "[Proust] has supplied for the first time in literature an equivalent in the full scale for the new theory of modern physics."
Customer Reviews:
Swann's Way.......2007-07-15
The product and the narration is very well done. Unfortunately, I found that Proust is just not for me.
Hmmm....Will it get any better than this?.......2007-03-07
So i finally made the commitment to reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time. I've been contemplating this for years, and this spring i have the time so i've excitedly decided to forge what will be a memorable relationship with the author and the text.
But geez, am i DISAPPOINTED with the first "installment"!!! I'm usually an avid reader of European classics, and although i wasn't expecting Proust to be thrilling, i guess i didn't realize that the work was completely plotless.
I have to stop and remind myself (lest i give up?) that i am reading for the full experience rather than instant gratification, so i'm going to doggedly push on, and read something "fun" like Waugh or Vonnegut between each of the 6 books of I.S.O.L.T...
On a postive note, Proust's unique style allows the reader's mind to wander with the narrator, so i honestly can't say that i was "bored". It is also interesting that Proust is so often right on target about the human psyche and about society, when he, an invalid, was himself removed from it for much of his life.
Finally, Swann's Way is, let's face it, a moderately thick book. Without plot, you'd think that it would be a slow and dragging read. However, his long sentences somehow propel the reader forward to the next interesting speculation or to the next social event, and once again, his style is such that we become involved in the character's life....what will be the next step in Swann and Odette's relationship?
Although i have mixed feelings about the start of my Proustian journey, I console myself with his notions of time. The way we feel and think about something while we are in the midst of it may differ greatly from the way we feel and think about it once we are removed from it. Perspective is altered by distance (and memory, imagine that...). Perhaps once i finish the work in its entirety the pieces will all come together and there will be a cumulative gain. If nothing else, there will be a sense of accomplishment!
Fabulous Writing But Not A Novel: A Lengthy Narrative On Life.......2007-02-03
In search of Lost Time is regarded by many as a key work of modern literature, bridging ideas from the 19th and 20th centuries. Proust is often compared to Joyce and Kafka.
This is revised translation of the early Moncrieff translation. That was the primary translation for the first 50 years after the first publication in French. The present work includes the later changes to the original French manuscripts made in 1954. These additions and changes were excluded in the first manuscript from Proust. The manuscript was revised in the Pleiade edit of 1954 to include all of Proust's final edits. Those edits, additions, and changes are now translated and revised by Enright.
There are three parts to Volume I:
- Combray (the town)
- Swann in Love (Swann is the family name of the narrator)
- Place-Names-The Name
Here is a question for the average reader: is this a novel? What is it? The present Volume I is 600 pages, and if you continue on after Volume I, you face another 5000 pages or so. It is not a novel and it is not a play or drama as one sees with Shakespeare; instead, it is a seemingly endless narrative. Should we be concerned with what it is? The answer is yes, because some will find Proust to be a tedious challenge while others will love him.
For example, Madam Bovary is a novel. It has a beginning, an end, clear characters who are good, evil, and indifferent. It takes place in 19th century French countryside as does Proust, and unlike Proust it is a gripping tale. The writing by Flaubert is flawless. The structure is perfect. That is a novel. I read all 500 pages of Madame Bovary in one day and was very entertained and impressed.
Proust's Volume I, by contrast, has taken me 12 months to read. Again, as with Flaubert, the prose is faultless and the details described are done exquisitely, but there is no plot, and it is not gripping. It is a series of memories or short sections. Almost by definition, these short pieces do not carry the drama of a well balanced novel. They are weakly linked together plus the writing is complicated by many characters, often relatives of the narrator. If you put the book down and start again you are momentarily lost. Some readers, and that includes myself, wonder why we continue.
Proust is part of our literary education and one can appreciate the interwoven snapshots of life, the beautiful descriptions of rural Combray, the characters of France, and the relatives in his family. It is an endless narrative about a man's life and those pieces of his life. It is a collection of memories. Here in Volume I we see three broad snapshots of one man's life; we escape to 19th century France, and we become part of a seemingly endless tale about the fine details of that life. If that interests you, then you will love Proust.
Only the most patient should read Proust. Be prepared for beautiful prose and French 19th century life.
Beautiful but fatiguing.......2007-01-24
Clearly, Proust has a remarkable gift for perception, as if he is able to see human experience, circumstance, and even plain objects, in exploded detail, and distill them for the reader. Particularly in the first and third parts of the book, he frequently drops gems of absolute truth, in much the same way that Shakespearean couplets remarkably capture the essence of love or revenge. To me, this is the reward of reading the book, and what makes the challenge worth undertaking.
At first, you may be overwhelmed by his very complex sentences, as others have noted. It is important to Proust to express an entire thought in one sentence; a lofty objective with sometimes dire consequences, but Proust adheres to it admirably. You soon learn to maintain the subject of the sentence in your head while Proust explores two or three tangents to the original thought before he comes back to it. What works in the reader's favor is that Proust is very regular with his sentence structure, so once you develop a feel for it, it ceases to intimidate.
The book is divided into three parts: The first and third parts recount experiences of Proust's early childhood, while the second part details the love affair of Charles Swann. To me, the first part is the most beautiful, followed by the third part. You will be able to tell within the first 50 or so pages whether or not Proust will suit you. The second part of the book becomes plodding and monotonous, as Proust narrates even a simple set of circumstances in many layers of redundancy, each recounted in exhaustive detail, in his complex style which begins to feel formulaic, wordy, and indulgent. Here's the subject of the sentence, tangent number one, the tangent to tangent number one, tangent number two, and then it ends with yet another metaphor about invalids. The regularity of sentence structure is much easier to tolerate in the first and third parts because Proust flits between several ideas or subjects, whereas in the second part, he drills to the very core of the earth on one or two subjects with a few variations. I found myself feeling pretty burned out, counting down pages to the end of Part 2. My advice is to pick up your reading speed if it starts to become boring or if you lose your concentration.
If Proust were not quite so overly thorough in Part 2, or if he had varied his cadence or sentence structure a bit more, I could recommend this book without hesitation. As it is, it will require an unusual investment of concentration and patience, but I believe it is worth it.
A Must-read.......2006-06-21
I have been planning for some years to read IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME, and finally started in March with Lydia Davis' translation of SWANN'S WAY.
Proust is one of the most empathetic authors that I have ever encountered. To tell the story of his youth, to describe his fears and joys and loves, he turns inward, and in doing so, gives a strikingly accurate portrayal of the human heart, and human folly.
SWANN'S WAY is diveded into four sections, too long to be called chapters: Combray, Combray II, Swann in Love, Place-Names:The Name.
Combray and Combray II tell of the summers of Marcel's youth, his grandmother and great-aunt Leonie (who never got out of her bed), Francoise, the maid, walks with his parents, meeting M. Swann, their neighbor, meeting M. Swann's daughter for the first time and falling in love with her. It is very difficult for an author to write from the perspective of a child and do it convicingly, but Proust succeeds here. I loved little Marcel, a sensitive, naive little boy who absorbs everything around him.
'Swann in Love' tells the story of M. Swann and how he fell in love with one Odette d'Crecy, a woman not of his class who seduces him and then breaks his heart.
In 'Place-Names: The Name' we read about a slightly older Marcel, and his first attempts at winning the heart of Gilberte, the daughter of M. Swann. My favorite image in SWANN'S WAY comes from 'Place Names' - an image of Odette d'Crecy strolling down the Avenue of the Acacias alone, which Proust includes in his diatribe against the death of elegance.
As the purpose of writing IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME was to recover his forgotten memories, Proust's tale is not told as a series of interconnected events, but as a collection of interwoven memories - some of them incomplete. [The short novella, 'Swann in Love', that is contained in the novel is an exception - though still told from an internalized perspective, that of M. Swann.]
In this format, description trumps plotline and dialogue. His descriptions - of tapestries in cathedrals, of a child's longing for his mother, of the beauty of words and the pain of falling in love - are first rate. I found many times that reading this book was a lot like looking at a great painting, or a sunset - soothing, [also with the exception of 'Swann in Love', where I found myself completely aggravated with M. Swann and hating Odette. An author that can calm you but also create characters capable of arousing passionate anger must be great.]
SWANN'S WAY is highly recommended.
Customer Reviews:
Don't stop now.......2007-02-18
If you've read the first four volumes of the Penguin Modern Classic, Proust's In Search of Lost Time, then don't let the publication restriction in the US stop you from buying the British text versions. Except for minor presentation, they are exactly the same that will be published in the US when the copyrights expire. The only differences (which are hardly a great obstacle to the enjoyment of reading the novel), are the footnotes in back and the original French lyrics which Proust occasionally quotes from in the body of the work -- apparently the British assume we colonial philistines do not know as much French as they do.
The introduction to The Fugitive I found hugely welcome -- British translator Carol Clark is unapologetically direct in summing up for us what the previous 4 volumes have been about -- a long wished for insight as I have been dying to know up to this point whether or not I have been truly getting Proust all along.
The curse and the blessing is that Proust died before he could give the final sign off on these manuscripts before publication. A curse because he most certainly would have removed or resolved many errors, and extended or rewritten many parts which are its weakest sections. A blessing in that, to be sure, there are in this and the next volume several obvious errors which a good copy editor would have detected and eliminated, but with time have become such a part of Proustian lore that they can no more be removed than say Jimmy Durante's nose shortened or Richard Burton's pockmarks removed or Marilyn Manson's makeup wiped clean.
And if one has lasted this long, the addiction to Proust's peregrinations from the plot to discuss seemingly unrelated topics and issues in minute detail - as seen from the other end of binoculars, as Roger Shattuck writes in Proust's Binoculars- one will not be at all bothered about any perceived sloppiness in these last two volumes. On the contrary, one will feel proud to detect them for oneself, and have a private chuckle about it as Proust is forgiven for what would be unacceptable by today's publishing standards.
SO don't wait four more years - you'll not care by then or have forgotten much of the threads of the protean plot which keeps all volumes tied into one - for most of what is written in these last volumes is the rich reward the reader deserves after having hung in there until the end, to discover the final fate and full identities of all the rich and lively characters we have come to love - Charlus and St Loup, Albertine and Gilberte, oh, and Mme Potbus' maid - remember her?
The Prisoner and the Fugitive translated by Carol Clark
Quick summary: This is almost a novel within the novel as it deals in two parts with the final resolution of the narrator's relationship to Albertine, this character who, more so than any other, the narrator has kept directly from the reader's curious view and desire to know her in her own voice.
Finding Time Again translated by Ian Patterson
The fates of the rest of the characters are revealed, and the narrator in this last volume himself ages (or catches up to the age at which he began telling this long story -- and we will learn why he had to write it all before his death, as the line between fiction and reality between Marcel the narrator and Marcel the famed French writer nearly disappears). This is the volume where, winding down at last from what was always a nebulous plot to one last social scene,like a curtain call, all the characters take their final bows together in old age (either still alive or in the narrator's memory of them). And there are some great surprises left to discover, which hopefully too much reading of Proustian criticism, biographies, and reviews hasn't already revealed to the `well informed but too reluctant to read A la Recherché du Temps Perdu for themselves' lover of literature.
Frustrating, with moments of greatness.......2006-01-06
I started reading In Search of Lost Time 2 years ago. I can't say it was always smooth sailing, but I got through the first 4 volumes (i.e., finished Sodom and Gomorrah) pretty happily, working with the Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright translation (not to mention taking a Proust class at night at Rice Univ. here in Houston). If you're reading this review, you probably already know that the 3 books after that (usually published in 2 volumes) were incomplete, in manuscript, at the time of Proust's death. How they were put into publishable condition is another story. But the end result, for this reader at least, was tough going. I tried both of the Moncrieff-based translations, and--true confession--found multiple phrases and sentences (and sometimes more) that I just didn't follow.
I found the Penguin translations (by multiple translators with a common editor) while I was living overseas recently. I should state up-front that I am no French scholar...I'm just speaking as a reader. I'd say that the Penguin version of these two books (The Prisoner and The Fugitive) seems not quite as smooth, sometimes, as the Moncrieff-based translations. But I feel like I follow more of what Proust is trying to say. The sentences being less mellifluous suggests to me the possibility, at least, that the Penguin translators concentrated more on content than on rendering Proust's poetic (and somewhat hyperventilated) style, which is more to the good, for me at least--though I'd love to know what a Proust, and French, scholar thought of the comparison. The introductions and editorial comments are very good, as well. So, if you're at this point in the Proust-reading process, and particularly if you're finding it hard going, I'd give serious thought to giving the Penguin translations a try.
5th and 6th 12 years off.......2006-01-03
I have been told that the Viking editions of the 5th and 6th volumes of the Proust series cannot be published in America for at least 12 years due to copyright issues. So you may want to snap these up.
None the less, these are excellent books and I highly recommend them.
not the book suggested by the heading!.......2005-03-12
The book shown here is actually the British paperback of volumes 5 and 6 of the new translation of In Search of Lost Time. Vol. 5 "The Prisoner" was translated by Carol Clark; vol. 6 "The Fugitive," by Peter Collier. Sadly, they do not appear to be available in hardcover in the United States, at least not yet--and I want them for my library! Nevertheless, I can confidently give this paperback five stars on the basis of the enchantment I've had out of reading the first two volumes of this magnificent new translation. If you want to know more about the actual contents, you can paste the ISBN/ASIN number into your search engine and bring up the publisher's page. -- Dan Ford
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Proust: Swann's Way (Landmarks of World Literature)
Sheila Stern
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Proust's Way: A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time
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To the Lighthouse
ASIN: 0521328160 |
Book Description
Swann’s Way, published in 1913, is the first part of Proust’s seven-part novel A la Recherche du temps perdu. The author’s expansion, revision and correction of the work were cut short by his death in 1922, and sixty-six years later editors are still producing variants of the last three volumes based on working notebooks. The novel’s structure was compared by its author to that of a cathedral, and its status is that of one of the greatest literary landmarks of the twentieth century. Sheila Stern’s study begins with a summary of the whole novel and goes on to give an account of the activity of reading as part of its subject-matter. Two chapters are devoted to Swann’s Way itself, with close attention to the opening pages, and to such topics as memory, time, imagery and names. The book’s reception in various Western literatures is discussed, and there is a guide to further reading.
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