Product Description

Since the original, prewar translation there has been no completely new rendering of the French original into English. This translation brings to the fore a more sharply engaged, comic and lucid Proust. IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME is one of the greatest, most entertaining reading experiences in any language. As the great story unfolds from its magical opening scenes to its devastating end, it is the Penguin Proust that makes Proust accessible to a new generation. Each book is translated by a different, superb translator working under the general editorship of Professor Christopher Prendergast, University of Cambridge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26565 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-02
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

About the Author
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) is generally viewed as the greatest French novelist and perhaps the greatest European novelist of the 20th century.

Customer Reviews

what i spied underneath the shade
For so long a figure of "high literature" in this reader's mind, Proust is far more accessible and contemporary than many might think. A misleading title(if not beautifully poetic) leads one into an expectation of adolescent romances and rendevzous. "In the Shadow..." is more accurately about the opening up and growing awareness of a young mind to the world. Over the course of his walks and travels, the Narrator enters us into the halycon world of literary dreaming its inevitable disappointments, all the while reavealing a fantastic social tapestry (noble histories and romantic intrigues) that is a mirror into the psychology and actions of society people (to this day still). There are those who would chide Proust's allusions and his "wordy" prose, but his assessment of human behaviour and depiction of the melding of pre-conceived (perhaps naive) notions with their dessicated reality makes this novel an essential read for anyone who lives and interacts with people.

Introspective but descriptive
I have to say that I found vol 2 a bit more slow-moving, alternating passages of eye-glazing introspection with some really profound and expressive descriptions of what love is like, and how we react to art and to artists (be they actors, writers, or painters). But a welcome surprise was that there is an actual plot, with the narrator's rebuff of Gilberte near the start vaguely reflected in his relationship with Albertine, and with her other young friends, at the end.

I found myself very irritated by the publisher's notes. (I'm reading the new-ish Penguin edition.) First of all, I hate end-notes rather than foot-notes as a general matter of principle. Second, while I don't mind explanations of obscure references to contemporary or older French literature, I thought the editors went overboard in drawing attention to Proust's minor plot inconsistencies. (Though I did wonder why these were never corrected by any of Proust's French editors.)

the earliest fully automatic steam iron was first produced around 1909
At a secret research laboratory in Switzerland, doctors have been working on a new approach to the treatment of infectious diseases. Late one evening, Doctor Carl Nürtur and his attractive assistant Jean are working together on the development of a new vaccine. When flirting together they accidentally knock over a test tube which spills on the floor and creates a reaction with the linoleum. Out of curiosity, Jean takes a sample of the new fluid and puts it under the microscope. It seems that the tiny fluid molecules are attempting to communicate by making the letters of a complex formula. When the doctors develop the formula they discover they have created a cure for measles. Further miracle cures are to follow, but the fluid starts to make unreasonable demands. It wants to be moved to a larger laboratory and that no other vaccines should be allowed within ten feet of its' tube. It also demands that the linoleum is moisturised. Dr Nürtur and Jean are by now famous Nobel prize candidates but they cannot cope with the incessant unreasonable demands of the fluid. They fight and the test tube containing the fluid is accidentally broken and the liquid escapes and evaporates. They agree that this was probably for the best.