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: #149338 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

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

Customer Reviews

Evans
Chris is one of the five student volunteers on work experience at 'The Sanctuary'. Part of his duties is to nurse the newest arrival, a one year old orphaned Orang Outang.
Chris decides to name him 'Evans'. For some reason he can't quite put his finger on he reminds him of Mr. Evans, (first name unknown), the manager of the corner shop down the road from where he lived back home. Unlike the majority of feral apes, Evans is young enough to become one of the domesticated animals at the centre. Chris quickly grows fond of Evans. There seems to be some special pleasurable bond between the two of them. Chris, who has always been something of a loner, finds to his amazement, that for the first time in his twenty five years, he is actually looking forward to something that has nothing to do with drink or sex - to his time with Evans. He takes pleasure for hours in his company and misses him when they are separated. These are feelings he has never experienced with his friends or the staff at the Sanctuary. He spends his days happily, he feels well, healthy and complete for the first time in his life. The time with Evans is spent grooming, sharing food, dozing and generally mooching together. Evans is easy going, undemanding and affectionate. Chris thinks he detects many of the finest human qualities in Evans-he is sensitive, considerate and respectful. In his fantasies, Chris even imagines that perhaps in some other incarnation, some other reality, there has been something special and close between them-some kinship, some brotherly bond. Chris has one secret desire for his relationship. If only Evans could communicate with him. Just a single word, just to make a connection would be wonderful. Chris spends many hours attempting to teach Evans the simplest of words, the most basic of responses, but it is hopeless. The concentration is completely absent. The whole vocal mechanism is impossibly incapable. And worse, it seems that Evans just doesn't care. He won't apply himself
and he refuses to make the slightest effort at mimicry, preferring to search through Chris' hair for nits with his strong bony fingers, or to attack some hard shelled nut or luscious fruit. Any attempt to secure Evans' attention is met with increasing grumpiness and truculence. The harder Chris tries, the more Evans resists or just ambles away. He can't help it, Evan's resistance makes him depressed and moody. It feels like a personal insult. Inside him a resentment festers that taints his feelings. He can no longer imagine why he found Evans so engaging. He begins to feel repulsed by the animal, to hate everything about Evans; the wispy ginger hair, the long bony prehensile feet, even the stupid name he himself has given him. Evans must have felt Chris' withdrawal. He no longer greets Chris, ignoring him from a corner. Chris spends longer and longer away from Evans, reading in his room or watching DVDs from the Sanctuary library. He spends more time too with Eva, the Dutch veterinary nurse who is teaching him Tai Chi. When Eva and Chris return from their week's Safari to Ancor Wat late one evening, Doctor Rosen the Sanctuary Director, is waiting at the gates. He seems subdued, taking Chris aside. ''You know we had a tragedy here while you were away'' he says. ''There was a rather nasty outbreak of some bug, we don't know what it was. It had all the makings of some kind of pneumonia. There was nothing we could do. It got a couple of the Capuchins. He looks away. '' I'm afraid that Evans must have picked it up too. He didn't survive. I'm sorry, I know you had got attached to him''.
Chris feels a stab of rising panic. He knows he has to stifle it before it grows and finds a personality, telling himself quickly that this was after all only an ape and pushing to one side the picture of the innocent upturned face and the large, soft, inquisitive brown eyes.