Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42627 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1360 pages

Synopsis
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) spent the last fourteen years of his life writing "la recherche du temps perdu". It is an intimate epic, an excavation of the self, and a comedy of manners by turns and all at once. Proust is the twentieth century's Dante, presenting us with a unique, unsettling picture of ourselves as jealous lovers and unmitigated snobs, frittering our lives away, with only the hope of art as a possible salvation. He offers us a form of redemption for a sober and secular age. Scott Moncrieff's delightful translation was for many years the only access to Proust in English. A labour of love that took him nearly as many years as Proust spent writing the original. Moncrieff's translation strives to capture the extraordinary blend of muscular analysis with poetic reverie that typifies Proust's style. It remains a justly famous classic of translation.

Customer Reviews

The original translation, possibly the best
Quite possibly the greatest novel ever. Certainly there is nothing to compare in terms of quantity and quality combined, and compared to other very long novels Proust is easy to read. His writing is so beautiful, the famously long sentences full of a glorious wit and insight, that I found this semi-fictional memoir a great pleasure to read, so much so that I have now read two different translations.

But is this the best way to approach Proust? This edition takes the original Scott Moncrieff translation, which is still considered by many to be the best, and combines what were originally seven books into two large volumes. This first volume consists of Swann's Way, Within a Budding Grove and The Guermantes Way.

The title of Proust's whole work is usually translated these days as 'In search of Lost Time'. The title used for this edition, 'Remembrance of Things Past', is Moncrieff's very loose original translation of 'A la Recherche du Temps Perdu', and emphasizes the point that this is aimed at readers who specifically want the Moncrieff original version.

Unless you know your Proust and know what to expect, I would suggest buying a different edition, and start with Swann's Way as one (more manageable) volume. If you don't like it, and not everyone finds the slow pace to their liking, to say the least, there's really no point in buying more.

Rachelle's Strange world of Dreams

Rachelle is considering giving up her analysis with Kevin Brand the well known Los Angeles psychotherapist. Then she has a strange dream which she tells to Kevin. In the dream she is standing by the sea with her brother when a giant swordfish comes out of the water and while her back is turned, swallows her brother. She chases the fish with the large flat aluminium knife she bought in Chinatown but she is unable to catch it. Strangely, Rachelle's brother has been missing for several weeks and police suspect foul play. Rachelle cannot get the dream out of her mind and one evening at the Loon Fung restaurant in Chinatown she is sure she sees her brother at the back of the restaurant unloading crates of fish. She tells her friend who is also coincidentally called Brand who works for the police and he organises a raid on the restaurant. Inspector Brand finds her brother and several other men who have been snatched by a Triad gang to work in their restaurant chain. They are reunited and Rachelle decides to continue her therapy.