Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
Author of Swann's Way
About the Author
Proust is one of the seminal figures in modern literature, matched only in stature by Joyce, Woolf, Mann and Kafka. By the last decade of the 19th century, the charming and ambitious Proust, born into a wealthy bourgeois family, was already a famous Paris socialite who attended the most fashionable show more salons of the day. The death of his parents in the early years of the 20th century, coupled with his own increasingly ill health, made of Proust a recluse who confined himself to his cork-lined bedroom on the Boulevard Haussmann. There he concentrated on the composition of his great masterpiece, Remembrance of Things Past (1913-27). In recent years, it was discovered that he had already prepared a first draft of the work in the 1890s in Jean Santeuil, which was only published posthumously in 1952. Remembrance of Things Past resists summary. Seeming at turns to be fiction, autobiography, and essay, Remembrance is a vast meditation on the relationship between time, memory, and art. In it the narrator, who bears the same first name as the author, attempts to reconstruct his life from early childhood to middle age. In the process, he surveys French society at the turn of the century and describes the eventual decline of the aristocracy in the face of the rising middle class. The process of reconstruction of Marcel's past life is made possible by the psychological device of involuntary memory; according to this theory, all of our past lies hidden within us only to be rediscovered and brought to the surface by some unexpected sense perception. In the final volume of the work, the narrator, who has succeeded in recapturing his past, resolves to preserve it through the Work of Art, his novel. He died of pneumonia and a pulmonary abscess in 1922. He was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Marcel Proust
Series
Works by Marcel Proust
In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower & The Guermantes Way (2002) 166 copies
In Search of Lost Time; Swann's Way, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower Part I & Sketches (1987) 156 copies, 1 review
In Search of Lost Time; In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower Part II, The Guermantes Way & Sketches (1988) — Author — 113 copies, 1 review
In Search of Lost Time; Sodom and Gomorrah, The Captive & Sketches (1988) — Author — 98 copies, 1 review
Contre Sainte-Beuve, précédé de Pastiches et mélanges et suivi de Essais et articles (1971) 30 copies, 1 review
Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit. Gesamtausgabe: Bände 1–8: Vollständige Textausgabe mit Kommentarband (German Edition) (2017) 19 copies
A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, Tome 1: Du Cote de Chez Swann / A L'Hombre des Jeunes Filles en Fleurs (1954) 18 copies
In Search of Lost Time Vol 2 18 copies
The Fugitive (with Time Regained) 11 copies
The Fugitive Time Regained 11 copies
El remitente misterioso y otros relatos / The Mysterious Correspondent: New Stories (Spanish Edition) (2021) 8 copies
Rememberance of Things Past (volume 2) : Cities of the plain , the Captive, The Sweet Cheat Gone , The Past Recaptured (1932) 8 copies
Op zoek naar de verloren tijd. In de schaduw van de bloeiende meisjes. Dl. 3: Plaatsnamen : de plaats (vervolg) (1978) 8 copies
Flimmern des Herzens: Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit - in der Urfassung (Die Andere Bibliothek, Band 395) (2017) 8 copies
Jean Santeuil: Volume II 7 copies
Proust: Remembrance of Things Past 7 copies
In Search of Lost Time: Finding Time Again: Finding Time Again v. 6 (Penguin Modern Classics) by Marcel Proust (2003-10-02) (2005) 7 copies
In Search of Lost Time: Vol 1 6 copies
In Search Of Lost Time, Vol. 3 5 copies
the fugitive time regained 5 copies
Jean Santeuil: Volume III 4 copies
Choix de lettres 4 copies
Marcel Proust: Remembrance of Things Past: or In Search of Lost Time (Complete) (Bauer Classics) (All Time Best Writers Book 9) (2020) 4 copies
בעקבות הזמן האבוד 1 3 copies
In Search of Lost Time, Volume iV 3 copies
A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU - Tome II. Edition établie et annotée par Pierre CLARAC et André FERRE. (1978) 3 copies
Obras Completas III - JEAN SANTEUIL - LOS PLACERES Y LOS DIAS - PARODIAS Y MISCELANEA - ENSAYOS LITERARIOS (2004) 3 copies
Classic French Fiction: first 4 volumes of A La Recherche du Temps perdu, in French with active table of contents (French Edition) (2009) 3 copies
Correspondance : 1914-1922 3 copies
A la recherche du temps perdu, tome 1 : Du côté de chez Swann; A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs 3 copies
REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST. Translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Frederick A. Blossom. Two Volumes. (1934) 3 copies
Cher Ami - Votre Marcel Proust: Marcel Proust in the Mirror of His Correspondence (French and German Edition) (2009) 3 copies
In Search of Lost Time: Vol 5 3 copies
Petit pan de mur jaune d'après la vue de Delf de Vermeer, suivi de 'Les Écarts d'une vision" (1986) 3 copies
In Search Of Lost Time Volume 4 3 copies
À la recherche du temps perdu V-VI 2 copies
Crónicas 2 copies
Obras Completas, vol. II 2 copies
" Cher ami... ": Une histoire épistolaire de la publication d' A la recherche du temps perdu (2019) 2 copies
Proust Instantanés: Extraits de La Recherche choisis et commentés par Philippe Delerm (2022) 2 copies
Fiche de lecture Le Côté de Guermantes de Marcel Proust (Analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet) (French Edition) (2017) 2 copies
Διαβάζοντας (μέρες ανάγνωσης) 2 copies
Prizoniera 2 copies
À la recherche du temps perdu - II - À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Troisième partie) (2014) 2 copies
37. Crónicas 2 copies
Personaggi 2 copies
Swanns Way - Penguin Drop Caps 2 copies
À la recherche du temps perdu - II - À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Deuxième partie) (2014) 2 copies
In Search Of Lost Time, Vol 2: Within a Budding Grove: Within a Budding Grove Vol 2 (Vintage Classics) by Marcel Proust (1996-12-05) (1713) 2 copies
Bd. 1. In Swanns Welt 2 copies
In Search of Lost Time: Vol. 3 2 copies
Ἀναζητώντας τόν χαμένο χρόνο 2 copies
Correspondance générale de marcel proust. tome 2 : lettres à la comtesse de noailles 1901-1919 2 copies
Lettres retrouvées 2 copies
Ο αδιάφορος : Και άλλα κείμενα των νεανικών του χρόνων (L'indifférent: et autres textes de jeunesse; Fayard/Mille et une nuits (2006),… (2015) 2 copies
Nga ana e Suanit 2 copies
Morceaux choisis de Marcel Proust, Gallimard, Paris, 1927 — Author — 2 copies
Alla ricerca del tempo perduto 4 2 copies
A selection from his miscellaneous writings, chosen and translated by Gerard Hopkins (1948) 2 copies
Remembrance of Things Past: 3 2 copies
Pleasure and Days 2 copies
KUR DASHURONTE SUANI 1 copy
Pamyati ubityh tserkvey 1 copy
A la recherche du temps perdu. Le cote de Guermantes / V poiskah utrachennogo vremeni. U Germantov. Roman (In Russian) (2005) 1 copy
The Guermantes Way: Part Two 1 copy
Le Côté de Guermantes II 1 copy
In Search of Lost Time (in 2 vols) T2 / V poiskakh utrachennogo vremeni (v 2-kh tt) t2 (2009) 1 copy
Répertoire des personnages de À la recherche du temps perdu: Précédé de la Vie Sociale Dans l'Oeuvre de Marcel Proust (2019) 1 copy
In Search of Lost Time vremeni.obretennoe / V poiskakh utrachennogo vremeni.Obretennoe vremya (2007) 1 copy
בעקבות הזמן האבוד 1 copy
Под сенью дев, увенчанных цветами (Иностранная литература. Большие книги) (Russian Edition) (2020) 1 copy
בעקבות הזמן האבוד 4 1 copy
Lettere (1912-1922) 1 copy
Giornate di lettura 1 copy
PASTICHES ET MELANGES 1 copy
בעקבות הזמן האבוד 3 1 copy
Eseuri 1 copy
Fugara 1 copy
Saggi 1 copy
Lettere alla vicina 1 copy
Amore di Swann 1 copy
잃어버린 시간을 찾아서 1~6권 세트 (전 6권) 1 copy
Guermantes ☆ 1 copy
La prisionera V 1 copy
La prigoniera 1 copy
Una precauzione inutile 1 copy
El tiempo recobrado VII 1 copy
Un amour de swann 1 copy
Les Sixante-Quinze Feuillets 1 copy
Against Saint Beuve 1 copy
Bên phía nhà Swann 1 copy
Du Coté De Guermantes I 1 copy
Hommage à Marcel Proust — Contributor — 1 copy
I racconti 1 copy
SOBRE A LEITURA 1 copy
P ̄sporet af den tabte tid 1 copy
Guermantes Way, The 1 copy
In Search Of Lost Time Volume 2: v. 2 (Everyman's Library Classics) by Marcel Proust (2001-06-29) 1 copy
Jean Santeuil 1 copy
Œuvres 1 copy
Rozkose a dni 1 copy
Pages choisies 1 copy
Un relato de Marcel Proust 1 copy
Remembrance Of Things Past. (In Search of Lost Time). Integral Version: Volume I to VII (2017) 1 copy
Life & Work of Marcel Proust 1 copy
Lettere 1 copy
Correspondance, Vol 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ,13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 1 copy, 1 review
Lettere ai miei personaggi 1 copy
Cahiers Marcel Proust 1 1 copy
Lettres de Marcel Proust 1 copy
" V poiskakh utrachennogo vremeni". (T.-1.) — Author — 1 copy
Revue Europe 496-497 : Centenaire de Marcel Proust — Contributor — 1 copy
Memory & Style 1 copy
Venice & A Fan 1 copy
Saint-Loup: A Portrait 1 copy
On the Trails of Criticism 1 copy
Proust [Texte imprimé] 1 copy
The Stranger 1 copy
all 1 copy
Hledání ztraceného času III 1 copy
Hledání ztraceného času II 1 copy
Remembrance of things past 1 copy
Textes Retrouvés. Recueillis par Philip Kolb, avec un Bibliographie. Édition revue et augmentée. (1971) 1 copy
Lettres inédites 1 copy
Radosti a dny 1 copy
Tempo ritrovato 1 copy
Aphorisms 1 copy
Overture 1 copy
Marcel Proust: Selected Letters, Vol. 4: 1918-1922. Edited and translated by Joanna Kilmartin. 1 copy
Proust on Reading 1 copy
In Search of Lost Time 1 1 copy
Le Côté de Guermantes 2 & Sodome et Gomorhe 1 / À la recherche du temps perdu / Illustrations de Philippe Jullian / Tome IV (1954) 1 copy
Fiche de lecture Du côté de chez Swann de Marcel Proust (analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet) (2014) 1 copy
Old Macdonald (Chunky Sound) 1 copy
That Is How He Loved... 1 copy
The Gift of Fairies 1 copy
The Awareness of Loving Her 1 copy
In the Underworld 1 copy
A Captain's Reminiscence 1 copy
Pauline de S. 1 copy
Quatre peintres 1 copy
À propos de Baudelaire 1 copy
Le côté de Guermantes. Tom 1 1 copy
Gegen Sainte-Beuve 1 copy
Pastiches et mélanges 1 copy
In Search Of Lost Time, Vol 5-6: The Captive & The Fugitive — Author — 1 copy
Jean Santeuil - tomo I 1 copy
Os Parazeres e os Dias 1 copy
Tage des Lesens drei Essays 1 copy
EN BUSCA DE S MISMO 1 copy
La vida en parís 1 copy
Associated Works
Choice Cuts: A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World and Throughout History (2002) — Contributor — 368 copies, 2 reviews
Remembrance of Things Past, Part 2: Within a Budding Grove, Vol. 2 (2002) — Contributor — 151 copies, 7 reviews
Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle Paris (2018) — Illustrator, some editions — 140 copies, 3 reviews
Remembrance of Things Past, Part 2: Within a Budding Grove, Vol. 1 (2000) — Contributor — 106 copies, 5 reviews
Remembrance of Things Past, Part 3: Swann in Love, Vol. 1 (2006) — Contributor — 86 copies, 1 review
Remembrance of Things Past, Part 3: Swann in Love, Vol. 2 (2006) — Contributor — 47 copies, 1 review
Venice Stories (Everyman's Library Pocket Classics Series) (2018) — Contributor — 41 copies, 1 review
In Search of Lost Time: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower: A Graphic Novel (2012) — Contributor — 24 copies, 1 review
Profil d'une œuvre. A la recherche du temps perdu, Proust (1992) — Contributor — 24 copies, 2 reviews
Remembrance of Things Past, Part 4: Place Names: The Name (2013) — Contributor — 18 copies, 1 review
Novellin parhaita 5 copies
Les Misérables / The White Seal / Remembrance of Things Past / Selected Passages from Walden (1987) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Proust, Marcel
- Legal name
- Proust, Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel
- Birthdate
- 1871-07-10
- Date of death
- 1922-11-18
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Lycée Condorcet
Ecole des Sciences Politiques (lic. 1893 - Law | lic. 1895 - Literature) - Occupations
- novelist
short story writer
translator
essayist
literary critic
librarian - Organizations
- Le Figaro, Journal (Rédacteur)
Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris (Bibliothécaire, 4 mois, 1895) - Relationships
- Lange, Monique (cousin)
Gimpel, Rene (friend)
Ferval, Claude (friend) - Short biography
- Marcel Proust was born in the Paris suburb of Auteuil. He suffered from chronic asthma from age nine. In 1882, he began attending the Lycée Condorcet, but his education was disrupted by his illness. He studied at the Ecole des Sciences Politiques, taking licences in law and in literature. In 1896, he published his first book, Les Plaisirs et les jours (Pleasures and Days), a collection of short stories, essays and poems. In 1895, he began writing an autobiographical novel, Jean Santeuil, which he never finished. He published a number of articles on Ruskin, as well as translations of two of his books, La Bible d'Amiens (1904) and Sésame et les Lys (1906). Proust died in 1922 at age 51 of pneumonia exacerbated by asthma.
- Cause of death
- Bronchite (Epuisement + Complication avec asthme chronique)
- Nationality
- France
- Birthplace
- Auteuil, France
- Places of residence
- Auteuil, France
Paris, Île-de-France, France - Place of death
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Burial location
- Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, Paris, France (85e division)
- Map Location
- France
Members
Discussions
In Search of Lost Time - Volume V & VI: The Captive & The Fugitive in 1001 Books to read before you die (September 2014)
In Search of Lost Time - Volume IV: Sodom & Gomorrah in 1001 Books to read before you die (August 2014)
In Search of Lost Time - Volume 3: The Guermante's Way in 1001 Books to read before you die (May 2014)
In Search of Lost Time - Volume II: Within a Budding Grove in 1001 Books to read before you die (April 2014)
In Search of Lost Time - Another 2014 year long group read in 1001 Books to read before you die (April 2014)
Group Read: In Search of Lost Time - Volume I: Swann's Way in 1001 Books to read before you die (April 2014)
Why read Proust (1871-1922) today ? in Book talk (November 2013)
***Group Read: Time Regained in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (August 2011)
***Group Read: The Fugitive, or Sweet Cheat Gone by Marcel Proust in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (August 2011)
***Group Read: The Captive in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (June 2011)
***Group Read: The Guermantes Way in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (February 2011)
***Group Read: Within a Budding Grove in 75 Books Challenge for 2010 (October 2010)
***Group Read: Swann's Way in 75 Books Challenge for 2010 (August 2010)
Reading "Remembrance of Things Past" in 1001 Books to read before you die (February 2010)
Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 1001 Books to read before you die (December 2009)
Fixing up Proust in Combiners! (October 2006)
Reviews
In volume 3 of In Search of Lost Time, the narrator goes back to Paris where he finds a new woman to obsess over, the Duchesse of Guermantes. The narrator follows her on her morning walks, hoping to be noticed and invited to a dinner at her home. He does have a connection with her; his friend Robert Saint Loup is her nephew. Saint Loup is stationed at Doncieres with the army and the narrator goes down to meet up with him. There is a great section with the narrator interacting with the show more soldiers.
Back in Paris, there are two long set pieces at parties that sort of build on and contrast with each other. The first is at Mme Villeparisis's house and the second is at the Duchesse of Guermantes (finally!!). In the middle there is a long section on the death of the narrator's grandmother. The dinner party at Mme Villeparisis's is pretty entertaining to read - lots of familiar characters and a few new, talk of the Dreyfus affair, and an appearance by the highly intriguing Baron de Charlus at the end. The section at the Duchess's home was pretty boring, but it occurred to me that that was sort of the point - the fascinating-from-afar Duchesse of Guermantes is in reality quite boring and predictable (though still striking in her presence). I like how Proust chooses ordinary objects to create a thread through the novel. Some of these recur through all of the volumes (so far), like the hawthorn bush, and some are present in one section only (like the hats at the parties or the Elstir works of art). Some seem to have some deep significance and I think that some really are just memory triggers. It's a neat effect.
I'm really enjoying this book. This volume was very character-driven which was a little easier to read than some of the dreamier diversions in the previous two volumes and it was a nice change. I'm still very much seeing the work as a whole and not as separate volumes. I kind of want to go right on to the next volume, but as I have some other reading plans in July, I think I'll stick with my schedule and wait til August. show less
Back in Paris, there are two long set pieces at parties that sort of build on and contrast with each other. The first is at Mme Villeparisis's house and the second is at the Duchesse of Guermantes (finally!!). In the middle there is a long section on the death of the narrator's grandmother. The dinner party at Mme Villeparisis's is pretty entertaining to read - lots of familiar characters and a few new, talk of the Dreyfus affair, and an appearance by the highly intriguing Baron de Charlus at the end. The section at the Duchess's home was pretty boring, but it occurred to me that that was sort of the point - the fascinating-from-afar Duchesse of Guermantes is in reality quite boring and predictable (though still striking in her presence). I like how Proust chooses ordinary objects to create a thread through the novel. Some of these recur through all of the volumes (so far), like the hawthorn bush, and some are present in one section only (like the hats at the parties or the Elstir works of art). Some seem to have some deep significance and I think that some really are just memory triggers. It's a neat effect.
I'm really enjoying this book. This volume was very character-driven which was a little easier to read than some of the dreamier diversions in the previous two volumes and it was a nice change. I'm still very much seeing the work as a whole and not as separate volumes. I kind of want to go right on to the next volume, but as I have some other reading plans in July, I think I'll stick with my schedule and wait til August. show less
I loved the first & last sections (Combray & Place-Names) but felt peeved & vexed for much of the Swann in Love section.
Thoughts as I finished Combray:
Proust seems to so well hold comedy/humor in one hand & melancholy/sadness/anxiety in the other. For example, visiting his uncle & the uncle's female visitor in Combray -- there's the wonder & innocence of the child in that moment (but awareness that there's more there), the sparkle of the forbidden,
I think that Proust is one of those authors whose eyes are wide open & who can so exactly share "the human condition" (whatever that is). And, yet again, who I think of is Maugham (probably the only other author I have read where I have such strong, similar feelings of really *getting* humankind & then being able to express it in such exquisite terms). Anyway, I love this balancing act that Proust maintains, the underlying humor amidst the serious.
Thoughts as I finished Swann in Love:
This section was a bit draggy for me. I don't really enjoy Proust's 3rd person storytelling. (While he's a writer of lovely phrases, I feel like 3rd person storytelling is not his forte.) I much more enjoyed his writing when it's in a 1st person perspective like in the Combray section. Normally, I don't necessarily "note" the perspective or whether or not it switches, but this is glaring for me in that it's too long, too repetitive, too everything, especially after the beauty & flow of the Combray section. Imo.
I saw the Verdurin salon as a predecessor to a high school clique of the modern era. But with older people. You have a queen bee & the ones she orders around/approves in her orbit & then the followers, who may be "in" or "out" based on whims & behaviors. I guess cliques have always been around in various forms. But it just all seems so shallow. And Swann is acting like a morose, jealous boyfriend too. And worse. Would he have a restraining order in the modern day?
I'm thinking Swann's hired help (especially his coach driver) must find him utterly ridiculous, lol.
Ultimately, I wish this section had been highly edited, maybe by half?
Thoughts as I finished Place-Names:
After slogging through the 200 pages of Swann in Love, Proust went & completely charmed me again! I adored Place-Names, the beauty of his writing, the parallels to Swann in Love, the parallels of an aging, sickly Marcel to his Aunt Leonie. And the humor is back! (I don't remember finding much humor in the Swann in Love section.)
I also enjoyed how charming "love" seems in Place-Names because it is charming how he presents young Marcel (at age 8 or 10 or 12?) vs. love not seeming very charming at all (imo) in the Swann in Love section. It really highlights that a grown man behaving like a child is not appealing.
Final Overall Thoughts for Volume 1:
A mostly delightful read that would have been perfect if the middle section had been reduced by half. Proust excels observation & probing the nature of memory, all while maintaining a fine balance of the humor & pathos that define the human condition.
"The most familiar precepts are not always the truest" -- Gisèle as Sophocles, writing to Racine.
The second volume of Proust's Great Novel(TM), À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Within a Budding Grove, better - but more salaciously - translated as In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower) is no less magisterial than the last, although one suspects that many more people falter at the posts of this one, given as much of the book is to social commentary and increasingly oblique yet erudite show more discussions on art, love, culture, and human development. Truthfully, I am more excited for the work after reading this second novel, reminded as I so often am by the depth of Proust's brilliance. (One can surely believe that a man needs an editor even as one entirely supports his artistic innovations!) My review of the first volume can be found here.
Perhaps the more the great writer developed in Bergotte...the more his own personal life was drowned in the flood of all the lives that he imagined...
The second volume of In Search of Lost Time details the young narrator in his late teens, as his love for a young lady named Gilberte blossoms and fades, as his beliefs in art and human nature as shattered and newly built up, as he develops his first real platonic male friendship, and ultimately seeks to understand how he can ever become a writer. The characters of Volume One continue, primarily in the explanation of the family Swann and their tumultuous place in French society, and in Marcel's determined grandmother and his wise simpleton of a maid, Françoise. What draws me to the work is partly Proust's incredible ability to detail the development of the human consciousness. Some of his arguments, about why we fall in love, for instance, could be debated, but nevertheless he lays out his argument so meticulously, it's hard to disagree. Marcel's gradual understanding of the workings of the human heart is layered with his growing up, and with it that shocking experience of getting to know adults and social mores in ways that you had completely mistaken - or completely neglected - as children. The relationship of Odette and Swann, profiled so extensively in the book's first volume, is now placed further under the microscope, with an even less rosy hue.
We construct our lives for one person, and when at length it is ready to receive her that person does not come; presently she is dead to us, and we live on, prisoners within the walls which were intended only for her.
It's worth pointing out that Proust can be very, very funny! This is something they don't teach you in highschool or university lit class, when you are given brief excerpts of the French author to look at, but it comes through clear as a bell for the dedicated reader. True, the humour is of a wry kind no longer in vogue, but it's there, in the constant ironies the older narrator throws in when explaining the motivations of his younger self:
His head reminded one of those old castle keeps on which the disused battlements are still to be seen, although inside they have been converted into libraries."
At the same time, it's worth noting that the book is heavy going. It's well known that Proust's early attempts at getting the work published were stymied by publishers who were dubious of anyone's patience for a book that routinely runs on sentences for half a page, particularly when the sentences themselves are describing an action as simple as eating, or even as nonexistent as the vacillations of brain cells as we move from place to place by public transport. Proust is a great thinker but there is no doubt that the parts of the book that stray furthest into philosophical or artistic commentary can be the hardest, although again it is perchance they are the most rewarding. There is a beautiful quote somewhere which, alas, I cannot find, wherein an author speaks of how, after reading Proust for an extensive period of time, the memories contained within become one's own. That is part of my experience too, as I suspect it is for many. The subjectivity of memory, and the desperate wish to return there, are haunting themes pored over by many authors, but perhaps none found so much human truth as Marcel Proust. Still, I would say to readers who find themselves daunted that it is better to skim the odd 10 pages rather than give up. (At one point, a more recent translator notes, Proust himself made a marginal note on a passage in this volume stating "this is all badly written". It may just be self-doubt, but it sounds plausible!) Around each corner lurks a passage of such sublime beauty that one begins to doubt whether any literature written after 1922 could ever make such intelligent points again.
At the moment at which I entered, the creator was just finishing, with the brush which he had in his hand, the outline of the setting sun.
The second half of the book is perhaps more successful at retaining reader interest, although it is also slow going. Taken by his grandmother to the seaside town of Balbec for the season, Marcel makes a friend in Robert Saint-Loup, develops an idol in the artist Elstir, witnesses the complex social mores when people are taken outside of their regular society, has some odd interactions with a Baron, Charlus (which will make more sense in the sight of later novels, so I'm told), and finally meets a misty gaggle of girls who hold sway over his evolution into a lover. In this way, the fragmented nature of the whole novel becomes both an asset and a flaw. It's easy to imagine French people of the era being somewhat confused by this occasional dips into the lives of others, which would make sense once all seven novels were published, but not in the moment. And, after centuries of narrative literature, the reader is anxious to get to this young lady Albertine, whom we have heard passing mention of several times in Volume One, but she is constantly overshadowed and eclipsed until the last 100 pages. Even then, Marcel doesn't get anywhere with her that he would like! Instead, this is a novel of personal development, of the ways that the narrator comes to know the world, and himself.
Could it be that this man of genius, this sage, this recluse,this philosopher with his marvellous flow of conversation... was the ridiculous, depraved painter who had at one time been adopted by the Verdurins?
Besides the truthfulness of Proust, I also adore his run-on sentences, and the density of language presents a wonderful challenge. I have no doubt that, if I were to improve my schoolboy French, I would enjoy the works more in their mother tongue, but as that isn't a priority for me, English will have to do. I am not of the school of thought that argues Proust's sentences make no sense in English. Certainly, one must change one's preconceptions about how we use pronouns and modifiers, but it's possible. Even preferable! Open your minds, people! The third of my five reasons for such enjoyment is the complexity of character. In some ways, all non-Marcel characters in the Search betray essential qualities that fail to make them complete humans. Yet, this is precisely the point. We can never truly know another, as Marcel learns so humiliatingly with Albertine here. We the audience get the sense there is more to Saint-Loup then we thus know. By a similar notion, despite Saint-Loup's stories of his uncle Charlus' respectability, something sounds a bit fishy. A man who boasts about bashing up homosexuals and enjoys taking in young men who are down on their luck? I'm not making any allegations, Baron Charlus, but... Let's just say, based on his inability to stop gawking at our young narrator, I have a feeling we'll be learning certain secrets about this character in future volumes! So much of Proust's method of character development comes from anecdotes and moments. This is something that those of us who trained as classical actors learn. Judi Dench, playing Shakespeare's Cleopatra, was confounded by how to suggest her character's majesty, her passion, her silliness, her forethought, and her impulsiveness, all at once. The director wisely told her to play each part in the right moment. In the hands of a good actor, the audience reads each individual element at their time, and puts together a personality. So Proust does here, with everyone from the wackadoodle Verdurins to the irrational Françoise.
Gone are the kings, their ships pierced by arms,
Vanished upon the raging deep, alas,
The long-haired warriors of heroic Hellas
A couple of housekeeping notes: first, while I'm eminently satifised with the Moncrieff-Kilmartin-Enright translation, I was a bit confused by the Vintage editions. 14 endnotes for this entire volume? Literally 70 pages will pass full of references to artworks and plays, sometimes without even being clarified (for instance, when characters at a dinner party debate modes of literature) and we will receive no footnote. Then, suddenly, we'll have an endnote as dull as: "Arvede Barine was the pseudonym of Mme Charles Vincens, a French woman writer..." This decision seems to ally with the printing of the Reader's Guide to Proust which is included with the sixth and final volume in the series, Time Regained. So if you're thinking of embarking on this journey, best to get Volume 6 at the same time as the rest, so you can refer in detail to people, places, and themes.
Elsewhere, having read the relevant sections of two Reader's Guides on the subject, I can eminently recommend Patrick Alexander's guide for those who intend either only to skim the volumes or who are very novice readers (it is primarily plot summaries and category listings), or the wonderful David Ellsion's guide for those open to academic interpretation, and to a really grand potted history of Proust and his philosophies. There are many other great books, I'm sure, that I will read once I have finished the Search, but these two are actually structured as guides, chapter-by-chapter, which I find very worthy to consolidate my knowledge.
"I am reading Proust for the first time ...and am surprised to find him a mental defective" - Evelyn Waugh
Anyhow, it is worth stating the last two reasons I am so enamoured of Proust at this stage. There's the lyrical beauty of so many of his passages. As I said, it's not always a light read, but when one reaches a passage like the powerful description of Elstir's painting of the sea, one is illuminated both by the transcendent imagery and the philosophy underpinning it. As the boundaries between sea and land are diffused in a man-made work, as people are placed amongst the grandeur of nature and artists debate as to whether one should focus on the grandeur or the person, Marcel - and by extension, Proust, and by extension, the Western world - discovers an understanding of a world that is both larger than him and yet also contained within him. And also, perhaps most importantly, there is the feeling of inevitability about reading Proust. It is like returning home after three years spent at sea. (I have been spurred on by my Proustian year to start cataloging my own memories chronologically, in the hopes of both recalling all the moments that I have lost to the "involuntary" part of my memory, and also that I may free up some space in there!) There is a warmth, a need, a sensibility, a sense of discovery, a certainty forever bouncing off uncertainty, that plays into Proust's great Search. With my other favourite verbose writers - Pynchon, Mailer, Woolf - I tend to take a year between books to ensure I have the mental energy, and that I don't exhaust the supply. In the case of Proust, I may only give myself a week until I stumble down The Guermantes Way and find what lies next in store for Marcel, and for me.
And when Françoise removed the pins from the top of the window-frame, took down the cloths, and drew back the curtains, the summer day which she disclosed seemed as dead, as immemorial, as a sumptuous millenary mummy from which our old servant had done no more than cautiously unwind the linen wrappings before displaying it, embalmed in its vesture of gold. show less
The second volume of Proust's Great Novel(TM), À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Within a Budding Grove, better - but more salaciously - translated as In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower) is no less magisterial than the last, although one suspects that many more people falter at the posts of this one, given as much of the book is to social commentary and increasingly oblique yet erudite show more discussions on art, love, culture, and human development. Truthfully, I am more excited for the work after reading this second novel, reminded as I so often am by the depth of Proust's brilliance. (One can surely believe that a man needs an editor even as one entirely supports his artistic innovations!) My review of the first volume can be found here.
Perhaps the more the great writer developed in Bergotte...the more his own personal life was drowned in the flood of all the lives that he imagined...
The second volume of In Search of Lost Time details the young narrator in his late teens, as his love for a young lady named Gilberte blossoms and fades, as his beliefs in art and human nature as shattered and newly built up, as he develops his first real platonic male friendship, and ultimately seeks to understand how he can ever become a writer. The characters of Volume One continue, primarily in the explanation of the family Swann and their tumultuous place in French society, and in Marcel's determined grandmother and his wise simpleton of a maid, Françoise. What draws me to the work is partly Proust's incredible ability to detail the development of the human consciousness. Some of his arguments, about why we fall in love, for instance, could be debated, but nevertheless he lays out his argument so meticulously, it's hard to disagree. Marcel's gradual understanding of the workings of the human heart is layered with his growing up, and with it that shocking experience of getting to know adults and social mores in ways that you had completely mistaken - or completely neglected - as children. The relationship of Odette and Swann, profiled so extensively in the book's first volume, is now placed further under the microscope, with an even less rosy hue.
We construct our lives for one person, and when at length it is ready to receive her that person does not come; presently she is dead to us, and we live on, prisoners within the walls which were intended only for her.
It's worth pointing out that Proust can be very, very funny! This is something they don't teach you in highschool or university lit class, when you are given brief excerpts of the French author to look at, but it comes through clear as a bell for the dedicated reader. True, the humour is of a wry kind no longer in vogue, but it's there, in the constant ironies the older narrator throws in when explaining the motivations of his younger self:
His head reminded one of those old castle keeps on which the disused battlements are still to be seen, although inside they have been converted into libraries."
At the same time, it's worth noting that the book is heavy going. It's well known that Proust's early attempts at getting the work published were stymied by publishers who were dubious of anyone's patience for a book that routinely runs on sentences for half a page, particularly when the sentences themselves are describing an action as simple as eating, or even as nonexistent as the vacillations of brain cells as we move from place to place by public transport. Proust is a great thinker but there is no doubt that the parts of the book that stray furthest into philosophical or artistic commentary can be the hardest, although again it is perchance they are the most rewarding. There is a beautiful quote somewhere which, alas, I cannot find, wherein an author speaks of how, after reading Proust for an extensive period of time, the memories contained within become one's own. That is part of my experience too, as I suspect it is for many. The subjectivity of memory, and the desperate wish to return there, are haunting themes pored over by many authors, but perhaps none found so much human truth as Marcel Proust. Still, I would say to readers who find themselves daunted that it is better to skim the odd 10 pages rather than give up. (At one point, a more recent translator notes, Proust himself made a marginal note on a passage in this volume stating "this is all badly written". It may just be self-doubt, but it sounds plausible!) Around each corner lurks a passage of such sublime beauty that one begins to doubt whether any literature written after 1922 could ever make such intelligent points again.
At the moment at which I entered, the creator was just finishing, with the brush which he had in his hand, the outline of the setting sun.
The second half of the book is perhaps more successful at retaining reader interest, although it is also slow going. Taken by his grandmother to the seaside town of Balbec for the season, Marcel makes a friend in Robert Saint-Loup, develops an idol in the artist Elstir, witnesses the complex social mores when people are taken outside of their regular society, has some odd interactions with a Baron, Charlus (which will make more sense in the sight of later novels, so I'm told), and finally meets a misty gaggle of girls who hold sway over his evolution into a lover. In this way, the fragmented nature of the whole novel becomes both an asset and a flaw. It's easy to imagine French people of the era being somewhat confused by this occasional dips into the lives of others, which would make sense once all seven novels were published, but not in the moment. And, after centuries of narrative literature, the reader is anxious to get to this young lady Albertine, whom we have heard passing mention of several times in Volume One, but she is constantly overshadowed and eclipsed until the last 100 pages. Even then, Marcel doesn't get anywhere with her that he would like! Instead, this is a novel of personal development, of the ways that the narrator comes to know the world, and himself.
Could it be that this man of genius, this sage, this recluse,this philosopher with his marvellous flow of conversation... was the ridiculous, depraved painter who had at one time been adopted by the Verdurins?
Besides the truthfulness of Proust, I also adore his run-on sentences, and the density of language presents a wonderful challenge. I have no doubt that, if I were to improve my schoolboy French, I would enjoy the works more in their mother tongue, but as that isn't a priority for me, English will have to do. I am not of the school of thought that argues Proust's sentences make no sense in English. Certainly, one must change one's preconceptions about how we use pronouns and modifiers, but it's possible. Even preferable! Open your minds, people! The third of my five reasons for such enjoyment is the complexity of character. In some ways, all non-Marcel characters in the Search betray essential qualities that fail to make them complete humans. Yet, this is precisely the point. We can never truly know another, as Marcel learns so humiliatingly with Albertine here. We the audience get the sense there is more to Saint-Loup then we thus know. By a similar notion, despite Saint-Loup's stories of his uncle Charlus' respectability, something sounds a bit fishy. A man who boasts about bashing up homosexuals and enjoys taking in young men who are down on their luck? I'm not making any allegations, Baron Charlus, but... Let's just say, based on his inability to stop gawking at our young narrator, I have a feeling we'll be learning certain secrets about this character in future volumes! So much of Proust's method of character development comes from anecdotes and moments. This is something that those of us who trained as classical actors learn. Judi Dench, playing Shakespeare's Cleopatra, was confounded by how to suggest her character's majesty, her passion, her silliness, her forethought, and her impulsiveness, all at once. The director wisely told her to play each part in the right moment. In the hands of a good actor, the audience reads each individual element at their time, and puts together a personality. So Proust does here, with everyone from the wackadoodle Verdurins to the irrational Françoise.
Gone are the kings, their ships pierced by arms,
Vanished upon the raging deep, alas,
The long-haired warriors of heroic Hellas
A couple of housekeeping notes: first, while I'm eminently satifised with the Moncrieff-Kilmartin-Enright translation, I was a bit confused by the Vintage editions. 14 endnotes for this entire volume? Literally 70 pages will pass full of references to artworks and plays, sometimes without even being clarified (for instance, when characters at a dinner party debate modes of literature) and we will receive no footnote. Then, suddenly, we'll have an endnote as dull as: "Arvede Barine was the pseudonym of Mme Charles Vincens, a French woman writer..." This decision seems to ally with the printing of the Reader's Guide to Proust which is included with the sixth and final volume in the series, Time Regained. So if you're thinking of embarking on this journey, best to get Volume 6 at the same time as the rest, so you can refer in detail to people, places, and themes.
Elsewhere, having read the relevant sections of two Reader's Guides on the subject, I can eminently recommend Patrick Alexander's guide for those who intend either only to skim the volumes or who are very novice readers (it is primarily plot summaries and category listings), or the wonderful David Ellsion's guide for those open to academic interpretation, and to a really grand potted history of Proust and his philosophies. There are many other great books, I'm sure, that I will read once I have finished the Search, but these two are actually structured as guides, chapter-by-chapter, which I find very worthy to consolidate my knowledge.
"I am reading Proust for the first time ...and am surprised to find him a mental defective" - Evelyn Waugh
Anyhow, it is worth stating the last two reasons I am so enamoured of Proust at this stage. There's the lyrical beauty of so many of his passages. As I said, it's not always a light read, but when one reaches a passage like the powerful description of Elstir's painting of the sea, one is illuminated both by the transcendent imagery and the philosophy underpinning it. As the boundaries between sea and land are diffused in a man-made work, as people are placed amongst the grandeur of nature and artists debate as to whether one should focus on the grandeur or the person, Marcel - and by extension, Proust, and by extension, the Western world - discovers an understanding of a world that is both larger than him and yet also contained within him. And also, perhaps most importantly, there is the feeling of inevitability about reading Proust. It is like returning home after three years spent at sea. (I have been spurred on by my Proustian year to start cataloging my own memories chronologically, in the hopes of both recalling all the moments that I have lost to the "involuntary" part of my memory, and also that I may free up some space in there!) There is a warmth, a need, a sensibility, a sense of discovery, a certainty forever bouncing off uncertainty, that plays into Proust's great Search. With my other favourite verbose writers - Pynchon, Mailer, Woolf - I tend to take a year between books to ensure I have the mental energy, and that I don't exhaust the supply. In the case of Proust, I may only give myself a week until I stumble down The Guermantes Way and find what lies next in store for Marcel, and for me.
And when Françoise removed the pins from the top of the window-frame, took down the cloths, and drew back the curtains, the summer day which she disclosed seemed as dead, as immemorial, as a sumptuous millenary mummy from which our old servant had done no more than cautiously unwind the linen wrappings before displaying it, embalmed in its vesture of gold. show less
Epic stuff - a very slow, considered style, with considerations of every thought and twist in the narrator's personality and those of everyone around him. Staggeringly perceptive and fascinating, beautifully written, but also a slog sometimes where his observations (at a 100-page dinner party being the culprit, and not for the first time in the series) drag on just too much. Part of the problem is that the high society people he is discussing are awful, and so not pleasant company, although show more of course that is the point Proust is making...
I found this like the 4 volumes before it - occasionally difficult to read and sometimes a bit dull, but when it's good is as good as anything you'll ever read. The insights into human nature and life, and the fundamental unknowability of other people, are breathtaking. show less
I found this like the 4 volumes before it - occasionally difficult to read and sometimes a bit dull, but when it's good is as good as anything you'll ever read. The insights into human nature and life, and the fundamental unknowability of other people, are breathtaking. show less
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