In Search of Lost Time - Another 2014 year long group read

Hopefully this will run along side the Dance to the Music of Time year long group for those who have already read it...(or for those brave enough to take on 2 behemoths in one year!)

I don't imagine a huge take up, but even if it's just a few of us keeping each other going through the year hopefully it will be worth it. Here's what I am planning to do:

January & February - Swann's Way - THREAD
March & April - Within a Budding Grove - THREAD
May & June - The Guermantes Way - THREAD
July & August - Sodom and Gomorrah - THREAD
September & October - The Captive & The Fugitive - THREAD
November & December - Time Regained

I'm personally going to be reading the Vintage Classics editions which use the twice revised Moncrieff translation.

I think it will probably work best to keep this thread open for general discussion about the whole work, editions and translations and general chit chat and then I'll open a separate thread for each volume.

I've just thought that it might be worth getting some of the translation issues out of the way early!

The obvious one of course is the main title. À la recherche du temps perdu was originally translated by Moncrieff as "Remembrance of Things Past." When Enright revised the translation in 1992 he used the more literal translation of "In Search of Lost Time."

On top of this all 7 volumes have been translated in different ways, so to avoid confusions here are the ones I know about....feel free to add any!

Volume 1 - Du côté de chez Swann - Swann's Way / The Way by Swann's
Volume 2 - À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs - Within a Budding Grove / In the Shadow of Young girls in flower
Volume 3 - Le Côté de Guermantes - The Guermantes Way
Volume 4 - Sodome et Gomorrhe - Sodom and Gomorrah / Cities of the Plain
Volume 5 - La Prisonnière - The Prisoner / The Captive
Volume 6 - La Fugitive/Albertine disparue - The Fugitive / Albertine Gone / The Sweet Cheat Gone
Volume 7 - Le Temps retrouvé - Time Regained / Finding Time Again / The Past Recaptured

The reason I have chosen to read volumes 5 and 6 together is simply that the vintage classic edition has put these 2 together into 1 volume which makes the numbers fit quite nicely!

I might follow you very slowly with my German edition. It's nice to look forward to some beautiful writing in 2014.

I will probably try this with you. It might be the only way I read it!

I've read the first two volumes and will probably join in May/June for The Guermantes Way.

Are Vintage Classics and Vintage Ebooks the same thing? I just received a Kindle PaperWhite 2013 for Christmas and was hoping to read along with this one via ebooks, which I have very little experience with. Any suggestions for which editions to read?

Do you mean the following vintage ebooks:

http://www.vintage-ebooks.com/

If so, they are not the same thing. The "Vintage" I refer to is actually part of Random House. It would appear that vintage ebooks is part Borrego Publishing. I'll admit my ignorance when it comes to the intricacies of publishing, so there may be more to it that that, but I'm sure there are tons of Library THingers who are experts on these things.

eBooks are slippering things that I haven't quite got my head around. They can come from so many sources from reputable publishers right down to someone scanning their own tatty copy into an optical character reader and uploading it to the web.

As far as I can tell the edition that I am planning to read doesn't have a digital equivalent. However, there are loads out there. I would just make sure that when you get it you know who the actual publisher is and in most cases you should be able to figure out which translation they are using. If you can't find these things out relatively easily from the place you are getting them from I guess there is always a danger that they will be sub-par. For a book like this I imagine it's worth taking the time to investigate!

I would appreciate more insight into the murky world of eBook publishing if anyone would like to offer some suggestions for reputable places to get this, and other, eBooks?

Thanks for the heads up! I usually don't mind reading a not too great copy if it's free, but if I'm going to pay as much as a penny for it, I expect a little something extra! And yes, that is the ebook publisher...I will have to do some research to see what edition is the best for the money.

Oh yes - I bought an e-copy of To Kill a Mockingbird which was so appalling I demanded my money back from kobo (where I bought it from). Kobo it seems is willing to sell e-books from anywhere on it's site without carrying out any quality checks which lets their own brand down it's so lazy and unreliable. Sorry for the rant but it's a real peeve of mine.

Oooh - I'm in. I have the ebooks waiting...I think...

#4 - I feel the same!

I'll have to investigate my possibilities for picking this up when I'm back in the US, so I imagine I might get a late start. But I'm interested!

I'm not very reliable when it comes to sticking to group reads but just maybe with this timeline I can do it. If I do, I will be reading it in the original French.

Swann's Way - 468 pages
Within a Budding Grove - 450ish pages
The Guermantes Way - 619 pages
Sodom and Gomorrah - 576 pages
The Captive & The Fugitive - together 957 pages
Time Regained - 784 pages

3854 pages (11 pages a day over the year)

Yes, I will try and pursue this to see how the group read goes. I am already at the 10% mark in the Moncrieff English translation using the Kindle anyway. I am also doing the Paris Review group read of Dante's Inferno and enjoying that if it's enjoyment that I should expect.

As someone who also had childhood illnesses, I recognize the lively and contemplative inner life that a sickly child invents. Much of it is a defense against fatigue and boredom, I think.

I haven't looked into what translation may be preferable. Like Flaubert, any translation of Proust will fall quite short.

As usual, I have more than one book that I am reading at various stages depending on mood and simple tolerance. The difficult thing is to stay at it on a steady basis rather than my usual fits and starts.

Despite myself I bought a copy of Swann's way. I really would like to join you in reading this, but I am still not sure. I have so many books waiting for me. I am halfway through A Dance to the Music of Time and also started Your Face Tomorrow and 1001 nights, all of them quite long.
However I am tempted....

YAY It looks like we are getting a good crowd here Im reading the same one as Johnny so got my copy and ready to go full steam ahead.

Well I've met M. swann and am intrigued by the style..a lot easier to read than I thought it would be

Just started it last night, and was quite enjoying it, but found that after a few pages of beautiful commentary on sleep I had to crash!

So it begins.

The thread is up for Swann's Way here

I'll join too. I'm not much of a group-reader, but I have noticed that it's a lot easier for me to focus on chunksters like this one when I know that others are reading the same book. And it's the right pace for me to fit it in with all the rest.
I'll read the French Gutenberg-version.

I am reading Swann's Way so I'll follow along. I was reading 10 pgs a day but already gotten behind.

I'm in the UK on leave and the daily tally is taking a hit too

So tempted to join in on this group read on top of The Dance to the Music of Time. I'm making myself the deal that if I finish Infinite Jest in the next month I will...just don't want to have three big reads going simultaneously!

>23 aliciamay:, The Dance to the Music of Time, Infinite Jest and In Search of Lost Time --- wow, I think you might be have some lost time of your own.

That's right! Thank goodness for a three day weekend.

Well, I've started it. I'm about 8% into the Kindle version (from Project Gutenberg/Moncrieff translation) of Swann's Way. It's interesting, if a challenge to my vocabulary. I've already run across one word I remember from studying for spelling bees in my youth: desuetude.

A quote that caught my eye:

"But then, even in the most insignificant details of our daily life, none of us can be said to constitute a material whole, which is identical for everyone, and need only be turned up like a page in an account-book or the record of a will; our social personality is created by the thoughts of other people."

LOL - agreed - it's definitely one book that makes me exceedingly glad for the OED touch search on my e-reader! It's not that often I come across words I don't know - or at least it wasn't before I started this...

viaticum, pepsin, desuetude, purpurate, preterite, marchpanes, endives, sainfoin and neurasthenia so far and I'm only halfway through book 1!

Okay, I'm in. That's to say, for now. I started Swann's Way, am 50 pages in and very relieved that it is, so far, very readable - and enjoyable!
After finishing this one, I'll decide if I am going to read the rest of the books this year with you, or whether I'll wait until I've finished the rest of the 1305 books...

Well, today I've started Vol. 2, In a Budding Grove. I realize I'm about a week early, but every little bit helps. Just thought I'd throw that out there in case anyone else is still going.

Yes... I'm well in. Just met Gilberte and on course to finish the first this week.

For those who are not too put off by the first volume, the thread for the next installment is here

I recently took the plunge and started reading In Search of Lost Time. My husband tackled it about 10 years ago and since then has tried several times to get me to read it as well. I always demurred, and for no good reason, really. It just kind of scared me. But I really enjoyed Dance to the Music of Time, so there's no reason not to attempt ISOLT and see what I think.

I'm obviously well behind your group read schedule, and have no intention of hurrying to catch up. In fact, it might take me a couple of years to get through the entire work. But I'll be following distantly in your footsteps and will enjoy reading your thoughts.

I've been meaning to start as well but haven't for one reason or another. Maybe this summer.