Status
Available
Genres
Publication
GALLIMARD (1972), Edition: No Edition Stated, 512 pages
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. Short Stories. In Search of Lost Time (French: �? la recherche du temps perdu)�?? previously also translated as Remembrance of Things Past, is a novel in seven volumes, written by Marcel Proust (1871�??1922). It is considered to be his most prominent work, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine" which occurs early in the first volume. It gained fame in English in translations by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin as Remembrance of Things Past, but the title In Search of Lost Time, a literal rendering of the French, has gained usage since D. J. Enright adopted it for his revised translation published in 1992. The novel began to take shape in 1909. Proust continued to work on it until his final illness in the autumn of 1922 forced him to break off. Proust established the structure early on, but even after volumes were initially finished he kept adding new material and edited one volume after another for publication. The last three of the seven volumes contain oversights and fragmentary or unpolished passages, as they existed only in draft form at the death of the author; the publication of these parts was overseen by his brother… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member absurdeist
How does one review Marcel Proust?
Does one review the Parthenon or the Pyramids? -- the Taj Mahal?
What about the Grand Canyon, Great Wall of China, or Niagara Falls?
Can one credibly critique an Albert Einstein, Beethoven, or Vincent Van Gogh?
What's that you say? did I hear you correctly? you
Well, maybe it's just me; I'm certainly naive, but I didn't think so.
Does one review the Parthenon or the Pyramids? -- the Taj Mahal?
What about the Grand Canyon, Great Wall of China, or Niagara Falls?
Can one credibly critique an Albert Einstein, Beethoven, or Vincent Van Gogh?
What's that you say? did I hear you correctly? you
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declared, "No!"?Well, maybe it's just me; I'm certainly naive, but I didn't think so.
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LibraryThing member agricolaoval
An interesting work whatever perspective we choose to see it from. Proust picks up an issue that may be bugging more than a few of us. What makes us individual and permanent persons? We certainly feel like individual entities with a certain degree of permanence. At the same time we know very well
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that we are in continuous transition. So what if anything is it that gives us permanence? Memories? The way we define ourselves by the choices we make? The expectations from our surroundings? The image our surroundings make of us? The appearent permanence of our bodies and our way of thinking? Or what? When we look at these suggestions none of them sound very promising. Proust goes for the memories and makes a very strong case for this possibility. As can be expected his final conclusions are not very convincing though. But the project is admirable and totally beautiful, and his quest obviously constituted a whole life for him. Apart from the main theme the novels are very absorbing because of the wealth of observations and thoughts about practically everything, human relations, music, architecture, litterature and what have you. His style has a quite undeserved reputation for being obscure and daunting. The fact is that his long sentences are so clear and so eminently readable because of their inner rythm that you hardly notice that they may fill the better part of a page. Shouldn't be copied by lesser minds though. Show Less
LibraryThing member GarySeverance
Memories are interactive and define solitude. Proust wrote about his solitude in Remembrance of Things Past, C. K. Scott Moncrieff's title for his translation. I prefer this whimsical translation of the title instead of In Search of Lost Time, Terence Kilmartin's concrete re-translation. The novel
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opens the way for insight and stimulates the reader's own life review by way of wonderfully detailed sensory and artistic images. I recommend that my fellow psychologists read the 6 volume set before they enter their patients' solitudes. Show Less
LibraryThing member sharder
This is supposed to be one of the masterpieces of literature. This may be true, but I did not enjoy it. The narrators longwinded introspective descriptions of his childhood may seem to be very psychological acute, but I found them tedious. I couldn't help thinking that his exploration of memory was
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insightful while longing for an ordinary textbook of cognitive psychology. After half the book (volume one), I quit with the good feeling of having "done Proust". Show Less
LibraryThing member Leonard_Seet
More than a commentary on Swann’s jealousy or M. Charlus’s homosexuality or the frivolity of the Guermantes’ sorties, Marcel Proust’s monumental work In Search of Lost Time paints the unsuccessful reconstruction of a forgone world and a lost existence from fickle memories, which like
But even during the narrative, Marcel realized memory’s willfulness and the variation in hues, shapes, pitch and timbre between the actual object and its mental reconstruction. When he encountered an old friend, the facial features were so different from his recollection and reconstruction, for better or for worse pregnant with all the emotions, preoccupation, biases, that he could not match face with voice.
Because recollected sensation can never equate with the actual experience and time, like a patient thief, steals memories a morsel at a time until one day the owner would realize he was ruined, Marcel ultimately would fail to recapture and assemble stolen sensations and decayed seconds and in the end, must create new moments, new sensations and ultimately a new biography, through the synergy between past experiences and creative imagination. From those deceased hours and decayed memories sprouted In Search of Lost Time, not only Proust’s novel but also that of the narrator.
Whether we savor Marcel’s frailness, Swann’s infatuation, Charlus’s pompousness, Franscoise’s independent-mindedness, the sorties’ frivolousness or the social revelation of the Dreyfuss Affair, we can enjoy Proust’s classic without resorting to Marxist or Freudian or Feminist critique. And the sentences, like the serpentine Amazon, seemed to flow unceasingly into the distant horizon carrying with it the sparkling sunlight. Although ascending the novel’s three thousand pages appears precipitous, the effort will be well worth the while and, at the end of the adventure, the reader can rest on the crisp apex and savor time’s transience and memory’s playfulness as if they were alpine zephyrs.
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morning mists would fade with the rising sun. The narrator Marcel, longing for a past that didn’t exist but must be created, sought to experience Bergson’s continuous time rather than the fragmented and still-framed instantaneous moments by attempting to blur the boundaries between Cambray and Paris, childhood and adolescence, and Swann and himself and integrate here and there, before and after, and him and me through memory fragments of previous objects, people and sensations. As in a neural network or a mind-map, the madeleine linked his aunt to his mother, who in turn was linked to Albertine through jealousy, which also connected Marcel with Saint Loop and Swann, who, as with his (Marcel’s) grandmother, linked his childhood and adolescence. And through recollection, Marcel would try to relive the buried years and resurrect his grandmother and Albertine.But even during the narrative, Marcel realized memory’s willfulness and the variation in hues, shapes, pitch and timbre between the actual object and its mental reconstruction. When he encountered an old friend, the facial features were so different from his recollection and reconstruction, for better or for worse pregnant with all the emotions, preoccupation, biases, that he could not match face with voice.
Because recollected sensation can never equate with the actual experience and time, like a patient thief, steals memories a morsel at a time until one day the owner would realize he was ruined, Marcel ultimately would fail to recapture and assemble stolen sensations and decayed seconds and in the end, must create new moments, new sensations and ultimately a new biography, through the synergy between past experiences and creative imagination. From those deceased hours and decayed memories sprouted In Search of Lost Time, not only Proust’s novel but also that of the narrator.
Whether we savor Marcel’s frailness, Swann’s infatuation, Charlus’s pompousness, Franscoise’s independent-mindedness, the sorties’ frivolousness or the social revelation of the Dreyfuss Affair, we can enjoy Proust’s classic without resorting to Marxist or Freudian or Feminist critique. And the sentences, like the serpentine Amazon, seemed to flow unceasingly into the distant horizon carrying with it the sparkling sunlight. Although ascending the novel’s three thousand pages appears precipitous, the effort will be well worth the while and, at the end of the adventure, the reader can rest on the crisp apex and savor time’s transience and memory’s playfulness as if they were alpine zephyrs.
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LibraryThing member Vivl
This is going to take me a while! The entire 7 volumes of À la recherche du temps perdu in one volume, in French. I'm planning on reading a page or two each evening as it's MUCH too big and heavy to take as my on bus reading or even to read in bed. So far the first page and a half have been lovely
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and surprisingly easy to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member jon1lambert
In the car I am listening again to Remenbrance of Things Past on CD. I have reached CD number 3 of 39. There is so much there about human nature, behaviour and emotions. There is so much beauty in the writing despite its occasional complexity. There is so much humour deriving from the traits of the
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characters, their class, their idiosyncrasies and downright self-centredness. Take the snobbery of Legrandin who considers snobbery to be an evil sin but whose behaviour epitomises it. Take Aunt Leonie, bedridden, who despises her friends, all alienated, including those who consider her to be as ill as she claims to be and those who consider that she is not as ill as she says she is by saying that should make every effort get up and about. This is not to mention Swann and his unfortunate marriage and the narrator’s aunts and their so subtle thanks to Swann for wine that no one could conceivably notice the oblique and understand gratitude. This book as well as explaining and demonstrating the difference between involuntary and voluntary memory is a handbook to every aspect of human nature and the strengths and weaknesses of all of us as individuals, families and any form of relationship. Show Less
LibraryThing member pickwick817
I read this book over a two year period. Proust almost seems to plug his mind into a dictating machine at times. Parts go on and on for 20 pages over the ruminations of a single idea. Other parts of the book flow like a contemporary novel. This book started as one I wanted to read and became a
It is intersting looking at how this class of society lived. Day to day worries are completely missing. Its all about relationships, and people amusing themselves with society. It's a world I prefer to avoid.
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major hurdle for me. Looking back now, parts were very enjoyable, and parts made me miserable (the fugutive).It is intersting looking at how this class of society lived. Day to day worries are completely missing. Its all about relationships, and people amusing themselves with society. It's a world I prefer to avoid.
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LibraryThing member RodneyWelch
The colossus; look on me, ye mighty, and despair. The story of a life that aims for nothing more than the essence of life as it can be remembered, reconstructed, reimagined. Nothing like it in the world.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
I started reading this with Swan's Way but after that I switched to the audio read by Neville Jason who did an excellent job. It runs to 150 hours of listening. It took the narrator 45 days to complete the unabridged recording. Did I say that the narrator was 78 years old when he recorded this. The
What I didn't like: I had no appreciation for Marcel's love affairs. He was so immature and self centered. A lot of the story centered on homosexuality. Marcel did a lot of observing of other peoples lives.
What I liked; I liked a book about memory and aging. The character of the narrator is introduced to us as a boy who can't stand to be separated from his mother, through time we see him grow old until the last part where he reflects on aging. I thought this last volume was spot on in most ways. I liked seeing the process. As a child, there was not much history even though history is always occurring. As Marcel the narrator ages, he is fascinated by planes and there are zeppelins. The Dreyfus case also occurs and so the book addresses Jewish history and in the end of the book there is the intro of World War I.
I gave the book 3 stars and I don't see yet where reading or not reading this book is of any importance other than bragging rights but a lot of times with books like this, that opinion changes with remembrance of things past.
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only other long complete recordings would be the complete Harry Potter, running 125 hours. (maybe this is not true anymore). The story follows the narrators life as he grows up into an adult and occurs in the Parisian high society. It was written between 1909 to 1922 and published 1913 and 1927. Historically the time period is the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War to the reverberations of the First World War. The writer is the master of the run on sentence. A single sentence can fill a whole page. Mr Jason did an excellent job of reading these long meandering sentences. The narrator also did an excellent job with the many characters. This is a French book read by an English narrator (he states he can't do French Accents) but he develops the characters.What I didn't like: I had no appreciation for Marcel's love affairs. He was so immature and self centered. A lot of the story centered on homosexuality. Marcel did a lot of observing of other peoples lives.
What I liked; I liked a book about memory and aging. The character of the narrator is introduced to us as a boy who can't stand to be separated from his mother, through time we see him grow old until the last part where he reflects on aging. I thought this last volume was spot on in most ways. I liked seeing the process. As a child, there was not much history even though history is always occurring. As Marcel the narrator ages, he is fascinated by planes and there are zeppelins. The Dreyfus case also occurs and so the book addresses Jewish history and in the end of the book there is the intro of World War I.
I gave the book 3 stars and I don't see yet where reading or not reading this book is of any importance other than bragging rights but a lot of times with books like this, that opinion changes with remembrance of things past.
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LibraryThing member iamamro
Believe the hype.
LibraryThing member ivanfranko
Reading this was a memorable experience. It keeps reverberating with me. It will be a source for inspiring observations about our brief lives and their fading memories.
Subjects
Awards
Waterstones Books of the Century (33 — 1997)
Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List (65 — 2009)
Original language
French
Original publication date
1913 - 1927
1925
1927
Physical description
512 p.; 7.01 inches
ISBN
2070368211 / 9782070368211
Other editions
À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust (Other)