Rating: 
Summary: Proust's Virtual Reality
Review: This book is the entrance into another world, as finely detailed and exquisitely convoluted as a Mandelbrot Set. This is the enchanting tale of a super-sensitive and frail young lad growing up amidst the picturesque late-nineteenth century French countryside, his communion with nature (the beloved hawthorns), the written word (his beloved Bergotte), and the account of his first somewhat clumsy and tentative social encounters. In conjunction with this is the tale of the sophisticated dilettante playboy financier, Charles Swann, friend of the narrator's family, who against all expectations falls in love with the courtesan Odette de Crecy, and the tale of how this possessive love develops in Swann's mind and leads to so much grief for him in the end. Swann appears to function as a sort of prophetic shadow whose life-story prefigures the narrator's own life-story in many ways. Swann's Way is actually the name young Marcel gives to the shorter walk he often takes with his family around the peripheries of Combray, which leads right past Swann's country estate. It is there, amidst the hawthorn blossoms, that he meets his first love, Gilberte, the daughter of Swann and Odette. The long, unhurried poetic pace of the Combray narrative may appear somewhat tedious for a reader accustomed to a well-defined story and plot, leading many readers to abandon this book after the first hundred pages or so. However, once you have finished the Combray section, you will find that the narrative picks up momentum considerably; Swann in Love is far easier to read. My advice is to take the Combray section slow and easy, and don't give up. It is truly worth the extra effort to get through it. Doubtless, like me, you will also come to this book thinking of Proust as a sort of mediocre novelist known for his eccentricities and frail health. Once you complete this book, you will come to realize that he was a true master. And a last word of advice: The next volume in this series (Within a Budding Grove) is a sheer delight. Don't miss it!
Rating:
Summary: Time Well Spent
Review: I approached this book with some trepidation. Did I really want to start a 6-volume project? Was it as inaccessible as some have said it is? Was I just being pretentious in wanting to read them? And which edition to read? So many to choose from. After much research, I decided to go for the Modern Library 6-volume paperback edition, translated by Moncrieff and Kilmartin with revisions by Enright. This is what the experts recommended, and the beautiful cover art is a bonus. I started reading and immediately was captivated by the book. I enjoyed every bit of minutiae and every beautiful sentence. The scenes from Combray were wonderful, but I especially loved the love story between M. Swann and Odette. I could feel Swann's anguish, confusion, suspicioun, and obsession. Do yourself a favor, make time for Proust.
Rating: 
Summary: Which version is recommended?
Review: I have read that there are better translations out there and would like some feedback on which is the most accessible while retaining Proust's qualities and style. Some translators are a bit overwrought and purple as any reader of translated works can recall, I should think. Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Life, cut apart and caressed
Review: I tried 3 times in my twenties to read "Swann's Way", the first volume in Proust's 4000-page epic novel, "In Search of Lost Time", and could not do it. No patience. I had to go read some Bukowski just to wash out my brain. But I'm delighted to report that now, in my thirties, I've given Proust another shot and am absolutely in love with his writing. The serpentine arrangement of his sentences is extremely daunting, but I got some good advice on that before I started: KEEP GOING. Don't slow down and wonder where you are, just keep pushing through as though Proust was speaking to you and you couldn't stop to ask him what he just said. Like Shakespeare, it takes awhile, but soon you get into the rhythm and it's no problem at all. I don't know how the relentlessly-examined minutae of another man's life can be so fascinating over 100 years later, but it is. I was completely caught up in Proust's childhood remembrances, and was then completely caught up in Swann's tragic love affair, and then was completely caught up again in Proust's short coda about Gilberte. The final 30 pages were devastating in their beauty and regret, and I quickly reached for the second volume, "Within a Budding Grove". The original translation of the whole novel's title is "Remembrance of Things Past", and frankly that's a better-sounding title than the new "In Search of Lost Time", but after finishing "Swann's Way" I understand the difference, and why the latter is better: Proust isn't simply sifting through memories and giving a melancholy smile because women used to wear prettier hats when he was a kid; he is lost in the world where he's found himself as an adult, and he is becoming more and more trapped in his ailing body, and he's searching for the things in his life that gave it meaning, and how they felt, and why they felt that way. This is a tragic and almost impossibly beautiful piece of work, and I can't wait to read the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Proust Lite
Review: A word about this particular edition. It's the easiest of the Moncrieff/Kilmartin editions to carry with you. During a Proust reading group, my friends were lugging around the huge and heavy volumes from the 3-book edition. I had this one, which became known as "Proust Lite." Supposedly, this is also a more definitive translation than the ealier M/K translation, but we compared some sections and both seemed good.
And, for what it's worth, In Search of Lost Time is the single most exciting and satisfying reading experience of my life. It's certainly not for everyone--Alexander Wollcott, I think, said reading Proust was like lying in someone else's dirty bath water. I'd say it's closer to living someone else's life. I even have memories from the book that seem as real as some of my own. The hawthornes...the melody of a sonata I've never heard...the hidden corner from which I catch a glimpse of a decrepit Charlus. So many others. It may be time to re-read.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: Proust is not brief but I shall be. This is one of the most stunning, sustained performances imaginable. It is unabridged, so you get all of SWANN'S WAY. I have some of the NAXOS abridged versions read by Neville Jason, and they are too are excellent. But this is all of the book. Like Mahler, his near contemporary, Proust is full of contradictions: dramatic, gripping, often overwhelming; as well as silly, long-winded, a little too precious and snobbish. Often his insights are breathtaking, sometimes they are trivial. If you don't want to read, and just want to listen, do this first. In the abridged versions, it is all genius. Here the writer/narrator is a sloppy human being, but one who often rises to the level of genius. That's the real Proust. Get Proust whole.
Rating:
Summary: Swann's Way: A Quick Why and How
Review: Proust inspires reluctance, fear, and glowing reviews. To be fair while the former are perhaps understandable (he regularly gives James syntactic competition for longest sentence), Proust's work is only deserving of the latter. I have yet to come upon an author this engaged in sensuous detail while maintaining a full and rigorous metaphysical commitment. Basically, though the past disappears, it lingers within us, only waiting for the appropriate trigger to burst forth in renewed splendor, tainted with both a knowledge of loss and the encumbrance of experience. Proust should be a joy to read. Don't try to hold the whole sentence in your mind. Instead, as if a moment of the past, let it wash over you like a wave, then release and begin anew after the comma or semi-colon. Though relegated elsewhere, the first part of the sentence will continue to resonate with what follows. Forge ahead. The reward is more than a view to an exceptional fin-de-siecle psychoanalytic depiction of a bourgeois youth. Though it may sound cliche, for myself, the real virtue of Swann's Way came after the rapturous beauty of the prose. In short, it made me reflect.
Rating:
Summary: For a long time I could not read Proust...
Review: For a long time I could not bring myself to get through this book. The first chapter deals with sleep and going to sleep and this tended to lead to my mind wondering to other things. Unlike another French author (who is as like Proust as chalk is to cheese) Alexander Dumas, Proust does not attempt to fascinate with the first chapter. But once the novel gets underway, I could not put it down. The book has two main sections, one dealing with the denizens of Combray and the other with the title character, Swann and his love for the former prostitute Odette. The book functions as a series of very well etched vignettes complete with unforgettable characters and stories. Proust is a fan of Saint Simon's memoirs of the court of Versailles and uses these to comic effect throughout the book, particularly when describing the last days of an aged bed-ridden aunt, who he likens to the sun king in one comic section. If it can be said to be about any one thing in particular, the book is a meditation of nature of love and human emotions. Proust is not anti-love, by any means, but he sees human relationships as multi-faceted and not always healthy or positive. Reading this book has gotten me over my fear of lengthy exposure to Proust. I am eager to see further examples of his mastery of language and plot and look forward to eagerly reading the other books that make up A La Recherche du temps perdu.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing literary experience
Review: A man seeking to connect with the meaning of his life discovers a new theory on the reality of time. It seems that time is not traditionally linear but rather, in truth, humans are subject to triggers, as simple as a madeleine and a cup of tea, which can send one unwittingly hurtling into the past. Depending upon the associations one may have with such triggers, the journey may be pleasant or painful. But in order to understand where we have traveled, one must revisit the past and surge existentially against the people and places, lovers and friends, the art and music and society, which influence our lives. Otherwise, the mysteries of life may escape one's sense and sensibility. Proust's syntax is a mile long and if you demand a structured plot, you are likely to be disappointed by this novel. However, the beauty of the language is not of this world: it is surreal, lyrical, dreamlike, entrancing, astonishing. I recommend that you simply surrender to Proust's supreme gift for the language and drift along on the pure beauty of the language alone. This novel represents the early work of a genius and no matter what biases one may proffer about the writer, there is little doubt that the writing is one of a kind. Proust is on my Top 10 Writers of All Time List: perhaps, only James Joyce has a signature maximalist literary style as unique and creatively rich as Proust. I hope you venture to read this somewhat daunting novel -- it's one of the truly great ones.
Rating:
Summary: Proust Tastes the Madeleine
Review: Proust is one of my very favortite authors. "Swann's Way," the first book of A la recherche du temps perdu, is perhaps the most accessible and lyrical of the seven. Written in a hypnotic and mesmerizing style, "Swann's Way" begins by recreating life in a fictionalized 19th century French village, complete with gossipy aunts, church festivals and priests who "know too much." "Swann's Way" is also the volume in which Proust tastes the divine madeleine then goes on to link memory to memory to memory. Even the smallest detail is not overlooked: sights, sounds, smells, textures, the interplay of light and shadow; everything was a source of joy and connection for Proust and he records those connections in this fascinating book. While Joyce lived in the world of the present, Proust lived in the world of the past. So many people complain about the lack of plot in this book. But do we really need a plot in every book we read? Aren't some works of art beautiful enough to be read, or listened to or gazed upon for their beauty alone? Is anything truly "art for art's sake?" If your answer to this question is "Yes," then "Swann's Way" might be a book you'll come to treasure. Yes, it is dense and yes, it does take quite a bit of time to read, but it is time well spent and time that will never be forgotten. "Swann's Way" sets the tone for all the volumes that follow. Indeed, the final section of the final book is but an echo of the first section of "Swann's Way." Although Proust may have seemed to be wandering, he was not; A la recherche du temps perdu is one of the most structured works in any language. The fact that this structure is not immediately discernable is only further proof of the genius of Proust. The section, Swann in Love, is typical of Proust's obsession with repetition. Each time the tortured Swann meets Odette, he must re-enact the very first ritual of the cattleyas. They even come to speak of this as "doing a cattleya." The Swann in Love section also showcases Proust's wicked sense of humor, for Swann is both a character of high comedy and high tragedy, and Proust dissects French society in a most deliciously scathing manner. While it may be Proust's reputation that causes us to pick up this book, it is his prose that keeps us reading. Almost indescribable, it is luminous, poetic, magical, fascinating, ephemeral, gossamer, mesmerizing, elegant and, of course, sublime. I realize that "Swann's Way" is definitely not going to be a book for everyone. But those who love and appreciate fine literature and beautiful, crystalline prose, may find that "Swann's Way" will become nothing less than a lifetime treasure.
|
