Customer Reviews

The Cambridge Companion to Proust (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

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This is an excellent and helpful introductory set of essays by leading Anglo-American Proust scholars that will prepare any beginner for working his or her way through Proust's masterpiece. As in any anthology, some of the essays are more rewarding than others. Many of the pieces provide a stellar introduction to Proust and Proust's world, while some (especially some of the later essays in the volume) are as impenetrable as some of Proust's own longer and unfathomable sentences. Nonetheless, anyone unfamiliar with Proust will come away well prepared to read and study Proust's masterpiece. A word of warning: if it is important to you not to know plot details (though Proust is hardly about plot; it isn't the destination in Proust, it is the getting there that counts) before reading a book, then you might want to consider skipping this. Personally, I believe that Proust is one of those rare authors about whose tale one needs to know as much as possible before reading.

The volume is apt to be of less value to Proust scholars, or even serious readers who have read the biographies by either Carter or Tadie, or the critical works of Roger Shattuck, or others (both Carter and Shattuck have essays in this volume). The best essays in the collection tend to be those that are more introductory in nature. The weaker essays tend to be those that are more specialized and focused on specific issues in Proust.

Overall, however, I encourage anyone needing an introductory work on Proust to consider spending some time working through the essays in this book.

This book is essential reading for those new to Proust, as I am. The variety of topics ranges from Proust's life, to his writing style (including, believe it or not, his brevity), to the period of French cultural history in which the novel is set. I cannot imagine reading Search for Lost Time without this kind of preparation.