Customer Reviews

Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time: A Reader's Guide to The Remembrance of Things Past

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'd been trying to wrap my brain around Proust ever since being assigned Swann's Way in a college lit class. How I wish I'd had this to guide me through at that time. Now, as I try to make my way through it again, Mr Alexander's guide has been an invaluable source for keeping track of all the characters and also the important points I may have missed. Most important, his book has opened my eyes as to how funny and entertaining Proust's work is compared to the chore of reading it my first time. Highly recommended.

Five stars all the way.

For years I have been looking for a "Cliffs Notes" guide to Proust, or something to help me negotiate it. The plot is convoluted, and there are hundreds of characters. But there are none. Cliffs Notes never printed one, Barron's either. Even Sparknotes comes up with nothing. To my astonishment, there are not even (at least as of this writing) any synopses available online, at least not in any detail. It's puzzling. Not even on Wikipedia! (UPDATE: a serviceable summary is available for purchase here: The 14-Minute Marcel Proust: A Very Short Guide to the Greatest Novel Ever Written)

You can tell Alexander's book is a quality product after flipping through it for about 10 seconds. Long lists of characters, abbreviated and extended plot summaries, discussions of themes. etc. It's not a flimsy book, either. At just shy of 400 pages, it's a solid production, in this sense analogous to Stuart Gilbert's guide to "Ulysses": James Joyce's Ulysses, although far more accessible.

It's a labor of love, too. Apparently this guy was a French professor who retired early so that he could work on it. This shows, and I would like to thank that professor if he's reading this.

There's lots of jokes in it, by the way. Not dry at all.

The closest book I know of to this is Proust's Way: A Field Guide to in Search of Lost Time which is okay if you're really getting into Proust. However, I would still recommend this one (Alexander's) over Shattuck's. Shattuck's, while it might seem interchangeable with Alexander's, really isn't. It's more of a collection of essays that explore various aspects of the novel (e.g., "How to Read a Roman-Fleuve," "The Loops of Art," etc.). No, Alexander's is a much more straightforward guide.

One thing I would like the ask the author (Alexander) is this: exactly when are people supposed to read this book? Since it blows the plot and all the surprises, you're probably not supposed to read it before reading Proust himself. After that, is that when you're supposed to read it? If so, the summaries provided are by then unnecessary. If not, then the insights provided will have to be double-checked for yourself on a second go-through. In other words, the way this book was written seems to assume you'll be reading Proust TWICE, with Alexander's volume sandwiched in the middle.

Alexander's guide is a practical roadmap to Proust's masterpiece In Search of Lost Time. Proust is difficult reading, and I appreciate Alexander's no-nonesense approach to deciphering a difficult text. Alexander's Reader's Guide is not simply a plot summary of Proust's novel. Rather, the Guide is loaded with unique literary insights, information on historical context, and other interesting information, all of which enhances the experience of reading Proust's novel. I've read several guides to In Search of Lost Time, and many of them are overly scholarly and obtuse. Such books are undoubtedly useful for literary scholars, but everyday readers (like me) will appreciate Alexander's Reader's Guide more. Highly recommended.

Actually, it is possible to read Proust and join the fan-club without this book, but I would simply ask: why bother?

There have been quite a number of "guide-books" to Proust over the years, but this is the first one to hit the nail squarely on the head. That is to say, it is 100% useful, and 0% "author vanity."

In particular, the illustration on page 201 is worth the price of admission, all by itself. It brilliantly summarizes the relationships between Balbec, Combray, the Guermantes Way, and Swann's Way.

I've just gone back to re-read Proust again, and this book is an excellent handbook.

Alexander's summary of Proust's Search for Lost Time won't leave you searching for any! He keeps Proust's humor intact while putting into novel length Proust's million and a half words. Well done!

I would not have enjoyed my reading of Proust nearly as much without this guide.

I can't recommend it enough. There are short and long summaries of each volume, character lists, historical information about Paris at the time of the writing, and a short bio of Proust's life.

This was what put the icing on the cake for me - this is what helped me put all the puzzle pieces together and actually get excited about reading Proust. This also makes you want to pick up volume one Swann's Way, and start all over again, which is quite a feat.

The only warning I have is with spoilers. If you are reading Proust for the first time, it is hard to avoid spoilers while reading this book. I accepted the spoilers so that I could gain more from my reading.

In January I noted the error on page 44 of the paperback edition, which identifies Berma as a singer. This error will be corrected in subsequent editions. I would further recommend that the distinction between Opera, the building in Paris, and "opera" as a musical genre be clarified. As it stands, the sentence I cited on p. 44 is misleading, as is the sentence, also on p. 44: "Marcel's father only allowed him to attend the opera because M. de Norpois, a family friend, suggests it would be a good experience." There are other places in the book (e.g. pp. 218 and 285) that are similarly unclear. Proust capitalizes Opera, the place, in The Guermantes Way, in describing Narrator's second exposure to Berma in Phedre. If I'm not mistaken, Narrator's first experience occurs in a "theater." (Moncrieff/Kilmartin trans.) (The phrase "attending the opera" would never be used, I would think, to describe seeing a play.) I appreciate the research that has gone into this book, and would urge clarification in this area. Below is my original review.


Alexander writes: "Marcel has dreamed for years of attending the opera and of hearing the great singer Berma in one of her famous roles...However, when he is finally allowed to attend the opera, he is disillusioned by the naturalness of Berma and the vulgar insensitivity of the audience." (p. 44 of the paperback edition.)
Berma is an actress, not an opera singer, and the role Marcel sees her in is Phedre, the play by Racine.
A book of this nature, a "reader's guide," must be impeccable in its scholarship. Furthermore, the Berma/Racine section is enormously important in all its detail. This is a major error.

On p. 218, in the "Guide to Main Characters" section, Berma is correctly identified as a famous actress, "most celebrated for her role in Phedre by Racine." The description continues: "From an early age, Marcel's dream of going to the opera in Paris and seeing Berma perform Phedre had been thwarted by his father." The matter is somewhat clarified here, though the description is still ambiguous. The apparent contradiction between the two pages indicates a need for a careful scrutiny of the whole book.

First, this is a decent summary of the plot and the characters. It could have been improved by providing a time line (which others have created based upon the dates of historical events that occur in the work)of M's age during the various novels. Second, there is at least one factual error. On page 44 it describes Berma as an opera singer yet as an actress in the list of characters. The novel makes it clear she is NOT a singer, but indeed an actress. Of course, the plot summary is written by Mr. Alexander from his point of view and one must always be ready to question his comments. Overall a helpful tool in working ones way through Proust's enormous work.

I enjoyed Swann's Way but wasn't up to finishing the rest of the 3000 pages of In Search of Lost Time. This book gave a good summary of the plot and main characters of the entire story. It is clear that many of pieces of the whole story don't come together until you get to some of the later volumes. While certainly not a substitute for reading Proust, I no longer feel that I'm totally in the dark regarding one of the major works of 20th century fiction. If you have the time, by all means read Proust. But if you have a life outside of sitting in a hotel room and philosophizing, this book is an excellent and less time consuming alternative.