Customer Reviews

Sodom and Gomorrah: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 4 (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

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

 

 

Sturrock justifies the editor's (Prendergast's) decision to include him in his lineup of translators. The English (as is the case with the preceding Penguin volumes of In Search of Lost Time) feels fresh, contemporary, and natural, never stilted or forced. Idioms and puns are almost always rendered as well in the English as they must be in the French. Even if you have read the Moncrieff translation, Sturrock and his fellow translators make a return to Proust worthwhile. After the cliffhanger at the end of The Guermantes Way, I couldn't wait to get to Sodom and Gomorrah. Proust and Sturrock deliver an always engaging follow-up.

(A quick note on the book's physical character: I love how Penguin has handled these softcover editions. They are just big enough that the print can be of a legible size. They're a pleasure to hold for long spells of reading. And they're sturdily-enough constructed that the spine need not crease.)

This new translations features 29 pages of helpful footnotes - limiting the need to constantly turn to Wikipedia for elucidation of Proust's many historical and literary references. The translation is easy to follow.

I'm glad I read this, but it was not my favorite entry in the series, due to the subject matter. Marcel, the narrator, grows up - and learns way more about the sex lives of his friends than I cared to know. Also, a lot of these characters are snobs, hypocritical, and/or manipulative. Fortunately there are a few good ones in the bunch that I could cheer for.

Marcel finally goes to the Princess Guermantes dinner party (the one he was invited to in the last book). There are some funny moments there.

He talks to Swann for one last time.

He comes to terms with his grandmother's death when he travels to Balbec again - without her. He becomes a regular at the Verdurin's house (where Swann met Odette back in book #1) and he gets better aquainted with the Baron de Charlus and the baron's protege, Morel. He spends a lot of time with Albertine and struggles to figure out if he loves her or not.

I enjoyed the writing very much, as usual. Proust's descriptions are a bit long winded, but lovely. Again, I have to say that I love the way Proust shows us what people are thinking and feeling. It's easy to recognize modern day people in some of these characters.

Now, on to book #5!

At one point in our life, in the thermosphere of love, we had encountered someone congruous in all aspects. However no two individuals go through the same geometric growth and when one outgrows the other they overlap. And so one conforms to the shape of the other in order to achieve a perfect tessellation. I say this because love is so exact; a mathematical equation that has several ways of solving but the answer remains the same.

If Darwin's Origin of Species is a bit painstaking to read, in this volume Proust elaborates the evolutionist's theory on how plants and flowers propagate. This may not sound relevant but the exemplar of botanical reproduction explains the sexual and homosexual content of the narration in more than one utterly hilarious event. I can vividly picture Robin Williams in The Birdcage as the homosexual Baron Charlus who made several advances to the young narrator.

The unforeseen deviation in Proust's theme, that of bisexuality, should not discourage the reader to pursue the fifth volume because in it the narrator's love affair with Albertine is like Swann and Odette all over again. As with history of love that keeps repeating itself, it becomes all the more electrifying albeit with lesser shock.

It was my first time ordering a book from Amazon, I had a little trouble at first locating the exact place where I was supposed to order, because there so many things you could order, then I had a little trouble making the payment. But the book arrived on time and in good condition. Thank you.