Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is one of the most entertaining reading experiences in any language and arguably the finest novel of the twentieth century. But since its original prewar translation there has been no completely new version in English. Now, Penguin Classics brings Proust’s masterpiece to new audiences throughout the world, beginning with Lydia Davis’s internationally acclaimed translation of the first volume, Swann’s Way.
Swann's Way
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Audie Award winner Simon Vance (see Behind the Mike, LJ 11/15/08) elegantly narrates this first volume in Proust s poetic seven-volume work, first published in 1913 and alternately translated as Remembrance of Things Past and In Search of Lost Time. In it, the anonymous narrator s flowing reminiscences about Parisian high society explore and reexplore personalities, relationships, and frustrated ambitions. Those who consider Proust s monumental work to be one of the finest novels of the 20th century will enjoy this title; others may find it intolerably heavy going, particularly on audio. Vance s handling of the sweeping narrative, however, is excellent, recommending this title where there is interest. --Library Journal
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
From the Inside Flap
Each volume contains notes, addenda and synopses, and the sixth and final volume also includes a guide to the complete work.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
155 of 170 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To read Marcel Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" is a pleasure and a challenge in the same proportion that any brave read can have. Not only is it a hard task, but also a very pleasant one. The books are written in such a way that readers are transported to another time and place, and get to know the characters as if they were old friends of ours. Of course, if it weren't like that, not many people would dare to try and read the seven novels that compound the whole series. But Proust is a master to keep your interested glued to his words. Even when this words are in a paragraph that lasts four pages.
"Swann's Way" is the first novel and it is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It is good because everything is new to us, so the `nameless' narrator takes his time to explain a lot of things, introduce people, describe places and the action is built up bit by bit. On the other hand, the reader is not used to Proust style and when we come across a paragraph that lasts four pages we get scared.
To make things more complicated, when he was writing "Remembrance of Things Past" Proust wanted to make a novel, but he also wanted to philosophize. Therefore, there is a lot of philosophy in his books. At first this device seems to be difficult to understand, to get the gist, but with time, one gets used to it, and is able to realize that we're not supposed to read this books in the same way we read any other novel.
Proust's work is about senses. He does not expect you to understand everything he is saying. His narrative is not cumulative. What he wants, in fact, is to make his reader feel what he was saying, to feel things like time passing through our lives and its effects on our memories. Bearing this in mind, any reader is able to focus on the poetic narrative and the author's idea rather than understanding the events.
Of course there is a plot in the book, but there are things that are more important to produce the effect Proust wanted. "Swann's Way" begins with the `nameless' narrator remembering experiences from his childhood in Combray. But the largest section of the novel is not about him, but about Swann, a friend of his family. Fifteen years before the events described in the first part, Swann felt in love with Odette, a woman with a terrible reputation. And this love affair will affect his life forever.
Despite Proust's language being evocative, it is not difficult to understand his sentences. His work is replete of references and allusions, mostly to visual arts, namely painting. Some descriptions are like the works of Monet and Botticelli. The writer also has interest in literature. The main character relationship to his mother echoes works as "Oedipus Rex".
Qualities like these make "Remembrance of Things Past" one of the most important works produced ever. With his caldron of references, ideas and images, Proust has created one of the most beloved works from the XX Century. It is certain that this series of books will be read for many many years to come, and will be seen as a definition of what we used to think.
"Swann's Way" is the first novel and it is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It is good because everything is new to us, so the `nameless' narrator takes his time to explain a lot of things, introduce people, describe places and the action is built up bit by bit. On the other hand, the reader is not used to Proust style and when we come across a paragraph that lasts four pages we get scared.
To make things more complicated, when he was writing "Remembrance of Things Past" Proust wanted to make a novel, but he also wanted to philosophize. Therefore, there is a lot of philosophy in his books. At first this device seems to be difficult to understand, to get the gist, but with time, one gets used to it, and is able to realize that we're not supposed to read this books in the same way we read any other novel.
Proust's work is about senses. He does not expect you to understand everything he is saying. His narrative is not cumulative. What he wants, in fact, is to make his reader feel what he was saying, to feel things like time passing through our lives and its effects on our memories. Bearing this in mind, any reader is able to focus on the poetic narrative and the author's idea rather than understanding the events.
Of course there is a plot in the book, but there are things that are more important to produce the effect Proust wanted. "Swann's Way" begins with the `nameless' narrator remembering experiences from his childhood in Combray. But the largest section of the novel is not about him, but about Swann, a friend of his family. Fifteen years before the events described in the first part, Swann felt in love with Odette, a woman with a terrible reputation. And this love affair will affect his life forever.
Despite Proust's language being evocative, it is not difficult to understand his sentences. His work is replete of references and allusions, mostly to visual arts, namely painting. Some descriptions are like the works of Monet and Botticelli. The writer also has interest in literature. The main character relationship to his mother echoes works as "Oedipus Rex".
Qualities like these make "Remembrance of Things Past" one of the most important works produced ever. With his caldron of references, ideas and images, Proust has created one of the most beloved works from the XX Century. It is certain that this series of books will be read for many many years to come, and will be seen as a definition of what we used to think.
130 of 142 people found the following review helpful
By Daniel Ford
Format:Paperback
Lydia Davis's new translation of Swann's Way is splendid. I've reviewed it in more detail under the Amazon listing for the hardcover Viking edition, which is the one I own. These are books I intend to keep, and I want them in hardcover. If your needs are more transient, then by all means buy this paperback edition.
In Britain, this first volume is titled The Way By Swann's, and there are a few differences in the text. (French quotations remain in French; conversation is shown by dashes instead of quotation marks.) So it would appear that this Penguin paperback has the same text as the U.S. Viking hardcover and is not simply an import.
Note that if you should buy this volume from a Marketplace seller, you ought to note the ISBN and make very sure that the seller is offering the book as shown and not an earlier translation by Scott-Montcrief or others. Believe me, Davis's is the one you want!
-- Dan Ford
In Britain, this first volume is titled The Way By Swann's, and there are a few differences in the text. (French quotations remain in French; conversation is shown by dashes instead of quotation marks.) So it would appear that this Penguin paperback has the same text as the U.S. Viking hardcover and is not simply an import.
Note that if you should buy this volume from a Marketplace seller, you ought to note the ISBN and make very sure that the seller is offering the book as shown and not an earlier translation by Scott-Montcrief or others. Believe me, Davis's is the one you want!
-- Dan Ford
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
By C H Hall
Format:Paperback
If you click on the Kindle teaser on this page, it will take you to the Kindle order page, which shows a cover photo of this wonderful Lydia Davis translation in the Penguin series. However, if you order the Kindle edition, you will find to your great surprise that it is NOT the Davis/Penguin edition, but rather another one that is in the public domain.
Kindle routinely pulls this bait and switch act with translations and out of copyright classics. It's beneath Amazon and should stop now. I'd also feel pretty peeved if I were Lydia Davis or Penguin, upon whose reputations Kindle is trading rather inappropriately.
If a hard-text shopper ordered the Davis edition and were given something else instead, wouldn't that be a bait and switch? Amazon would never dream of doing that. Why, then, do they think it's acceptable with Kindle books?
Kindle routinely pulls this bait and switch act with translations and out of copyright classics. It's beneath Amazon and should stop now. I'd also feel pretty peeved if I were Lydia Davis or Penguin, upon whose reputations Kindle is trading rather inappropriately.
If a hard-text shopper ordered the Davis edition and were given something else instead, wouldn't that be a bait and switch? Amazon would never dream of doing that. Why, then, do they think it's acceptable with Kindle books?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not the edition advertised!!!!!
This is being sold as the Kindle version of the Penguin Classics edition/Lydia Davis translation - it's not!!. Buyer stay away.
Published 24 days ago by Richard Ryan
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Invitation
A small, wonderful introduction to Proust. I've often heard of Proust, but never read his book, recherché de le temps perdue. Now i have begun.
Published 1 month ago by Alice Daly
5.0 out of 5 stars
Found time to recover time lost
At last I have started a masterpiece which I have heard of all my life (I am 85) but hesitated to jump into. Read more
Published 2 months ago by M. Lichtenstein
5.0 out of 5 stars
One book to rule them all
After I first read Remembrance of Things Past twelve years ago, I liked to tell people that everything I had ever known or experienced or felt was like a tiny mote of dust in the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Madame X
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good bedside book.
If what is keeping you awake is remembrance of things past then this is an excellent bedside book. If you are having trouble sleeping it will do the trick. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Kiki
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting edition...
To be fair, I purchased this book in a hurry, with a large order of other books, so I wasn't paying particularly close attention to the details of this edition when I placed the... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Stephanie_W
2.0 out of 5 stars
Life is too short
It was time, I thought, to read Proust. Unfortunately, this has to be one of the most boring books ever. Read more
Published 8 months ago by DCMom
1.0 out of 5 stars
Great Reading of Greatly Over-Praised Work
This is a wonderfully elegant reading of nauseatingly cloying and pointless prose. Since this is a translation, I cannot say if the fault is in that or in the original. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Brian Zack
4.0 out of 5 stars
In Search of Memories and Experiences
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... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Leonard Seet
1.0 out of 5 stars
don't buy this series
. . . at least not from Amazon's U.S. site. Instead, buy them from Amazon's U.K. site.
Even those these deckle-edged paperbacks are extremely handsome, the series is... Read more
Even those these deckle-edged paperbacks are extremely handsome, the series is... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Caraculiambro
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