Because several of my favorite writers praise him as their favorite writer, I would like to read Proust.
Does anybody have any recommendations for the best translation and-or best edition? (I do not speak or read French.)
And would you recommend reading him abridged or unabridged? (I realize that to some people the notion of reading an unabridged version of any writer is appalling, but it absolutely does help some writers.)
Is there anything you would find particularly important to know about the era before reading? Or a “So you wanna read Proust” primer you’d recommend?
Thanks for any comments. I’ll leave it there for now in case this one just kind of lays there.
Read it once, then read it again. Don’t think about it, just read it, and then go back and read it some more.
Odd thought – I wonder if any n00b to literature has started with Santeuil instead of the larger novel. Might be kind of fun.
ETA Roger Shattuck’s is a good primer to Proust. I think he hits the high points, and it is in English and very readable. And don’t bother reading Proust in French unless you actually know French – it is not particularly accessible to foreigners, as a prose style. And see as many of the movies as you can – there have been a bunch, some of them pretty good. It helps to know the plots, if you don’t enjoy reading fifty or a hundred pages waiting to “see” what remark someone said to someone else, so at the least get a detailed synopsis of characters on the web or something.
I read Jean de Santeuil after reading Proust’s later work a couple of times. I don’t think I’d want to read it first.
I would add, don’t try to rush through Proust. It’s slow going, but as you get into it, it becomes this gorgeous, verbally voluptuous, amusing world. He goes off on wonderful tangents.
I found that the romantic relationships make more sense if you keep in mind that most of the girls/women were based on men.
I haven’t read the latest, retranslated edition, so I can’t recommend one over another. Maybe I’ll give the newer translation a try one of these days.
Sorry Charlie. Couldn’t resist. Yes, I agree that Santeuil is the lesser work – I just wondered if anyone had actually started “Proust” with that one, as a n00b.
I disagree – the Resarch is just a book, and not that long. Charge through it, flag some pages you want to go back to, and then do it again. It would take a long time to savor every morsel of infidelity and intrigue on the first go-around. Just read and keep reading.
You have a point. One can zip through Proust’s work and enjoy the heck out of it. I was thinking about what I’ve seen of Sampiro’s posts over the years. He is a natural writer, and I believe he might enjoy a slower read.
See, I didn’t find the morsels of infidelity and intrigue all that exciting. What I really enjoyed was the writing, and the way Proust observed and thought about so many things and squeezed so much into this work. On so many levels, it’s a fun read, however you read it.
[QUOTE=Chicken Fingers;16406640What I really enjoyed was the writing, and the way Proust observed and thought about so many things and squeezed so much into this work.[/QUOTE]
I think Proust himself would not disagree. Everything has it’s place in his best opus, and he made sure that everything was described as it should have been. I read Proust (you see, one never stops) because of that exact quality – I want to see how “he” says something. But first go around, for me, was just keeping track of all the little details like who’s who and such. Kind of like Faulkner is for some people.
But, for the quality of the language, you need Proust’s language. Which is vehemently French, and Parisian to a fault. I haven’t checked out Lydia Davis’s more recent translation of the first volume, although it’s been recommended by strangers I met. Knowing her earlier work on Blanchot and others, I’d think it’s worth checking out. The big revision set with the indices at the end of each volume and the grand index at the end is nice – I can’t remember if it was Montcrieff or what, but it’s nice to have the apparatus criticus. Even the Pleiade doesn’t do quite as good a job.
There are some books on tape of the novel read in French by a famous French (not Canadian) actor – I can’t remember his name – but that’s a good way to get the tempo.
Okay, now I’m all excited about reading Proust again. Sampiro, I’ve been looking at the different editions, and I think I would read it now in the Modern Library unabridged edition that has Moncrieff & Kilmartin as translators, with revision by Enright.
I have read all six volumes of Proust’s opus but did not get them all at once, so they’re from three different sources. Some have the series titled In Search of Lost Time, others Remembrance of Things Past. But each one is from the same pair of translators, CK Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin. I enjoyed the story thoroughly and am glad I read it.
I would suggest being somewhat familiar with late-19th-century French history and social conditions, which I was. And give yourself a year to read it. It should be savored slowly.