In Search of Lost Time: The Complete Masterpiece in The Year of Reading Proust

May 25, 2009 Manny rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: french, parody-homage, transcendent-experiences, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, pooh-dante, life-is-proust

When you read Proust, and learn to appreciate his extraordinary, dreamy, hypnotic, truly inimitable style (this review is a mere shadow on the wall of a Platonic cave), which succeeds in making the syntax of language, usually as invisible as air, into a tangible element, so that, like literary yogis, we may feel, for the first time, how enjoyable the simple activity of reading, like breathing, can be; and discover the delights of sentences which took the author days to construct and us an hour t ...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Manny rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: french, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, celebrity-death-match, life-is-proust

Celebrity Death Match Special: In Search of Lost Time versus Harry Potter

The francophone world was stunned by today's release of papers, sealed by Proust for 100 years after publication of the initial volume of his famous series, which finally reveal his original draft manuscripts. In the rest of this review, you can find out what Proust's books looked like before his well-meaning but unworldly editor decided that French literateurs would prefer something slightly different.

(view spoiler) Celebrity Death Match Special: In Search of Lost Time versus Harry Potter

The francophone world was stunned by today's release of papers, sealed by Proust for 100 years after publication of the initial volume of his famous series, which finally reveal his original draft manuscripts. In the rest of this review, you can find out what Proust's books looked like before his well-meaning but unworldly editor decided that French literateurs would prefer something slightly different.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Darwin8u rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: aere-perennius, 2013

The first volume of 'In Search of Lost Time' (ISoLT), or 'Remembrance of Things Past' (RoTP), or 'À la recherche du temps perdu' (Merde mère un autre?) was first published in France 100 years ago this month. I started reading in February, and now end this beast in November. Apparently, I needed a little wind-up to start and if the last 12 hours is any indication, I will need a wee bit of time to settle down from the mess Proust has left in my head.

This is a book that feels like a hypnotic river description

The first volume of 'In Search of Lost Time' (ISoLT), or 'Remembrance of Things Past' (RoTP), or 'À la recherche du temps perdu' (Merde mère un autre?) was first published in France 100 years ago this month. I started reading in February, and now end this beast in November. Apparently, I needed a little wind-up to start and if the last 12 hours is any indication, I will need a wee bit of time to settle down from the mess Proust has left in my head.

This is a book that feels like a hypnotic river that both transports, nourishes, warms and transcends. 4211 pages later and I feel like this is a novel I want to read again (both immediately and much much later). I had barely put down Time Regained and I was, like an orobus, reaching for 'Swann's Way'. I'm going to chew on my BIG review of ISoLT for awhile. I don't know if I'm ready to try to explain or even understand the whole of Proust yet. Hell, I'm not sure I'm ready to look at myself that closely yet.

Reading Proust was a bit like reading 'Finnegans Wake'. Certainly not the details or style mind you. Proust wasn't deliberately sending his prose into language fractals, neologisms and ghillie suits of his own idioglossia. Proust isn't trying to capture or interpret the night or dreams (although dreams and sleep do play a part of ISoLT). Proust isn't trying to hide, he is seeking to uncover.

Both works, however, are best approached as literature that shouldn't be sipped. These are pieces that you need to let wash over you. You will miss parts for sure, but unless you are a Joyce or Proust scholar you won't uncover 1/10 of what they are really sending your direction anyway. Let the prose roll. Let the message(s) seep into your conciousness. Beware of the designs of the left-brained temptor to stop every sentenece and try to comprehend completely what was written. Finnegans wake is too obscure and ISoLT is too damn long to do this. Pull your feet up, push your head back, and float -- damn you all.

[a quick after note: the first four books of Proust I read were the Viking Translations done by Lydia Davis (Bk 1), James Grieve (Bk 2), Mark Treharne (Bks 3-4). The last three (Bks 5-7) were the Modern Library's Enright - Scott Moncrieff translations.] ...more

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Sep 22, 2009 Bram rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, favorites, proustophilia

Probably my favorite book.

(for Proust ramblings, see my embarrassingly positive individual volume reviews)

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Jun 27, 2013 zz14 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

For the first time, read it alone. A group will take too much time and turn the book into a social experience. You'll be bored at times, but just keep reading. Read slowly (well, not too slowly); the sentence structure has to be carefully unwound to parse correctly. If it never gets any better, just stop. My personal low point comes during the "The Guermantes Way"; hundreds of pages on the legend of the Guermantes and the mysteries of the Merovingian age. Six months more or less should suffice, ...more

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Mar 28, 2007 ateedub rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

So I read this in French, and have yet to purchase an English edition. I'm still trying to figure out which one is the best.

This novel (made up of 6 individual books, each with many parts) is amazing. But it's also very long and unless you have an enormous interest in French etiquette, you need to know which sections to read. Swann's way is definitely the best of all of the books. But the story about Swann doesn't end until many volumes later when you actually find out what everything is about. ...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Sherry rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: intl-european

plodding but brilliant from a distance.

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Nov 28, 2007 Robert rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I originally read these individually and recently bought this collection - I have no intention of rereading it all. To paraphrase Flannery - "It was something. I have no desire to reread it, but I'm glad that I did".

I suggest dragging all 10-12lb with you to some foreign country where they serve Guinness on tap and it's overcast a lot.

This collection is good for reading or possibly stopping bullets. ...more

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