The Guermantes Way

The Montcrieff translation of Book Three of “In Search of Lost Time.” IMO it’s still the best Proust in English- especially after some fine tuning by William C. Carter in this handsome Yale University Press edition. My only slight negative is that the footnotes seem to assume readers these days have absolutely no general knowledge about anything. While that might be true, I hope it isn’t!

Amazingly wonderful Proust, and takes you in the world of the gentleness. You just have to be alert for the jokes so you do not miss them. Example: Proust as a child meets Gilbert, and he waives at her with a polite smile. She responds by flipping him off. After that he is madly in love with her for the rest of her life (sound like my life). Proust is told that Robert is desperately in love with Rachel. Proust says that from his experience, this kind of love leads to mental illness, crime, and suicide. So, "when I learned that Robert is in love, I considered him a man who is very sick and does not have a long time to live." Proust is invited to a fancy dinner party, but he is not sure if he is up to the class of people. He says "I told the guy to mumble my name, since I did not want to embarrass myself if I were not invited, and I did not want to embarrass the hostess if I was." Another joke: Proust asks Robert if he could borrow the picture of Robert's aunt, in a low cut dress. Robert says, "I need her permission first." (Proust explains that Robert suspected that Proust is going to use the picture for an immoral purpose.) Another Joke: Robert is jealous when Robert goes out with Rachel. Proust says: "When Robert enters the room, Robert will actually spot the good looking men before Rachel does." Mr. Charles says, "Everyone is a prince now days. I call myself a prince only when I want to travel incognito." Swan is in love with Odette and she is dumping him. He wants to stop thinking about her, but all he does is think about her. When she travels to the music festival, he is at the location searching for her, but at the same time trying to avoid running into her. His friend says: "Do you realize we are going around in circles looking for the person we are trying so hard to avoid running into." In Proust it is a whole world like this. No one is alone. Everyone knows everyone. You are going to dinner parties. You are meeting people. You have a life of plenty. If you see someone you like, just ask to be introduced. If you are lonely for love, your friend will fix up with his cousin or his aunt or his other aunt. No one is alone. No one hurts anyone. No one hits anyone. Everyone gets something. Yes there is heartache, but you get over it, and later you realize it is just time passing. You realize that you are living through time, and that is what makes life worthwhile. That is why I love Proust. At the end of it all, it is all about time passing, time passing, and we all live and enjoy the ride.

I've tried several times to get through Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" -- this series, newly translated, may allow me to digest his complex, self-absorbed musings and observations of the social world(s) he lives in.

Reading Proust's "In Search of Lost Time is like listening to Wagner's Ring in several ways. Both works are pinnacles of artistic creation, very long, entrancingly beautiful, and make overwhelming demands on the attention of the audience. Amazon's sales ranks display something of the difficulty. "Swan's Way," the first and most popular of Proust's six volumes (as of 4/18/2008) ranks 6,586; the second, "Young Girls in Flower," ranks 40,389; and the third, "Guermantes Way," ranks 62,649. The numbers soar into the stratosphere for the remaining three volumes. The sustained cognitive effort needed to read Proust (or listen to Wagner) quickly overcomes good intentions. The difficulty is not that the books are long. Many contemporary best sellers are themselves weighty tomes. For Proust character and setting take precedence over action. Sentences and paragraphs are long, convoluted, and like many Wagnerian melodies, go on forever. However, as with all great literature, each element of the text is essential. If skimmed, the meaning is elusive. Slowly digested, the words unfold into ideas of great originality, wit, and amazing beauty. Reading the series is worth the effort. The books describe the development of an increasingly sophisticated person. "Swan's Way" revolves around a young boy's attachment to his mother and a flirtatious playmate. "Young Girl's in Flower" describes the awkward yearnings of an adolescent for a pretty girl. "Guermantes Way" dwells on a young man's infatuation for a society doyenne, Mme de Guermantes, who rules the exclusive Fauberg St. Germain. "Guermantes Way" is both a guide for climbing into fashionable society, and a cautionary tale of inevitable disappointment. Social deities project a glittering irresistible allure in the mind of an aspirant. However, having made the ascent via a path of rigid conformity, once actually in an exclusive salon, at an elegant soiree, or at a stylish dinner party, these luminaries unmask themselves as not much different from the middle class citizens they disdain, not more intelligent, more sensitive, or more interesting. Aristocracy is distinguished only by its wealth, exclusivity, and generations of inbreeding. Proust's luscious satire of the Fauberg St. Germain at the opera, and their trite opinions about Wagner, demonstrates no less. Here, as elsewhere in "Lost Time," an eagerly desired liaison rests on delusion and fails to produce imagined happiness.

Presumably, one does not read a review of Proust to find out if the story is good. It's a bit like reading a review of the Bible in order to find out whether it says anything relevant about religion. Proust's place in literature is beyond doubt--how his translators fare, however, is open to debate. Mark Treharne has validated Penguin's decision to tackle this new translation with a brilliant, crisp, fresh, easily-accessible Proust. In fact, the text is so easily accessible that one wonders if something has been lost in translation along with Proust's famous obtuseness. But be reassured, the original's consistent ability to astonish with its insights into the human psyche is there throughout. This is Proust as he would have sounded had he written in English. Well done, Treharne.

Seriously, this is one for a collector, and considering that it's 100 years old, it's in amazing condition.

I enjoyed this translation. I read the older translation and always found it to be bit stiff in the english. This teanslation flows better. I always liked the first voljmes of proust and this is good value

...unsere Zeit. Obwohl es noch eine ganze Zeit dauern wird, bis ich alle sechs Bände gelesen habe. Einziges Problem war die Bestellung des gesammelten Werkes, da man diese nicht zusammen bestellen kann. Man muss die Einzelbände zusammensuchen und aufpassen, dass man wirklich die verschiedenen Bände kauft und nicht versehentlich eine gleiche Ausgabe nur mit einem anderen Cover. Würde ich das gesammelte Werk beurteilen, gäbe es dafür einen Punktabzug. Da ich aber jeden Band einzeln bewerte, kann ich dabei keinen Punkt abziehen. Würde auch dem großartigen Inhalt nicht gerecht werden!