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The 50 greatest books

In search of lost time

ANDRÉ ALEXIS

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 12:32 PM EST 19/03/08

Our second entry is Marcel Proust's novel disguised as an autobiography ...Read the full article

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  1. steve allan from Welland, Ontario, Canada writes: The greatest literature mostly originated from France, Russian and Britain. Of course this is a very occicentric point of view but nevertheless accurate.
  2. Al B from Toronto, Canada writes: Took me three years to finish 'In Search...', topped it off with a thick biography of Proust. Everything's a major letdown after it.
  3. Martha K from Canada writes: I've been reading this now for 2 years. Very difficult but big payoff. Hard to explain if you haven't picked it up. All I can say is: persevere. It's so worth it. It's like being in a different world with a different way of looking at things. I'm trying to read it in French alongside the English since everyone tells me it's utterly exquisite in its own language and the translations don't do it justice.

    I urge everyone to try to read this book. It's hard slogging, but you won't regret it.
  4. Jonn White from Canada writes: Reader beware! All books you will read after, will appear as poorly written with shallow, underdeveloped characters.
    I keep coming back to it and every time I find something new. I'd say, it's the ultimate desert island book.
  5. Stephen Dedalus from Canada writes: I'm a slow reader, so I'm glad to hear that other people have taken their time with this book. I started reading it about a year ago and am only on the second volume (though I've read other stuff in the meantime). It's starting to grow on me, but I think it's still far too early for me to make a real judgement. I considered reading it in French, but that would probably take me 100 years; as it stands, reading it in English should only take me 40.
  6. Jo Ingblat from Canada writes: steve allan from Welland, Ontario, Canada writes "The greatest literature mostly originated from France, Russian and Britain. Of course this is a very occicentric point of view but nevertheless accurate." ------- of course it is, that's because the term "literature" as your using it is 'occicentric'. Even more revealing, though, is "greatest". Is it fair to say that 'canon' is occicentric? I'd hazard to say it is. Cheers.
  7. Martha K from Canada writes: Stephen Dedalus from Canada writes: "I considered reading it in French, but that would probably take me 100 years; as it stands, reading it in English should only take me 40. "

    --------Don't feel bad Stephen, I said I was "trying" to read it in French - doesn't mean I'm succeeding! :-) I too am reading lots of other books all the while - and come back to this one when my mind is alert, since it can be so challenging. The French part is hard - mostly I'm only slogging through it in French so I can get a feeling for the cadence of the narrative and so that I don't miss anything. The English 2002 translation is pretty darned close to the French - she did a great job.
  8. D. B. from Greater Sask., Canada writes: I am not well qualified to comment but why should that stop me? I read just the first volume. Will I go on? I don't know. But 2 comments. There is actually a fair bit of humour in Remembrance of Things Past. This is not for highbrows and snobs, who would sneer at the suggestion that Proust might be funny. This is literature. And 'Remembrance of Things Past' was the original title of the translation. 'In Search of Lost Time' is prosaic, besides being a word-for-word translation. I don't even know how idiomatic it is, in English. To me, it seems to be rarely, if ever, used. 'Remembrance of Things Past,' on the other hand, is poetic, and it comes from a line in one of Shakespeare's sonnets. We have fallen a long way, poetically speaking, with 'In Search of Lost Time.'
  9. L.B. MURRAY from Canada writes: I read Proust's ''A la recherche du temps perdu'' years ago... so long ago, in fact, I think it was way back in the late 70's...

    About two years ago, I found ''In Search of Lost Time'' in a bookstore in San Diego... Let me tell you, this translated version is a waste of time. I hate translations since they never convey exactly what the author is saying or thinking. There's always some ''missing link''...

    Too bad we have so many languages in this Tower of Babel, Planet Earth. Well, at least, I can read French, English and Spanish literature in it's original version... not so for German... fine for newspapers and recent news, but my German is not up to par as far as Goethe and the others are concerned. Must rely on the English translation.

    -
  10. L.B. MURRAY from Canada writes: P.S. I forgot to mention that last year, Mr Bush said he was reading Marcel Proust and Simone de Beauvoir... He must be kidding!! A man who prides himself about never reading a newspaper, never watching PBS or news on TV, but just the ESPN sports news cannot possibly be reading Proust!

    -
  11. John Sledzi from Toronto, Canada writes: LB Murray
    Apart from the occasional on-line story like this one, I too, like Bush, never read newspapers anymore.
    Literature, especially poetry is far more essential for understanding the modem world.
  12. leo bloom from radisson, sask, Canada writes: Hey L.B....maybe Mr Bush is reading the redneck translation - you're not the only one with a pompous pedigree...This thread is about the 50 best books, not the 50 self-styled smartest readers...come on....
  13. John Sledzi from Toronto, Canada writes: LB Murray
    I hit the send button before I wanted to.

    Lost ime is not just time past, but time wasted, like the time spent reading newspaper columnists/editorials.

    'News far more than art, is artifact.'
    Marshall M
  14. Moe Sizlac from Canada writes: Leo Bloom... hehehe... your post gave me a genuinely good laugh. I think we had a very similar feeling after reading LB's post. BTW, I just read 'Russian for Dummies' so I think I'll be able to get a lot more out of the original version of Voyna i mir... forget that English translation!
  15. FLUVIAL SEDIMENT from Canada writes: I read A la recherche du temps perdu many years ago, in French, and adored it. I always thought that "Remembrance of things past" was a lame translation. For me it evokes old flowered wallpaper and sweet old ladies with doilies and fancy teacups and doesn't have the rich multiple meaning that the original title holds. "In search of lost time" is much more accurate and I'm glad someone finally fixed it. It's a deep and wondrous book and I'm tempted to read it again . . . thanks GM for reminding me of it.
  16. D H from Montreal, Canada writes: If this is the greatest novel of all time, then reading is zzzzzzzzzz.

    Why not the Three Musketeers or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Those are truly fun French novels by Alexandre Dumas and Jules Verne. Lost Time is time lost if you ask me. I read it to improve my understanding of universal francophone culture, but it is so zzzzzzzzzzz.
  17. Georges Clermont from Ottawa, Canada writes: I first read this epic when I was 18; re-reading it at 40 and again at 60 is like reading three different epics.
    The depht of Proust's analysis is such that a character (e.g.Swan or Mme de Guermantesz) takes on a completely different "hue" depending on the reader's perspectives and age.
    The construction of the novel, starting from the memories that flow from tasting the madeleine and then built on the Swan side followed by de Guermantes side who in the end meet like a cathedral's ceiling is without pear.
    How can one forget the effect of the little bar in the Vinteuil sonata or the splash of light in Vermeer's view of Delft.
    Definitely the work of the century, if not of all literature.
  18. Dan Stevens from Winnipeg, Canada writes: Fluvial sediment, the title "Remembrance of things past" was not intended to be a translation of Proust's title. It's Shakespeare (from the sonnets), and the original translator thought it would be a better 'hook' for english-speaking readers. The more modern preference is to call it "In Search of Lost Time", which I agree, is preferable.
  19. Ken Davis from montreal, Canada writes: Anytime I see a book referred to as the best of all time, it raises my eyebrows. However, 3000 pages is not a battle I can take on right now. But just reading the review, it is clear that it is almost a non-fiction recounting of turn-of-the-century Paris. That was the era that rushed in the times of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Miller, and the opulent lifestyle of the rich and famous of France where it became the norm to engage in wife-swapping, gay/lesbian partners/mistresses, drugs and alcohol on an enormous scale, and all other instant gratification means. This led many to fall into destitution and prostitution, including some of the same people that were the cultural icons. It seems Proust is exploring the fact that social norms, culture and "civilization" were the very reason people were trying to break free and find truth, honesty and love. Not much has changed. I for one oppose everything that is considered "cultural", it keeps me from going crazy.
  20. fred garvin from Toronto, Canada writes: Sorry, but any book that long is just self-indulgent.
  21. J V M from Canada writes: Fred Garvin, it's generally published as seven separate books anyways. How can you say it's self-indulgent to have seven interconnected books with many of the same characters? Are modern popular authors like Anne Rice and J.K. Rowling self-indulgent? I don't especially enjoy them, but many people do, and ongoing long term development of the same characters isn't generally considered self-indulgent.
  22. Karlheinz Pfacharfaster from Never more lucid, Canada writes: Though this may mark me as a philistine, I will say it anyhow ...

    Based on the description, I fear that if I read this book, I would find its title comes true -- I would be in search of the lost time.

    It sounds like just the sort of book I despise -- long-winded, parochial, needlessly over-wrought, and uninteresting.

    I could be wrong, but likely I will never find out. I will, however, read probably dozens of other meritorious works in the meantime.
  23. john chuckman from Canada writes: The "Swann's Way" portion is one of the funniest and most bittersweet books ever written.

    The whole of "In Search of Lost Time" does drag, but of what experience does a man write who spends 14 years in his apartment writing desperately?
  24. Saul Rosenbluth from Winnipeg, Canada writes: john chuckman writes: ... of what experience does a man write who spends 14 years in his apartment writing desperately?

    ______________

    Wanking?
  25. Robert S from Toronto, Canada writes: There is nothing in the world of literature to compare with Proust. To the uninitiated, don't despair of its length, by the end you'll mourn the end of the book as you would the loss of a favorite friend. I can say, without irony, that it will be the best literary 2 years of your life.
    No other writer can create in each sentance an absolute masterpiece, a piece of art one wants to simply stare at and savour, like a Rembrandt in a museum. (ie. .."upon me the sparkling and celestial shower of her smile.")
    Can anyone recommend anyone who comes remotely close? I'm desperate.

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