{"id":4464,"date":"2025-01-19T21:14:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T08:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/?p=4464"},"modified":"2026-01-24T23:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T10:00:34","slug":"swanns-way-marcel-proust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/2025\/01\/19\/swanns-way-marcel-proust\/","title":{"rendered":"Swann’s Way — Marcel Proust"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This, volume 1 of a new(ish) edition of Marcel Proust\u2019s magnum opus In Search of Lost Time<\/em>, is slow-moving but totally immersive. So slow-moving that even the event that arguably kick-starts the whole extended novel, the famous episode where the narrator\u2019s childhood memories bubble up after tasting a madeleine, doesn\u2019t happen until about 40 pages in. And even then he spends a couple of pages struggling to remember before the memories start appearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the course of the novel we get to know the (nameless) narrator, as well as Charles Swann, who cuts quite the society figure. Swann is the most compelling character here \u2013 he is a sympathetic person, if a bit of a fool for love. I did get a bit exasperated with him in the A Love of Swann’s<\/em> section, where he amply demonstrates that love is blind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This translation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As you can see from the picture, my copy is titled The Way by Swann’s<\/em>. That was the title that Lydia Davis<\/a>, the translator, used for the initial editions of this translation, but she subsequently reverted to the traditional Swann\u2019s Way<\/em>. Apparently Proust didn’t like the title Swann\u2019s Way<\/em>, but I think it works better in English: it’s evocative but still idiomatic. It’s also quite snappy, unlike the rest of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proust\u2019s famously long-winded sentences somehow seem appropriate to his subject matter, which concerns people\u2019s interior lives \u2013 thoughts, motivations, memory. Davis has tried to preserve the feel of the original French in her version \u2013 I have not read the original but this book definitely takes you into the world of French society 100 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As usual, Davis’s translator\u2019s notes are fascinating. Hungry for more of this, I read her book Essays Two<\/em>, a collection which includes many more notes and observations on this translation. There are also pieces on translating other authors. She had a project translating Dutch stories into English, even though she doesn’t speak Dutch. What a way to learn!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other 5 volumes in this edition of In Search of Lost Time<\/em> are translated by different people \u2013 hopefully they\u2019re all as good as Davis.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This, volume 1 of a new(ish) edition of Marcel Proust\u2019s magnum opus In Search of Lost Time, is slow-moving but totally immersive. So slow-moving that even the event that arguably kick-starts the whole extended novel, the famous episode where the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,41,71,63,271],"class_list":["post-4464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-books","tag-lydia-davis","tag-marcel-proust","tag-novels","tag-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4464"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4625,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4464\/revisions\/4625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}