With its sweeping digressions into the past and reflections on the
nature of memory, Proust's oceanic novel In Search of Lost Time
looms over twentieth-century literature as one of the greatest, yet
most endlessly challenging, literary experiences. Influencing
writers like Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, and even anticipating
Albert Einstein in its philosophical explorations of space and
time, In Search of Lost Time is a monumental achievement and
reading it is a rite of passage for any serious lover of
literature. Now, in what renowned translator Arthur Goldhammer says
might be "likened to a piano reduction of an orchestral score," the
French illustrator Stephane Heuet re-presents Proust in graphic
form for anyone who has always dreamed of reading him but was put
off by the sheer magnitude of the undertaking. This New York Times
best-selling graphic adaptation reveals the fundamental
architecture of Proust's work while displaying a remarkable
fidelity to his language as well as the novel's themes of time,
art, and the elusiveness of memory. As Goldhammer writes in his
introduction, "The reader new to Proust must attend closely, even
in this compressed rendering, to the novel's circling rhythms and
abrupt cross-cuts between different places and times. But this
necessary attentiveness is abetted and facilitated by the
compactness of the graphic format." In this first volume, Swann's
Way, the narrator Marcel, an aspiring writer, recalls his childhood
when-in a now-immortal moment in literature-the taste of a
madeleine cake dipped in tea unleashes a torrent of memories about
his family's country home in the town of Combray. Here, Heuet and
Goldhammer use Proust's own famously rich and labyrinthine
sentences and discerning observations to render Combray like never
before. From the water lilies of the Vivonne to the steeple and
stained glass of the town church, Proust's language provides the
blueprint for Heuet's illustrations. Heuet and Goldhammer also
capture Proust's humor, wit, and sometimes scathing portrayals of
Combray's many memorable inhabitants, like the lovelorn Charles
Swann and the object of his affection and torment, Odette de Crecy;
Swann's daughter, Gilberte; local aristocrat the Duchesse de
Guermantes; the narrator's uncle Adolphe; and the hypochondriac
Aunt Leonie. Including a Proust family tree, a glossary of terms,
and a map of Paris, this graphic adaptation is a surprising and
useful companion piece to Proust's masterpiece for both the
initiated and those seeking an introduction.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!