Proust's Way
A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"Shattuck leaves us not only with a deepened appreciation of Proust's great work but of all great literature as well."—Richard Bernstein, New York Times
For any reader who has been humbled by the language, the density, or the sheer weight of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, Roger Shattuck is a godsend. Winner of the National Book Award for Marcel Proust, a sweeping examination of Proust's life and works, Shattuck now offers a useful and eminently readable guidebook to Proust's epic masterpiece, and a contemplation of memory and consciousness throughout great literature. Here, Shattuck laments Proust's defenselessness against zealous editors, praises some translations, and presents Proust as a novelist whose philosophical gifts were matched only by his irrepressible comic sense. Proust's Way, the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship, will serve as the next generation's guide to one of the world's finest writers of fiction.
Customer Reviews
Proust's Way by Roger Shattuck
I'm not one for reading a "guide" before plunging into a book by myself. Unaided, uninformed, unafraid. That's my preference. But having tried to tackle Proust gazillion times it came to me to seek help. In that respect, Shattuck's "field guide" has been most illuminating. While it may have introduced some unnecessary filters in my mind yet, at the same time, it has given me an informed perspective and a necessary motivation to return to Proust. Proust is long, sinuous, tortuous and demanding. Shattuck provides some understanding of just what Proust is all about. I created many "highlights" to which I shall return repeatedly.