Which version of In Search of Lost Time?

[John Goodman]

I've read the first book in French, but I feel my French isn't up to the standard I need to get the most out of the collection, so I'm looking for the best version in English.

Thanks in advance.

[Mag Master 21]

This is the set that I got... don't think you can go wrong.

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Lost-Time-Proust-Complete/dp/0812969642/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232496150&sr=8-1

[promtbr]

This is the set that I got... don't think you can go wrong.

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Lost-Time-Proust-Complete/dp/0812969642/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232496150&sr=8-1

Agreed. I recently researched this (I had the old Moncrief version) and this is the one I opted for. (Plus its by far the most reasonably priced :D )

The problem with Penguin Editions is that:
1) They have a different translator for each of the first 3 or 4 volumes, and 2) Because of some copyright issue (if I remember right) they don't have the rights to the last volumes yet (someone welcome to correct me if this is wrong)

Wow, Swann's Way in French, I'm impressed...

[John Goodman]

French is my first language, but I've rarely ever read in it and I've begun to lose it over the years, being in a very anglophone community. English is the language I prefer to read in.

And thanks to both of you. That's the edition I was going to go with but I wasn't sure on the quality of Penguin's edition.

[Mopey Droney]

I prefer the Lydia Davis translation to the updated Moncrief, but of course there is only one volume of Davis, while there's a whole set of updated Moncrief, which is the next best, so go for that.

The idea for the Penguin translations was a completely idiotic mistake. Different translators? So in one volume we start getting cockney phrases all of a sudden? Give me a break.

[Jeremiah Jazzz]

Davis! Davis!

[dfloyd]

published by the Folio Society of London is a very nice readable addition. Google theit website for details.

[promtbr]

I will actually be starting to READ In Search of Lost Time in the 4300 page, six volume Modern Library Moncrief/Kilmartin/Enright Edition this week !.... Soon as I finish reading the 900 page, Marcel Proust, A Life ...

(almost done, wow what a strange, strange dude, you would HAVE to read all of Á LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU if you ever read his bio...)


I have read the first 2 1/2 volumes some 28 years ago for a French Lit class.
I feel its time to slay this beast. I am of the reading age and motivation where I read more for enlightenment and less for entertainment (if I needed plot driven suspense now, I will get out the latest Blu Ray disc...)

Anyone care to join in the fun? I noticed there is no Proust reading forum, (I assume there are copyright issues) :bawling:

[Bumbeli]

I'd love to read it again, but with all the university stuff going on I don't have enough time to read this masterpiece again, as I don't want it to read it in a few months, but as little as possible. I read it once, back in highschool, and it took me ages as I was preparing for my final exams. This time, I want no distractions, maybe I'll go to france for a month and enjoy it.
Can't say anything about the translation, as I read it in german.

[Emil Miller]

I was staying at Villefranche in the South of France when my watch packed up and I had to go into Nice to get a new battery. Whilst passing a bookstall, I saw a copy of the first volume of A la Recherche du Temps Perdu priced very cheaply and I bought it. Later that evening I got as far as the second chapter before almost falling asleep. Perhaps it was the pastis but I was relieved when one of the girls asked me why I was reading such stuff. Her company was much more interesting than that of Proust and it remains in my memory as the same today.

[promtbr]

I was staying at Villefranche in the South of France when my watch packed up and I had to go into Nice to get a new battery. Whilst passing a bookstall, I saw a copy of the first volume of A la Recherche du Temps Perdu priced very cheaply and I bought it. Later that evening I got as far as the second chapter before almost falling asleep. Perhaps it was the pastis but I was relieved when one of the girls asked me why I was reading such stuff. Her company was much more interesting than that of Proust and it remains in my memory as the same today.

Which explains why you have no need to search for lost time (since you must have found a battery for your watch) or a have a remembrance of things past...:D

[Bumbeli]

I was staying at Villefranche in the South of France when my watch packed up and I had to go into Nice to get a new battery. Whilst passing a bookstall, I saw a copy of the first volume of A la Recherche du Temps Perdu priced very cheaply and I bought it. Later that evening I got as far as the second chapter before almost falling asleep. Perhaps it was the pastis but I was relieved when one of the girls asked me why I was reading such stuff. Her company was much more interesting than that of Proust and it remains in my memory as the same today.

And yet, I find there are very few people (strangers) out there (at least of those I had the pleasure of meeting) which I like to spend time with rather than reading a book equally amazing as In search of lost time. Maybe this is just me meeting the wrong people :yawnb:

[Emil Miller]

Which explains why you have no need to search for lost time (since you must have found a battery for your watch) or a have a remembrance of things past...:D

The perfect response.