MARCEL PROUST'S SEARCH FOR LOST TIME - A Reader's Guide to The Remembrance of Things Past (First edition - fifth impression - published as a PBO)

Patrick Alexander

ISBN 10: 0307472329 / ISBN 13: 9780307472328

Published by Vintage (an imprint of Penguin Random House), New York, 2009

About this Item

A fifth impression of the first Vintage Books edition, published in 2009.

***Near fine in matt-finish card covers, with the original publisher's printed price of $17.00 on the back cover. The covers are clean and undamaged. No discernible faults. No bumps, creases or tears. No fading, even to the spine. No reading lean to the binding and no reading creases to the spine. Page block edges clean. Internally also near fine, with no previous ownership marks, and no creases or tears to the thin paper used. No internal foxing. Pages clean. ***385 pages plus a page of Acknowledgments and a publisher's advert at the back of the book. 203mm x 130 mm.

***'"Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time" is an accessible, irreverent guide to one of the most admired novels in literature. With its seven volumes, three thousand pages, more than four hundred characters, and towering literary reputation, Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" can seem daunting. But, though begun a century ago, in 1909, it is in fact as engaging and relevant as ever, and an outrageously bawdy and extremely funny book. Patrick Alexander makes it more approachable through this user-friendly tour of the marvelous world of Proust. (Quote taken from the back cover)

***'"In Search of Lost Time", first translated into English as "Remembrance of Things Past", and sometimes referred to in French as "La Recherche" (The Search), is a novel in seven volumes by French author Marcel Proust. This early 20th-century work is his most prominent, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory. The most famous example of this is the "episode of the madeleine", which occurs early in the first volume. The novel gained fame in English in translations by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin as "Remembrance of Things Past", but the title "In Search of Lost Time", a literal rendering of the French, became ascendant after D. J. Enright adopted it for his revised translation published in 1992. "In Search of Lost Time" follows the narrator's recollections of childhood and experiences into adulthood in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century high-society France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning in the world. The novel began to take shape in 1909. Proust continued to work on it until his final illness in the autumn of 1922 forced him to break off. Proust established the structure early on, but even after volumes were initially finished, he continued to add new material and edited one volume after another for publication. The last three of the seven volumes contain oversights and fragmentary or unpolished passages, as they existed only in draft form at the death of the author; the publication of these parts was overseen by his brother Robert.' (Wiki)

***A fifth impression of this invaluable guide to Marcel Proust's masterpiece "Remembrance of Things Past" originally entitled "In Search of Lost Time". Uncommon in the UK. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # PB782

Bibliographic Details

• Title: MARCEL PROUST'S SEARCH FOR LOST TIME - A Reader's Guide to The Remembrance of Things Past (First edition - fifth impression - published as a PBO)
• Publisher: Vintage (an imprint of Penguin Random House), New York
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0307472329
• ISBN 13: 9780307472328
• Binding: Original Wraps
• Edition: First US Paperback Edition
• Printing: Fifth Impression
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket, as Issued
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature
  • First Editions
  • Literature in Translation

About this title

Synopsis

An accessible, irreverent guide to one of the most admired—and entertaining—novels of the past century: Rememberance of Things Past. There is no other guide like this; a user-friendly and enticing entry into the marvelously enjoyable world of Proust.

At seven volumes, three thousand pages, and more than four hundred characters, as well as a towering reputation as a literary classic, Proust’s novel can seem daunting. But though begun a century ago, in 1909, it is in fact as engaging and relevant to our times as ever. Patrick Alexander is passionate about Proust’s genius and appeal—he calls the work “outrageously bawdy and extremely funny”—and in his guide he makes it more accessible to the general reader through detailed plot summaries, historical and cultural background, a guide to the fifty most important characters, maps, family trees, illustrations, and a brief biography of Proust. Essential for readers and book groups currently reading Proust and who want help keeping track of the huge cast and intricate plot, this Reader’s Guide is also a wonderful introduction for students and new readers and a memory-refresher for long-time fans.

About the Author

Patrick Alexander moved to France in the early 1970s after graduating with a degree in literature from Sussex University in England. In France, he raised a family and embarked on a lifelong love affair with French literature. Throughout a professional career as an internatinal corporate executive traveling all over the world, Alexander's fascination with the works of Marcel Proust continued to grow. While a director at the Unviersity of Miami from 2001 to 2007, he organized a Proustian reading group, and he continues to be a regular contributor to an international Proustian forum. Alexander retired from the university in 2007 in order to work full-time on Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time.