Murder Chez Proust: An Arcade Mystery Paperback

by Estelle Monbrun, Monbrun

A murder mystery involving the lust for words as a motive for crime finds detective Jean-Pierre Foucheroux investigating the murder of the President of the Proust Society and discovering that a missing Proust manuscript had been found and lost again

Genres: Mystery, Roman, French Literature

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Estelle Monbrun, aka Elyane Dezon-Jones, is associate professor of French at Washington University in Saint Louis. Herself a distinguished scholar who has worked extensively on the manuscripts of Marcel Proust, she has taught and published widely both in America and her native France.

Reviews

[Ann Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters are well portrayed and therefore engaging. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the various combatting and thoroughly pretentious scholars.

It would help if I was more familiar with Proust’s works as I imagine there were subtexts I missed.

A pleasant holiday read!

[Kostas Kanellopoulos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Πιο βαρετό και από τον χαμένο χρόνο

[Amy Ingalls · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay. I didn't get a good sense of the time period. It was published in 1994 and mentioned a computer, but the way they talked about and reacted to the black police woman was very odd. A lot of characters to keep track of but an okay mystery. I may have gotten more out of it if I read Proust.

[Victoria Foote-Blackman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful romp for lovers of Proust with a darkly humorous look at the internecine wars found in academia, French or otherwise. A plethora of red herrings are well delineated. The book is very nicely written and the world depicted with insider knowledge very realistic. The major characters are carefully drawn, and the plot line is very adroitly staged for the most part, though a few subplots seem hasty contrived. The one shortcoming: the latter part of the story and its mystery seem less subtle, becomes hasty, and seems too summarily resolved. I would have given this mystery novel 4 stars for the subject matter and ambiance except for the ending chapters which includes one of two denouements that seems implausible.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though it was set in France (and written by a French professor), this was a very proper British-style mystery. Entertaining and easy read.

[Satinder Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sure there were many Proust insider-isms that I missed, but I still found this book pretty delightful.

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting, but the author doesn't really give you all the clues so that you can play along. I did like the literary element.

[Ruth Chalker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Proustian mystery

A really enjoyable (& erudite) read, lovely prose. I think it's time to tackle Proust again, I didn't get very far the first time!

[Rowena Eddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly standard murder set amongst Proust aficionados. Unfortunately it had a poor narrator in the audio book.

[Ingrid P · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boken har stått i min bokhylla i säkert tjugo år - den hade kunnat få stå där bra mycket längre. Sämre än så här är det svårt att få till det.
Alla karaktärer är så fåniga att man undrar om det är en parodi. Möjligen kan en läsare som har koll på Proust eller franska litterära personligheter ha någon form av utbyte av soppan.
Och jag som bara ville njuta av något franskt …

[Trois Pommes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Je n'ai pas du tout "accroché" à ce livre...

[MP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Roman très bien écrit, avec un charme suranné, mais qui ne m'a pas passionnée.

[fiafia · Rating 2 out of 5]

On va dire 2,5 / 5