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Proust's Way: A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time
"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.
318 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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July 31, 2021
This book presents itself as a companion to Proust’s masterpiece, written by a distinguished American literary critic and academic. The opening chapters are precisely that: an introduction to In Search of Lost Time. They include a short biography of the French author, some guidance on the available editions and English translations, the mention of some prominent landmarks and plotline summaries. I short, a survival kit offered to the reader who plans to sail away on the vast ocean of the Recherche.
However, after these introductory considerations, the bulk of Shattuck’s book is a series of personal essays on different aspects of Proust’s novel, viz. the various meanings of Proust’s I (“je”), the comic sense and satirical dimension of the book, the essential traits of the protagonist’s psychology (extreme excitement often followed by crushing disappointment), the workings of impressions and memory, the relationship to art and literature, the overall shape and existential meaning of the narrative, etc. Shattuck presents all these insights with great precision and argues his points in a clear and very compelling manner (albeit a tad pedantic at times). The parallels he draws between Proust and Montaigne, or Proust and Bergson, for example, are extremely convincing. In this regard, Proust’s Way is entirely worth the price of admission.
The last part of the book, however, is devoted to finding fault with Jean-Yves Tadié’s French edition of the Recherche — i.e. the three volumes in the Pléiade collection, which, I’ll admit, are loaded with all the sketches, drafts and general flotsam salvaged from Proust’s rubbish bin. All in all, this sounds like a quarrel between Proust scholars no-one gives a flying fuck about. But what is genuinely irritating in this little fusty spat, is that Shattuck systematically references the old, hard-to-find 1953 Pléiade, instead of the widely-available Tadié edition.
Shattuck also discusses Moncrieff-Kilmartin’s translation with some degree of detail. Unfortunately, his book was published in the year 2000 and, as a result, you won’t find anything on the merits or disadvantages of the newer Christopher Prendergast edition, commonly used today in English-speaking countries.
Lastly, Shattuck provides some interesting analysis of the few film adaptations of the Recherche, especially Volker Schöndorff’s Swann in Love and Raúl Ruiz’s Time Regained. Not a word, of course (for the same reason mentioned above), on Chantal Akerman’s La Captive, nor on Nina Companéez’s À la recherche du temps perdu. To my mind, though, the film directors that approximate the most Proust’s style and philosophy, without openly adapting his work, would have to be Andrei Tarkovsky and Federico Fellini.
However, after these introductory considerations, the bulk of Shattuck’s book is a series of personal essays on different aspects of Proust’s novel, viz. the various meanings of Proust’s I (“je”), the comic sense and satirical dimension of the book, the essential traits of the protagonist’s psychology (extreme excitement often followed by crushing disappointment), the workings of impressions and memory, the relationship to art and literature, the overall shape and existential meaning of the narrative, etc. Shattuck presents all these insights with great precision and argues his points in a clear and very compelling manner (albeit a tad pedantic at times). The parallels he draws between Proust and Montaigne, or Proust and Bergson, for example, are extremely convincing. In this regard, Proust’s Way is entirely worth the price of admission.
The last part of the book, however, is devoted to finding fault with Jean-Yves Tadié’s French edition of the Recherche — i.e. the three volumes in the Pléiade collection, which, I’ll admit, are loaded with all the sketches, drafts and general flotsam salvaged from Proust’s rubbish bin. All in all, this sounds like a quarrel between Proust scholars no-one gives a flying fuck about. But what is genuinely irritating in this little fusty spat, is that Shattuck systematically references the old, hard-to-find 1953 Pléiade, instead of the widely-available Tadié edition.
Shattuck also discusses Moncrieff-Kilmartin’s translation with some degree of detail. Unfortunately, his book was published in the year 2000 and, as a result, you won’t find anything on the merits or disadvantages of the newer Christopher Prendergast edition, commonly used today in English-speaking countries.
Lastly, Shattuck provides some interesting analysis of the few film adaptations of the Recherche, especially Volker Schöndorff’s Swann in Love and Raúl Ruiz’s Time Regained. Not a word, of course (for the same reason mentioned above), on Chantal Akerman’s La Captive, nor on Nina Companéez’s À la recherche du temps perdu. To my mind, though, the film directors that approximate the most Proust’s style and philosophy, without openly adapting his work, would have to be Andrei Tarkovsky and Federico Fellini.
December 8, 2016
If you wish to attempt to read La Recherche du Temps Perdu (and I can only hope you will someday), you may need a guide to help you understand some of the context. This book by Shattuck is the best I found in English besides George Painter's famous biography. It is insightful and hopefully will be a traveling companion for you and Marcel in the Paris of the 1880s to 1916...
July 18, 2007
Roger Shattuck has written on Marcel Proust and his "In Search of Lost Time" for over forty years, and in PROUST'S WAY: A Field Guide he describes the book for the current generation of readers, who now have many choices for how to approach the work. The book contains portions both for those who haven't made their way through even the first volume yet, as well as chapters for those champion readers who want to look back and reflect on the whole seven-volume work.
Material for those who haven't--or have barely--begun includes a biography of Proust, some discussion of his general aesthetics, and "How to Read a Roman-Fleuve". This last part is useful as it gives several charts to understand how characters relate to each other. There are some "spoilers" here, although it's hardly more than you'd learn from the dust covers of the Modern Library editions, and Proust isn't just about plot anyway. There's also a very helpful graph here of how in the course of the novel the protagonist ends up a failure, while at the same time the narrator becomes a success.
For the reader who has made it through the entire Recherche, there are several chapters providing a critical view of Proust's literary technique and themes. Shattuck identifies four scenes at the heart of the Recherche as encapsulating a distincting comic vision, which many readers miss because of its very obviousness. Shattuck writes on Proust's notions of memory and recognition, as well as art and idolatry. Very fascinating is Shattuck's venture on what the structure of the Recherche is, what holds it together during seven volumes and four thousand pages, as well as what it might have become had its author only lived long enough to tie up loose ends.
For me the most interesting chapter was "Continuing Disputes", suitable for all readers, even those who don't know if they want to embark on the Recherche. The author writes a passionate, though not entirely convincing, polemic against the 1987 Gallimard "Pleiade" text, where there's almost as much cut text and critical material present as there is the final novel. He also talks about English translations, explaining exactly how Kilmartin and then Enright revised the old Moncrieff version. It is a pity that this was written a bit too early to cover the new Penguin version, with each book done by a different translator. Film adaptations are also mentioned. Shattuck admires the Pinter screenplay, and I agree that Proust fans should check it out. The last two portions of this chapter are on philosophical notions in Proust, which I found overly academic for a book marketed to the layman.
You don't *have* to read this or any other guide before starting on the Recherche (as Proust's masterwork is often called, from the abbreviation of its French title). Proust's work is massive in its proportions, but fairly easy to follow; you just have to stick with it. Still, for those interested in the general subject of his novel, guides like this provide something entertaining to read.
Material for those who haven't--or have barely--begun includes a biography of Proust, some discussion of his general aesthetics, and "How to Read a Roman-Fleuve". This last part is useful as it gives several charts to understand how characters relate to each other. There are some "spoilers" here, although it's hardly more than you'd learn from the dust covers of the Modern Library editions, and Proust isn't just about plot anyway. There's also a very helpful graph here of how in the course of the novel the protagonist ends up a failure, while at the same time the narrator becomes a success.
For the reader who has made it through the entire Recherche, there are several chapters providing a critical view of Proust's literary technique and themes. Shattuck identifies four scenes at the heart of the Recherche as encapsulating a distincting comic vision, which many readers miss because of its very obviousness. Shattuck writes on Proust's notions of memory and recognition, as well as art and idolatry. Very fascinating is Shattuck's venture on what the structure of the Recherche is, what holds it together during seven volumes and four thousand pages, as well as what it might have become had its author only lived long enough to tie up loose ends.
For me the most interesting chapter was "Continuing Disputes", suitable for all readers, even those who don't know if they want to embark on the Recherche. The author writes a passionate, though not entirely convincing, polemic against the 1987 Gallimard "Pleiade" text, where there's almost as much cut text and critical material present as there is the final novel. He also talks about English translations, explaining exactly how Kilmartin and then Enright revised the old Moncrieff version. It is a pity that this was written a bit too early to cover the new Penguin version, with each book done by a different translator. Film adaptations are also mentioned. Shattuck admires the Pinter screenplay, and I agree that Proust fans should check it out. The last two portions of this chapter are on philosophical notions in Proust, which I found overly academic for a book marketed to the layman.
You don't *have* to read this or any other guide before starting on the Recherche (as Proust's masterwork is often called, from the abbreviation of its French title). Proust's work is massive in its proportions, but fairly easy to follow; you just have to stick with it. Still, for those interested in the general subject of his novel, guides like this provide something entertaining to read.
May 25, 2015
A close friend just started Proust for the first time, which excited me so much that I wanted to reading group it with him. But I don't have time, so I read this instead. Not as good as Proust! Surprise, surprise.
It suffers a bit from being two books, one for people who haven't read the Search yet, and one for people who have. The one for newcomers is a better book, being an actual book. The book for veterans is less good, because it's just a bunch of stuff Shattuck has written over the years. But if you've read Proust and want an intelligent man's understanding of the thing, this is enjoyable enough. Shattuck suggests that the book is about desire as much as it is memory; human beings fail to understand their own desires, which leads to suffering. A new vision of life (literary critics always end up with these wild generalities: why can't a book be about society and art? Why do they have to be about 'life' and 'love'?) follows.
More helpful was Shattuck's take on the 'memory' theme; he understands Search less as an investigation of memory than as showing how an objective observer can combine a vision of memory and the present to better understand the past and the future. I think. He also stands against the aestheticist view that the novel holds art up as superior to life. A worthy argument, for all its generality.
There are also completely unrelated bits on translation, editions, and an almost unbearable 'creative response' to the novel.
If you love Proust, this is worth reading; if you're about to read Proust, half of it is worth reading; if you've read Proust and might not read him again, this won't change your mind, and you should avoid it, because you should absolutely read Proust again.
It suffers a bit from being two books, one for people who haven't read the Search yet, and one for people who have. The one for newcomers is a better book, being an actual book. The book for veterans is less good, because it's just a bunch of stuff Shattuck has written over the years. But if you've read Proust and want an intelligent man's understanding of the thing, this is enjoyable enough. Shattuck suggests that the book is about desire as much as it is memory; human beings fail to understand their own desires, which leads to suffering. A new vision of life (literary critics always end up with these wild generalities: why can't a book be about society and art? Why do they have to be about 'life' and 'love'?) follows.
More helpful was Shattuck's take on the 'memory' theme; he understands Search less as an investigation of memory than as showing how an objective observer can combine a vision of memory and the present to better understand the past and the future. I think. He also stands against the aestheticist view that the novel holds art up as superior to life. A worthy argument, for all its generality.
There are also completely unrelated bits on translation, editions, and an almost unbearable 'creative response' to the novel.
If you love Proust, this is worth reading; if you're about to read Proust, half of it is worth reading; if you've read Proust and might not read him again, this won't change your mind, and you should avoid it, because you should absolutely read Proust again.
June 17, 2012
This is literary criticism and reflection that serves as both introduction and academic study of In Search of Lost Time. It begins with an introduction to Proust and his biography, as well as a description of when, how, and why he wrote the novel and the way it evolved over his life. Shattuck then moves into how to read the novel and what to look for and then has 5-6 chapters that dive into critique and reflection - these are ordered to be increasingly more complex and deeper dives into the novel.
I picked this up in hopes of putting my reading of Proust over the past 6 months to good use - I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the novel I've really been enjoying without diving into endless and overwhelming academic writing that I don't have the time and mental energy to take on - in other words, I wanted a deep dive without having to become a scholar, and Shattuck absolutely fit the bill. He brought the themes of In Search of Lost Time to life for me and his love for the novel and deep respect for Proust is very clear.
For memory's sake, I'm including here the tidbits I took away that I want to save as part of my reflections on In Search of Lost Time.
The novel is about Marcel (the narrator, not the author), after a long life of distractions and failures, discovering that he can reach a goal he gave up long ago.
The novel has two "I's" (young Marcel, and the narrator) and both appear throughout the novel, waxing and waning, and providing a duplicity of vision for the reader (the same way that our two eyes with their slightly different locations on our face work together to give what we see depth).
The moment Marcel achieves what he wants most, he can't enjoy it because the experience itself clouds his mind. Later, Shattuck seems to say that this has to do with memory and the more we focus consciously on creating a memory the less real and visceral that memory will be. It is involuntary memory (like what returns with the madeleine and at the end of the novel) that is the most potent. What we recall most vividly is what we had previously forgotten because we haven't wrung all the strength out of it.
"The Search turns out to be a metamorphosis that permits a self-recognition."
Art is not superior to experience - it serves experience. It brings out the reality that we would never see or experience otherwise.
The ending of the novel is the beginning in reverse - at first there is the consciousness moving from the swirl of sleep to the clarity of waking, then there is the vivid awareness of the present when Marcel receives a kiss from his mother, then the madeleine incident which unblocks everything. In the end, there is a series of moments that bring clarity (echoing the madeleine), then everything falls apart in confusion as he recognizes no one in the party, then the sight of Mlle de Saint-Loup brings Marcel and the narrator together in a new swirl - one that Marcel can write down at last.
"To read genuine literature is to accumulate within oneself a fund of possible experiences against which to achieve an occasionally intensified sense of what one is doing, to recognize that one is alive in a particular way." The young look forward to life through literature and the old look back at life through it.
I picked this up in hopes of putting my reading of Proust over the past 6 months to good use - I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the novel I've really been enjoying without diving into endless and overwhelming academic writing that I don't have the time and mental energy to take on - in other words, I wanted a deep dive without having to become a scholar, and Shattuck absolutely fit the bill. He brought the themes of In Search of Lost Time to life for me and his love for the novel and deep respect for Proust is very clear.
For memory's sake, I'm including here the tidbits I took away that I want to save as part of my reflections on In Search of Lost Time.
The novel is about Marcel (the narrator, not the author), after a long life of distractions and failures, discovering that he can reach a goal he gave up long ago.
The novel has two "I's" (young Marcel, and the narrator) and both appear throughout the novel, waxing and waning, and providing a duplicity of vision for the reader (the same way that our two eyes with their slightly different locations on our face work together to give what we see depth).
The moment Marcel achieves what he wants most, he can't enjoy it because the experience itself clouds his mind. Later, Shattuck seems to say that this has to do with memory and the more we focus consciously on creating a memory the less real and visceral that memory will be. It is involuntary memory (like what returns with the madeleine and at the end of the novel) that is the most potent. What we recall most vividly is what we had previously forgotten because we haven't wrung all the strength out of it.
"The Search turns out to be a metamorphosis that permits a self-recognition."
Art is not superior to experience - it serves experience. It brings out the reality that we would never see or experience otherwise.
The ending of the novel is the beginning in reverse - at first there is the consciousness moving from the swirl of sleep to the clarity of waking, then there is the vivid awareness of the present when Marcel receives a kiss from his mother, then the madeleine incident which unblocks everything. In the end, there is a series of moments that bring clarity (echoing the madeleine), then everything falls apart in confusion as he recognizes no one in the party, then the sight of Mlle de Saint-Loup brings Marcel and the narrator together in a new swirl - one that Marcel can write down at last.
"To read genuine literature is to accumulate within oneself a fund of possible experiences against which to achieve an occasionally intensified sense of what one is doing, to recognize that one is alive in a particular way." The young look forward to life through literature and the old look back at life through it.
December 24, 2020
Hm. I think it might have been too early for me to pick this up. I am currently on my first journey through Marcel Proust's 3000+ pages monster In Search of the Lost Time and while I was hoping this would help ease my way into it, it's probably targeted at readers more advanced already.
Proust's Way is intended as a compendium to Marcel Proust's magnum opus. With the length of a novel itself it provides guidance on how to approach the body of work. There's an overview of the novel and answers to practical questions such as what language one should read it, or what translation if one does not speak French well enough.
Quite quickly this moves into a bit too sophisticated waters for my liking. When moving on to more broad themes and narrative strategies of Proust's writing, I quickly found the information too overwhelming to fully absorb as a new reader. This might be unfair criticism, since it should probably be considered a good thing to notice how well-traversed the author is in the field he is writing in.
This will probably be most helpful for people familiar with the work and who are now keen to five in deeper. Shattuck's writing moves somewhere between the lines of a memoir and academic analysis, as he illuminates the, often overlooked, humorous tones in Proust's work, the functions of memory and recognition in this one as well as art and idolatry. I'm not saying this isn't insightful per se, I've just had to come to the conclusion that I'm lacking the foundation onto which I could built the knowledge conveyed in this literary criticism.
Proust's Way is intended as a compendium to Marcel Proust's magnum opus. With the length of a novel itself it provides guidance on how to approach the body of work. There's an overview of the novel and answers to practical questions such as what language one should read it, or what translation if one does not speak French well enough.
Quite quickly this moves into a bit too sophisticated waters for my liking. When moving on to more broad themes and narrative strategies of Proust's writing, I quickly found the information too overwhelming to fully absorb as a new reader. This might be unfair criticism, since it should probably be considered a good thing to notice how well-traversed the author is in the field he is writing in.
This will probably be most helpful for people familiar with the work and who are now keen to five in deeper. Shattuck's writing moves somewhere between the lines of a memoir and academic analysis, as he illuminates the, often overlooked, humorous tones in Proust's work, the functions of memory and recognition in this one as well as art and idolatry. I'm not saying this isn't insightful per se, I've just had to come to the conclusion that I'm lacking the foundation onto which I could built the knowledge conveyed in this literary criticism.
Read
September 29, 2012This is a cogent book on a rather long, rather infamous work of fiction. Proust is, as Shattuck admits, a niche market. His books do not sell out or break marketing records. The hype isn't all false, In Search Of Lost Time will take a chunk of your life to read. Yes some scenes take longer than 40 pages.
But Proust is also funny, human, and, an important study in the collection of modern literature.
So I'm not sure we need this book. Now I have a rather limited critical library at home and I'm willing to give anything a try but if I were at an academic institution there would be hundreds of books that would suit me better. If I wanted a memoir or nonfiction piece on Proust; there are better. Shattuck attempts to combine critical companion with introduction with book review and I won't say he did a bad job just that we weren't suited.
What perhaps this book is suited for is the casual reader and I don't mean that to sound exclusive. But there are very few books unread without throwing around a few paper topics. If you don't read for academia, by all means enjoy!
October 21, 2015
A slightly disjointed experience, though Shattuck is of course wonderful. The finest material here is mostly drawn from earlier works (save for a good examination of the 1980s happenings w/r/t Proust's oeuvre), and the supplemental stuff, most notably a long look at film adaptations of the book, feels unnecessary. I would recommend this to a college student in a bind because the page numbers match up and there are more textual references throughout, but it was less of a cohesive pleasure than MARCEL PROUST.
September 24, 2016
“The precise equilibrium of forces between life and literature is one of literature’s major themes. Proust makes it particularly urgent by the massive steadiness with which his novel directs our attention back at ourselves. On what level, in what rhythm, with what intensity are we alive as ourselves?”
An expansive (and occasionally pedantic) review of Search, its eternal themes, its essential arcs and lessons. (Great prep for leading book club in a week on Swann's Way.)
An expansive (and occasionally pedantic) review of Search, its eternal themes, its essential arcs and lessons. (Great prep for leading book club in a week on Swann's Way.)
July 25, 2017
Shattuck, one of this country's most eminent and readable scholars on Modernism and the Avant Garde in the late 19th, and 20tth, centuries, provides what seems impossible: a brief and almost simple (but never simplistic) guide to a famously long and complex book. Shattuck breaks the novel down thematically, with the organizing principle being what he famously wrote about in his earlier essay "Proust's Binoculars," a stereoscopic, or dual consciousness, that materializes in different ways throughout Proust's 3,000 page masterpiece: Marcel and the narrator; Combray and the Guermantes way; le beau monde of French society (the Guermantes) and the bohemian decadents (the Verdurins); and many others. This dual perspective is then refracted through either of two narrators (Marcel and the narrator) consciousness, as well as time and memory - and perception - to provide Proust's famously sinuous, style of prose and narration which, more than any other author, not just represents the shifting modalities of perception and though as-lived, is in many ways that perception itself. Excellent read - highly recommended for those who would know "In Search of Lost Time" (Shattuck's preferred translation of the title") better.
March 24, 2022
Interesting but very scholarly (sometimes to the point of your eyes glazing over) as you'd expect from such an author. The most breathtaking point for me was when he talks about the 'Bolero effect' of In Search of Lost Time. What a perfect analogy!
May 14, 2021
Excellent... if you're looking for a serious literary analysis of "A la Recherche du Temps Perdu". Themes, recurring literary obsessions, sub themes, all are explored, not in absolute depth (this isn't a doctorate thesis, after all), but in some depth. An amusing point : Shattuck tell us the number of pages Proust needs to express particular scenes, actions, sentences, paragraphs or ideas. At times, the number of those pages is pretty high; only Proust can get away with such abundance! Shattuck points out that though "La Recherche" was written in the first person, there are actually three "persons" within that "first person": an Observer, a Narrator, and "Marcel" who is, in fact, a character other than Marcel Proust himself. That observation helps guide us through some of Proust's more difficult-to-fathom points of view. Shattuck's other theories, though abundantly explored, are perhaps less exciting or less well substantiated. The book goes on to analyse films that were made of "Remembrance of Things Past", and even, the many book editions that were published, spending a good while on the two "definitive" Pléiade editions, and more particularly on the notes that accompany these editions. In total, this book is an in-depth dive into the literary experience of reading Proust's masterpiece. I personally preferred "Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time: A reader's guide to Remembrance of Things Past", by Patrick Alexander, a much lighter work, more plot and character oriented. Nevertheless, there were many, many segments in "Proust's Way", where I was totally engrossed.
March 24, 2019
Insightful, inspirational, a tad self-indulgent; this is a book worth reading if you are about to, or are in the middle of but are having difficulty with, reading "In Search of Lost Time". Shattuck spells out for us the scope of Proust's vision that is contained in his sprawling work, and primes us to view "In Search..." as a guide to life and more.
A mashup of autobiography, psychology, philosophy and art, "In Search..." is one of those pieces of literature that will never be displaced from humanity's collective consciousness. Shattuck has taken it upon himself to be a Virgil for those of us who are too dull to see that for ourselves the importance of Proust's masterpiece, and I'm glad he's done so. The first 2/3 of "Proust's Way" have the cozy feeling of being back in college, attending a really great lecture about a subject you love, but know will never set you up for economic success post-graduation.
I became a little impatient towards the end, starting with Shattuck's rant about how people should translate Proust both from the French and to the screen, but I don't hold it too much against him. The whole purpose of this book is to kick people hovering around the doorstep of "In Search..." into the novel itself, and he succeeded with me. It may take years for me to complete the entirety of "In Search of Lost Time", but I look forward to picking up where I left off, and beginning "Within A Budding Grove" again soon.
A mashup of autobiography, psychology, philosophy and art, "In Search..." is one of those pieces of literature that will never be displaced from humanity's collective consciousness. Shattuck has taken it upon himself to be a Virgil for those of us who are too dull to see that for ourselves the importance of Proust's masterpiece, and I'm glad he's done so. The first 2/3 of "Proust's Way" have the cozy feeling of being back in college, attending a really great lecture about a subject you love, but know will never set you up for economic success post-graduation.
I became a little impatient towards the end, starting with Shattuck's rant about how people should translate Proust both from the French and to the screen, but I don't hold it too much against him. The whole purpose of this book is to kick people hovering around the doorstep of "In Search..." into the novel itself, and he succeeded with me. It may take years for me to complete the entirety of "In Search of Lost Time", but I look forward to picking up where I left off, and beginning "Within A Budding Grove" again soon.
September 29, 2018
Shattuck's field guide to Proust's In Search of Lost Time is very different from A Reader's Guide to The Remembrance of Things Past by Patrick Alexander (reviewed previously). I'd recommend Alexander's book if you want to understand the plot, characters, history and places in the book, which is what I wanted. Shattuck's deals with the philosophical and academic. He admits that his book is a detailed analysis of Proust's work. According to the author, In Search of Lost Time is not as depressing as many think; there is a comic vision if you understand it. The book deals with "social ambition, love, and the domain of art". He explains Proust's familiarity with optical science and imagery in storytelling. Shattuck helps us understand the continual switch in point of view from the Narrator to Marcel himself. Although many sections are too steeped in Freudian and similar concepts, it is an interesting look at Proust's work.
December 3, 2009
This has a pretty good coverage of Proust from a reader's perspective. I wish in some ways I had read it before rather than after, as I think I would have gotten more insights.
It was good enough to make me [almost:] want to start back again at the beginning. (But it's a 3300 page novel, so you don't reread it again on a whim--I probably will some day.)
It was good enough to make me [almost:] want to start back again at the beginning. (But it's a 3300 page novel, so you don't reread it again on a whim--I probably will some day.)
March 31, 2014
Not enough intellectual heft or varied analysis for me to justify. I looked for gems of observation but got none. Shattuck's analysis is pedestrian, but for the reader of Proust who needs help with plot, simple themes, read it. Just don't expect whopping explanations about how plot influences theme influences characters influences . . .
June 11, 2017
A very fine scholarly description and analysis of Proust's great work including tables and graphic explanations of theme and structure, a discussion of almost all of the English translations available, an appendix just on optics, and an addendum written as a dialogue between fictional characters. As nice as it all is, I would not read this before reading In Search of Lost Time .
April 20, 2020
A book to drive you away from Proust for life. Portentous, waffly, overly intellectualized. The implication seems to be that you need to read Shattuck in order to enjoy Proust. Literary criticism of the lowest order.
May 7, 2013
Scholarly and intellectually challenging investigation of some of the most important themes of In Search Of Lost Time. Shattuck explores the subject with a great authority and intelligence.
December 28, 2015
A very helpful book. Now all I have to do is read In Search of Lost Time to help this book make sense.
December 24, 2020
" Proust's Mysterious Laws of Thought "
Sometimes the best reviews are have little to say. I will take this occasion to say one simple thing. One thing you must hear. One thing that our author, after years of toil, discovered only in order to share with the rest of us so we can make it our own. Consider the author's fictional dialogue between a professor of French and a radio show host. Within the context of a discussion of the "four or five laws" discovered by Proust in the course of his years' long recollection we will focus here on the fourth law: it has a special ring for me because it arrived at the right moment-Montaigne writes about 'error of the soul.' What might that mean? Error of the soul refers to the condition of not being satisfied with what we have. It is the outrageous desire we have to 'look elsewhere for what we want,' even when we neither want it nor desire it. We think for some reason that we can have something else that will make any difference.
Now I learned to reject 'friendship' after this. Friendship is always false. In other words, there is no friendship, but there is plenty of "friendship," meaning that it is often spoken of but never about what is in fact actually happening. None of your friends are your friends; here I address the common reader. Friendship for most people should more accurately be spoken of as "hospitalization." Instead of devoting ourselves to the love for Adonai we cultivate a false love of friends, which translates as "I'm looking for a female nurse," if I am male and "I'm looking for a good doctor" if I am female.
Sometimes the best reviews are have little to say. I will take this occasion to say one simple thing. One thing you must hear. One thing that our author, after years of toil, discovered only in order to share with the rest of us so we can make it our own. Consider the author's fictional dialogue between a professor of French and a radio show host. Within the context of a discussion of the "four or five laws" discovered by Proust in the course of his years' long recollection we will focus here on the fourth law: it has a special ring for me because it arrived at the right moment-Montaigne writes about 'error of the soul.' What might that mean? Error of the soul refers to the condition of not being satisfied with what we have. It is the outrageous desire we have to 'look elsewhere for what we want,' even when we neither want it nor desire it. We think for some reason that we can have something else that will make any difference.
Now I learned to reject 'friendship' after this. Friendship is always false. In other words, there is no friendship, but there is plenty of "friendship," meaning that it is often spoken of but never about what is in fact actually happening. None of your friends are your friends; here I address the common reader. Friendship for most people should more accurately be spoken of as "hospitalization." Instead of devoting ourselves to the love for Adonai we cultivate a false love of friends, which translates as "I'm looking for a female nurse," if I am male and "I'm looking for a good doctor" if I am female.
July 8, 2021
This book serves only to increase one's astonishment regarding the Search. Shattuck - among many other wonderful insights and perspectives - gives the best argument in favour of literature as a replacement for religion; against idolatry (art-for-art's sake) and allowing us to "live life at all times as an adventure" (p. 228) - in the tradition, I suppose, of F. R. Leavis and I. A. Richards. It would be interesting to compare this to Eagleton's conception, which sees this - meaning culture (more generally) - as a failed attempt to "... fill the God-shaped hole scooped out by secular modernity" (Terry Eagleton's Culture, p. 140) - and his equating of art-for-art's sake with the culture-as-replacement view, comparing this to his take on theology: The doctrine of creation is not about how the world began but the fact that it has no point. (p. 22) Sometimes he has been heard to say that, put more theologically: God made it just for the hell of it! And: "On this view, art is not what we live for ... but offers us a model of how to live." There are clear links between these two authors - but also clear differences. It all needs a good deal more thought ...
December 8, 2017
Didn't read the entire book -- probably 70 percent, skipping around -- as I didn't discover it until I either was finished with "Swann's Way" or close to it. Would have been great to have this book at hand from the start. It's quite interesting and quite unusual. And that makes it hard to describe, but still worth four stars from me.
July 18, 2024
A great guide of Proust’s grand masterpiece that helps harness understanding on an elaborate and long ride and helps enjoyment of the fine scenic prose along the way. I was surprised at Proust’s range between subtle comic & tragic and this guide helped to unwind his complex sentences as well as reveal his overall structural integrity.
September 10, 2019
Like Joyce, Proust is best read these days with a guidebook alongside.
Roger Shattuck was one of the best commentators on French literature of the belle époque and after. (I think he might have even coined the term.)
Roger Shattuck was one of the best commentators on French literature of the belle époque and after. (I think he might have even coined the term.)
July 22, 2024
Excellent book, read it immediately after I finished À la recherche du temps perdu. Helped me to understand things that I did not get while reading and after I read. Skipped a lot of material in the end, I did not need it, I am not a scholar.
November 15, 2024
I have been using this as a resource as i read through the first three volumes. I find myself re -reading both Shattuck and Proust as i become more conversant with Proust, his novel of life, and more.
April 1, 2018
I can't even read a book about Proust and not be bored. Sorry Marcel. "Search / Remembrance" will go unread.
August 24, 2018
Simply superb.
August 19, 2019
Worthwhile if you are into Proust. Smart and thoughtful but academic.
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