Marcel Proust’s Dream of Art

Jacques-Émile Blanche, “Portrait of Marcel Proust” (1892), oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay ([Public domain] via Wikimedia)

Perhaps the most ironic, darkly comic, and touching death scene in 20th-century literature takes place in front of Vermeer’s painting “A View of the Delft” (1660-1661) in Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927).

Bergotte, a terminally ill novelist who has had a decisive influence on…

via Marcel Proust’s Dream of Art

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Lost in Translation: Proust and Scott Moncrieff | The Public Domain Review

Reblogged from The Public Domain Review

Scott Moncrieff’s English translation of Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu is widely hailed as a masterpiece in its own right. His rendering of the title as Remembrance of Things Past is not, however, considered a high point. William C. Carter explores the two men’s correspondence on this somewhat sticky issue and how the Shakespearean title missed the mark regarding Proust’s theory of memory.

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Today is the centenary of the first publication of Marcel Proust’s  La recherche du temps perdu. I have never had a problem with the book but that has everything to do with never having attempted it!  It has always been on my list to read but it’s not in my top twenty.

Have you attempted it or happily read it all the way through?  An old friend once said that he would know he had found the woman of his dreams if she could read Proust to him of an evening and mend his socks.  I never determined whether he felt this mythical woman should be able to do both at the same time.

Take care and keep laughing!

Related articles

• French literary anniversaries, part 4 – Du côté de chez Swann (timescolumns.typepad.com)
• Remembrance of things past: Proust on film (theguardian.com)