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New translation of Proust!
First-timer or experienced Proustian... Join us for the Proust Readers Support Group's sixth journey -since 2011- through the entire In Search of Lost Time (ISOLT) opus. This time we will be using the new translation (2023-28) published by Oxford World Classics (seven volumes). We also recommend Professor William C. Carter's Annotated ISOLT (Yale UP, six volumes) for background and context.

Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu [In Search of Lost Time, 1913-1927] represents the pinnacle of the modern psychological novel, offering a recursive exploration of consciousness that aligns with our Meetup’s commitment to advanced intellectual inquiry. By undertaking this sequence, the group engages with a profound "evolution of ideas" concerning the fluidity of temporal perception and the architecture of the self.

In The Swann Way, the "Overture" establishes involuntary memory—exemplified by the iconic Madeleine—not merely as nostalgia, but as a phenomenological retrieval of the "total" past. The volume’s bifurcated structure, transitioning from the pastoral childhood impressions of "Combray" to the sophisticated pathology of desire in "Swann in Love," provides a comparative study of how social artifice and internal obsession shape our ontological reality. Proust’s prose, characterized by its labyrinthine syntax and Bergsonian treatment of duration, demands a slow, analytical pace. The work serves as a nuanced meditation on the "intermittencies of the heart" and the redemptive power of aesthetic experience to reclaim a life otherwise lost to the entropic flow of chronological time

Editions (available from your local library or online):

  • The Swann Way, translated by Brian Nelson. Oxford University Press, 2023, ISBN: 9780198871521. Used $8+
  • Swann's Way, edited by William Carter. Yale University Press, 2013, ISBN: 9780300185430. Used $7+

Reading Schedule [using OUP '23 pagination]:
Aug 01, 2026: Swann, pp. 7-47 [Combray I]
Aug 15, 2026: Swann, pp. 48-108 [Combray II]
Aug 29, 2026: Swann, pp. 108-174 [Combray II]
Sept 12, 2026: Swann, pp. 177-234 [Swann in Love]
Sept 26, 2026: Swann, pp. 234-295 [Swann in Love]
Oct 10, 2026: Swann, pp. 295-353 [Swann in Love]
Oct 24, 2026: Swann, pp. 357-397 [Place Names]
Nov 07, 2026: Blossom, pp. 5-65 [Madam Swann's Circle]
Nov 21, 2026: Blossom, pp. 65-133 [Madam Swann's Circle]
Dec 05, 2026: Blossom, pp. 133-190 [Madam Swann's Circle]
Dec 19, 2026: Blossom, pp. 193-260 [Place Names: The Place]]
Jan 02, 2027: Blossom, pp. 261-328 [Place Names: The Place]
Jan 16, 2027: Blossom, pp. 328-398 [Place Names: The Place]
Jan 30, 2027: Blossom, pp. 398-466 [Place Names: The Place]
Feb 13, 2027: The Guermantes Way, pp. TBD
June 2027: Sodom and Gomorrah, pp. TBD
Oct 2027: The Captive, pp. TBD
Jan 2028: The Fugitive, pp. TBD
Apr 2028: Time Regained, pp. TBD

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