Proust's Way: A Field Guide to in Search of Lost Time

Although there are several superb biographies to Proust in print, there are comparably few good introductory works. This book by Shattuck is likely the one that most sophisticated readers will profit by the most. The book is rather loosely structured. It is arranged thematically, but there is not a lot of logic to the arrangement of the themes. For instance, there is no obvious reason for why the chapter on "Continuing Disputes" is placed where it is, or placed in the volume at all. It is one of the more interesting chapters in the book, but it is more a chapter in which a lot of rabbits are chased than any real issues introduced. In the end, the book is a somewhat rambling affair. The upshot in the end, however, is that Shattuck discusses virtually every theme in Proust.There are two aspects of Shattuck's approach to Proust that I thoroughly applaud and that anyone coming to Proust for the first time should heartily embrace. First, he adamantly refuses to take the approach developed by Proust's great English-language biographer George Painter, and imitated by a host of his weaker readers, and treating IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME as material for finding all the real life models for Proust's characters. As one of his French readers has pointed out, one can read much of Proust's life into the SEARCH, but one cannot read much of life out of it. In the end, focusing on what character inspired who tends to take one away from the novel and back to a gossipy preoccupation with Proust's life. Shattuck simply refuses to do this. Secondly, Shattuck, although himself an academic, refuses to acknowledge that Proust is primarily the property of the academics. He eschews editions of Proust's text weighted down by largely unusable critical apparatuses. Likewise, while he writes in a highly literate fashion, he refuses to get bogged down in any of the more arcane literary debates concerning Proust.Speaking of not focusing on Proust's biography in reading Proust, I would like to take issue with the reviewer who found fault with Shattuck's tacit acceptance of the Narrator's affair with Albertine being a heterosexual one, and for three reasons. First, the reviewer assumes in making that statement that a reading that takes as primary the real-life sources of Proust's characters. The problem with this approach is that it overlooks the fact that it is a work of literature, and Proust did not leave his real life sources alone, but remolded them into fiction. Proust composed Albertine as a female, and a quite convincing one at that. Unless one happens to know that Albertine is modeled on several homosexual relationships, one isn't likely to think of the Albertine affair as a homosexual one. Second, "Albertine" is not based on any single, or on just a couple, of primary characters. For instance, Proust wrote many of the Albertine sections before meeting Alfred Agostinelli (commonly regarded as the most significant model for "Albertine"), who caused him to expand the cha

Almost no one remembers any more that before Proust moved to France and started writing his bestsellers, Marcel "Hometown Slugger" was for 14 glorious seasons one of the best all-around outfielders in the Chicago Cub's lineup. Along with less interesting theoretical analysis, digressions such as these make this a truly memorable summary of Proust and his work. Also be sure to examine the photos of Proust fishing for salmon with Hemmingway in a little ravine in the Swiss Alps circa 1930, Proust and his mother (and stepmother) with her collection of clocks as a child, and a proud grandfather Proust with newborn novelist in 19th century Paris.

Roger Shattuck has provided a book that truly lives up to its subtitle: A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time. The highly credentialed and astutely discerning author gives both the first-time reader of Proust and the Proustian scholar useful information that will help them read, enjoy, and plumb the depths of Proust's massive oeuvre. I count myself among the former group, having made a number of attempts at reading In Search of Lost Time, but always managing to stall out somewhere in the middle of Swann's Way and then jumping around the other volumes looking for amusing sections.Although certain chapters have been previously published, Shattuck has taken care to fully integrate them into this Field Guide, and readers will probably be best served by reading the book from cover to cover. Some chapters, I suspect, will be more meaningful to me after I've read more of the novel, but the ones I found most useful as a novice Proustian were "Proust's Complaint" (the "clouding of the mind at the moment of achieving what it most desires") and "How to Read a Roman-Fleuve" (Check out the footnote on p. 25: it gives an abbreviated reading plan for those who aren't ready to read the entire 3,000 page novel from beginning to end). I also found the discussions about the English translations in the chapter on "Continuing Disputes" especially fascinating.Owners of the Random House/Vintage 3-volume Rembrance of Things Past should be warned that all citations are keyed to the 6-volume Modern Library edition of In Search of Lost Time. This is frustrating if you want to read a passage in context, but, on the whole, is not especially problematic since Shattuck quotes the passages that are most germane to his arguments. The Selected Bibliography is extremely short, but I suspect every work that made it to the list has earned Shattuck's high regard and is worth looking into.Proust's Way is a thoughtful work that any serious reader of Proust will want to keep at his or her elbow when reading In Search of Lost Time.

Roger Shattuck's book is a helpful guide to the most complex of novels. He provides some insight into Proust's thought and writing without being overly technical. He doesn't treat the text as sacred scripture and suggests various ways of encountering the novel without reading it from cover to cover. Also, he examines some of the peripheral concerns of Proustiana from the perspective of an English-speaker such as the value of the Scott-Moncrief translation and the various attempts to improve it. He reviews the few attempts at a film of the novel and points out where they succeed and where they fail. (This is the first I've heard of a film of "Time Regained". I hope it comes to the US soon.) His diatribe against the new Pleiade critical edition is excessively vehement, but I'm glad that someone shares my opinion that reading an author's early drafts and notes distracts one from understanding the finished work and is not a task for the general reader. This book is not an introduction, but an aid for the person who has already read the novel at least partially.

It's like an addiction. First I order William Carter's great biography of Marcel Proust. It's brand new and at 800 pgs hardly an outline, but still quite a romp. After 300 pages I'm hooked. So I go order part I of the "The Search for Lost Time". Ever since high school I've been telling myself: someday, someday...Well I just turned 60 and it's now someday. One hundred pages into "Swann's Way" and I am in a swelter. Whoa... I knew Proust was not something one dips only their little toe into. Luckily along comes my life raft!I've been a fan of Roger Shattuck ever since I read his The Banquet Years and he now, just in time, he has this guide to Proust. Now I am juggling three books at once and one of them 3000 pages in length. I think I should have started at age 50.The guide has been a godsend! Shattuck can balance the academic with the popular. Right off the bat you get hit with words like hypotaxis and parataxis, but not to fret, he nicely explains in simple terms what they mean. And he understands that not all of us stayed awake in French class and kindly provides translations of the French quotes. Even better, he does not sneer at those of use who will read the Search in English saying that the newest translation is more than adequate. Shattuck debunks the common idea that Proust's Search is a prissy and doting exposition of the ways and byways of the fin de siecle French upper class. Far from it. Proust was a wicked observer with a keen sense of humor. Shattuck tells us that: "Reading Proust bears many resemblances to visiting a zoo. The specimens he collected from the remotest corners of society amaze and amuse us in their variety." In fact there is a whole chapter in the Guide on the comic vision in the Search. The most important chapter in the book for me at my entry point to reading the Search is "How to Read a Roman-Fleuve." Here is a multitude of tips on how to deal with many of the complexities in the Search. He also points out that we must pay attention and what seems to be going nowhere eventually comes together. And he has lots more to aid the reader He has some nice charts for keeping track of "places", "characters", "couples", and "scenes." There are other chapters on Proust's sources, the length issue, etc. which I have skimmed through but I am sure they will become more valuable as I penetrate further into the Search.This is not a book to read in place of reading Proust. It is clearly intended as a guide to a first time reader or one re-reading the Search. If you do buy it, you will be sorely tempted to read Proust's "The Search for Lost Time, which by the way is the newest translation of what was once called "Remembrance of Things Past." If you intend to read the Search, this book is a must.Now if I only new what a Roman-Fleuve was.