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/lit/ - Literature

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6608075 No.6608075 [Reply] [Original]

How accessible is Proust's work? I'm interested, and don't mind the length, but if it's a 4,000 page slog, I'd rather not.
Also, translation recommendation? Would probably go with pic related, but if there's a better edition out there, say so.

>> No.6608107

>>6608075
I'd like to know the same, the GF talked about buying this exact copy for my birthday

>> No.6608109

everything ive read about this novel sounds beautiful beyong belief

>> No.6608139

Lydia Davis's Swann's Way is better than the edited Moncrieff, but the edited Moncrieff is better than the other new Penguin translations. Moncrieff writes very well but his language is more florid than Proust's.

>> No.6608143

>>6608109
sounds like a typical french waste of time to me

inb4
>it's intentionally boring for immersion

>> No.6608172

>>6608075

I haven't actually read it yet, but I skimmed a bit of the edited Moncrieff version and it seemed pretty good. Can't speak for any other

>> No.6608364

>>6608172
>Edited version
Link? Wondering how long it is compared to the full edition (+4,000 pages).

>> No.6608442

>>6608075
You don't need to worry. Swann's Way is an excellent stand alone novel. If you don't like that it's a shame, but you aren't missing anything radically different in the other books, just wide reaches of similar excellence.

Moncrieff is florid, but he is very fucking good at florid. Actually some of the best english prose you'll find.

>> No.6608451

>>6608139
>translations

>> No.6608465

Moncrieff is better than Proust

>> No.6608476

>>6608075

I don't know much about the English translations, but you're going to have a tough first 40 pages or so if you don't have much experience with modernist literature. You should get into a nice rhythm eventually though. A lot of it might seem banal at first too, but it adds up in a very powerful way. I don't think there are many who have really given this work what it asks that haven't deeply appreciated it.

>> No.6608495

>>6608465
No he isn't. It's like saying that Hugo is better than Shakespeare (which he also isn't).

>> No.6608496

>>6608476
Does each book contain a standalone pay-off, or does the whole series need to be read as one novel?

>> No.6608516

>>6608496

Actually, you'll get several standalone pay-offs in each book as the book has more parts than there are volumes. "Swann in Love", which is somehow simultaneously the most cynical and romantic depiction of love I have ever read, and the first volume's second part is often, I believe, read by French high school students individually, and in a modernist class I took at uni we only read the first part.

>> No.6608631

>>6608495
No, Hugo is shit. So it's not like saying that you retard.

>> No.6610011

>>6608631
What about you and your parents in particular? as i'm guessing you are the biggest asshole and shit in this crappy fucking world! Do not touch my lovely Hugo any more bitch!