Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time (2 translations)

MARCEL PROUST (1871-1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME [À la recherche du temps perdu; earlier translated as "Remembrance of Things Past">, published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927. The novel had enormous influence on twentieth-century literature. Edmund White pronounced it "the most respected novel of the twentieth century", while Virginia Woolf marvelled: "Oh, if I could write like that!"

The book was initially translated into English by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and appeared under the title REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST between 1922 and 1931. Scott Moncrieff translated volumes one through six of the seven volumes, dying before completing the last. The final volume, Le Temps retrouvé, was published as "Time Regained" (1931), translated by Stephen Hudson (a pseudonym of Sydney Schiff). (The original Scott Moncrieff translation can still be found on this site but the quality of the copy is very poor.) Terence Kilmartin revised the Scott Moncrieff translation in 1981, using the new French edition of 1954.

MODERN LIBRARY Edition. The title IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME, a more literal rendering of the French, has gained usage since D. J. Enright adopted it for his revised translation of Scott Moncrieff/Kilmartin published by the Modern Library in 1992. It was based on the latest, most complete and authoritative French text, the "La Pléiade" edition (1987-89). It provides a detailed plot synopsis at the end of each volume, endnotes, and alternative versions of some of the novel's famous episodes. The Modern Library edition is presented here in its six individual volumes as well as the omnibus one-volume edition.

PENGUIN Edition. In 1995, Penguin undertook a fresh translation by a team of seven different translators overseen by general editor Christopher Prendergast. Its six volumes, comprising Proust's seven, were published in 2002. Like the Modern Library edition, the Penguin translations provide a detailed plot synopsis at the end of each volume. They also provide an extensive set of brief, non-scholarly endnotes that help identify cultural references perhaps unfamiliar to contemporary English readers.

For more on Proust's masterpiece -- synopses, themes, critical reception, and overview of the different English translations -- see the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time


All the following books are in both ePUB + MOBI format:

* IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME (Modern Library, 1992). 6 volumes. Vols. 1-5 translated by C. K. Scott-Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, and revised by D. J. Enright; Vol. 6 translated by Terence Kilmartin and Andreas Mayor, revised by D. J. Enright.
=> Vol. 1 - Swann's Way.
=> Vol. 2 - Within a Budding Grove.
=> Vol. 3 - The Guermantes Way.
=> Vol. 4 - Sodom and Gomorrah.
=> Vol. 5 - The Captive & The Fugitive.
=> Vol. 6 - Time Regained.

* IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME (Penguin Classics, 2002). 6 volumes. Christopher Prendergast, general editor.
=> Vol. 1 - The Way by Swann's. Translated by Lydia Davis.
=> Vol. 2 - In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower. Translated by James Grieve.
=> Vol. 3 - The Guermantes Way. Translated by Mark Treharne.
=> Vol. 4 - Sodom and Gomorrah. Translated by John Sturrock.
=> Vol. 5 - The Prisoner & The Fugitive. Translated by Carol Clark and Peter Collier, respectively.
=> Vol. 6 - Finding Time Again. Translated by Ian Patterson.

Bonus book by Proust:

* THE LEMOINE AFFAIR (Melville House, 2008). Translated by Charlotte Mandell.