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Available
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Publication
W. W. Norton & Company (2000), Hardcover, 288 pages
Description
For many years, Roger Shattuck has been mesmerised by one write. First came Proust's Binoculars, a short, brilliant study published in 1964. Then came Marcel Proust, commissioned by Frank Kermode for the Modern Masters series, which won the National Book Ward in 1974. A series of essays, lectures and reviews followed. Now, like Richard Ellmann, whose constant outpourings on Joyce resulted in his triumphant biography James Joyce, Roger Shattuck has revisited his earlier writings and musings on Proust, and used them as a springboard to write a new and definitive work.
Media reviews
Shattuck is very good, for instance, in explaining the nature of the double ''I'' of Proustian narration…He demonstrates that the recognitions we are led to don't ultimately promote an ideology of art but rather an illumination of life. Again and again, he directs us to the rich social life of
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the ''Search,'' to its high comedy and to its ultimate high stakes: understanding. Art is, in Proust's term, a ''translation'' of life. Proust's novel -- like all great fiction -- is ultimately cognitive in its nature and its rewards.
Much of Shattuck's argument will be familiar to readers of his two earlier books on Proust, ''Proust's Binoculars'' (1963) and ''Marcel Proust'' (1974). Indeed, the lion's share of ''Proust's Way'' recycles them, with some reorganization and with some additional material, part of it published as articles in The New York Review of Books and elsewhere. Like Proust himself, Shattuck seems to have been rewriting the same book for a number of years, seeking to find its best form. Unlike Proust, however, he doesn't find much to change in his initial versions, and in fact for me the freshest and most exciting part of ''Proust's Way'' remains the material on optics and vision adapted from ''Proust's Binoculars.'' Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member stillatim
A close friend just started Proust for the first time, which excited me so much that I wanted to reading group it with him. But I don't have time, so I read this instead. Not as good as Proust! Surprise, surprise.
It suffers a bit from being two books, one for people who haven't read the Search
More helpful was Shattuck's take on the 'memory' theme; he understands Search less as an investigation of memory than as showing how an objective observer can combine a vision of memory and the present to better understand the past and the future. I think. He also stands against the aestheticist view that the novel holds art up as superior to life. A worthy argument, for all its generality.
There are also completely unrelated bits on translation, editions, and an almost unbearable 'creative response' to the novel.
If you love Proust, this is worth reading; if you're about to read Proust, half of it is worth reading; if you've read Proust and might not read him again, this won't change your mind, and you should avoid it, because you should absolutely read Proust again.
It suffers a bit from being two books, one for people who haven't read the Search
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yet, and one for people who have. The one for newcomers is a better book, being an actual book. The book for veterans is less good, because it's just a bunch of stuff Shattuck has written over the years. But if you've read Proust and want an intelligent man's understanding of the thing, this is enjoyable enough. Shattuck suggests that the book is about desire as much as it is memory; human beings fail to understand their own desires, which leads to suffering. A new vision of life (literary critics always end up with these wild generalities: why can't a book be about society and art? Why do they have to be about 'life' and 'love'?) follows. More helpful was Shattuck's take on the 'memory' theme; he understands Search less as an investigation of memory than as showing how an objective observer can combine a vision of memory and the present to better understand the past and the future. I think. He also stands against the aestheticist view that the novel holds art up as superior to life. A worthy argument, for all its generality.
There are also completely unrelated bits on translation, editions, and an almost unbearable 'creative response' to the novel.
If you love Proust, this is worth reading; if you're about to read Proust, half of it is worth reading; if you've read Proust and might not read him again, this won't change your mind, and you should avoid it, because you should absolutely read Proust again.
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LibraryThing member markm2315
A very fine scholarly description and analysis of Proust's great work including tables and graphic explanations of theme and structure, a discussion of almost all of the English translations available, an appendix just on optics, and an addendum written as a dialogue between fictional characters.
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As nice as it all is, I would not read this before reading In Search of Lost Time . Show Less
LibraryThing member lschiff
Roger Shattuck has provided readers of Proust's masterpiece with an invaluable guide and analytical touchstone for thinking through what we're reading. I found especially powerful the concept of a stereo-optic presentation of time for the way Proust presents remembering, recognition, memories and
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experiences. Having now read Shattuck's book, I can't imagine reading Proust without it and am glad to be so well prepared as I head into the next volumes. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
2001
Physical description
288 p.; 9.3 inches
ISBN
0393049140 / 9780393049145
Local notes
lr