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1913 is the centenary of Swann's Way , the first book in French writer Marcel Proust's
masterpiece, Remembrance of Things Past.
I have featured Swann's Way here more than once, so feel it is time to move on to
the second volume.
If
you are ready to move up to the second volume, Within a Budding Grove, published in 1919 and translated by the
excellent Scott Moncrieff - then you won't mind that it is not quite free. They hook you on the first volume and then
demand a derisory amount for the second!
($0.99 US Edition) (£0.77 UK Edition)
As the book begins, Swann is no longer in favor:
"My mother, when it was
a question of our having M. de Norpois to dinner for the first time, having
expressed her regret that Professor Cottard was away from home, and that she
herself had quite ceased to see anything of Swann, since either of these might
have helped to entertain the old Ambassador, my father replied that so eminent
a guest, so distinguished a man of science as Cottard could never be out of
place at a dinner-table, but that Swann, with his ostentation, his habit of
crying aloud from the housetops the name of everyone that he knew, however
slightly, was an impossible vulgarian whom the Marquis de Norpois would be sure
to dismiss as— to use his own epithet— a 'pestilent' fellow."
As with any good book, there are many changes as you go
along . . .
If you have read the first book, you can hardly need
urging to pick up the second - but with so many demands on our times, there are
books that go unopened. As you can buy
this one with just a click, let me call it to your attention.
But whatever you do, don't reach for the version by "Prouts!"
Amazing that Amazon would allow that howler on both the UK & US site. It doesn't even credit the editor and
translator, Scott Moncrieff - which is of course the only English translation
out of copyright. I won't give the link
to make it easy to get by mistake - but it is easily found if you want a laugh.
If you are looking for the latest translation of this
second volume, which is not free of course, the title is now In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower. A word of caution, this volume received the
harshest reviews of the six newly translated volumes published with the Penguin
imprint. However, that is not to say these
new translations are not good, just that this one is not the pick of the
litter.
Thank you to my faithful readers for making this blog
among the top 100 blogs on Amazon for many months now! It remains the only blog
on classic literature for the Kindle.
Like the books presented here, my readers are very select. Thank you!
This blog is a guide to the best free
and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my
suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try.
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