In Search of Lost Time
Through seven volumes, the narrator of In Search of Lost Time recounts his memories as they occur to him. An innocuous treat—say, a small cake paired with a cup of tea—may awaken memories buried deep within the narrator’s mind; memories cause more memories to surface. Like the cathedral builders of old, a whole life and the world around it are thus formed anew, slowly and methodically, by uniting pieces of the narrator’s life for the sake of the reader. This recollection takes us through the narrator’s childhood, weaving the social web his family finds itself entangled in, his first crush and coming of age, his gradual appreciation of art while finding his place into society, his hurtful obsession over a young woman, and, ultimately, the consolation that what had been lost in his youth can be regained. Firmly grounded in Modernism, In Search of Lost Time is not a work about memories but memory. By leading the reader in circles, sometimes on a glorious wild goose chase, Proust holds a mirror in front of the reader, sending us back to our own memories and experiences, no matter how pleasant or uncomfortable. By its very nature, it’s a difficult exercise about one of the defining features of humanity: our ability to manipulate time by recalling and, often, recreating it. C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s English translation is as highly regarded as the novel itself.
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What Hacker News says
- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. The first volume, Swann's Way, to be exact.
It's not for the faint of heart, it's relatively difficult, but it's very satisfying so far. You know the feeling when it's maybe an autumn evening and some blue light comes throught the window, hits the curtains a certain way and the shadows remind you of something from your childhood that you thought you had forgotten forever? Well, it's like this, on steroids.
- Proust. In search of lost time (caveat I’m halfway through book one) is a story in which almost nothing happens but it is described exquisitely.
- > Some English translations of Russian literature can run into the absurd (sentences at half a page long), but even then there is a beauty to it.
C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin’s translation of Marcel Proust’s «In Search of Lost Time (Remembrance of Things Past)» contains nearly half-page long sentences.
Many modern readers complain about the substantial difficulty in following such sentences, although I personally find them delightful.
- if you do read french, proust’s “in search of lost time” (vol 1) is a lot more accessible and enjoyable than my high school teachers made it sound years and years ago. it even contains a depiction of what a learned engineer should be like.
- Interestingly when I hear the author describe different kinds of "difficulty" I find myself thinking that some of those don't really seem like difficulty. For something like a book, I think the main thing that makes it seem difficult is when there are parts that are not fun to read (or maybe moments where you question the point of the entire read because you pause to go "what the heck is even going on here"). If something's fun it often doesn't really feel difficult.
In particular various kinds of formal experimentation can be quite fun and I wouldn't perceive them as difficult at all (especially in shorter form). I read a short story in multiple-choice form years ago and loved it. I've read most of Milorad Pavic's books, all of which have unusual formal structures (e.g., Dictionary of the Khazars has the nonlinear structure of a cross-referenced dictionary or encyclopedia). Some were a bit baffling (they also can fall into the "confusing events, surrealist dream logic, and elliptical plots" category) but I didn't find them difficult exactly.
One of the more common practical difficulties that can add friction to a book is a complex storyline with many characters who can be hard to keep track of. But this won't make the book as a whole feel super difficult as long as the content is worth it. War and Peace is a classic example of this, with multiple intersecting storylines and a large cast of characters. A Suitable Boy is a modern example in a similar vein.
But I think a lot of times when people say a book is difficult they just mean either "gosh I actually kind of have to pay attention to this" or "this is really long". To me those things actually are positive qualities if the content of the book is good, since they just make it richer. My favorite novel is In Search of Lost Time, which is one of the quintessential "difficult" books, but if you get into its rhythm, most of it is blissfully engrossing.
- I read Notes from The Underground and his other short stories first in High School, never read more verbose prose with so few insights. I had searing hate for having spent the little money I had on that collection and that probably colored my opinion of Crime and Punishment.
I don't get literature culture in general. I love art. In my view art is aesthetics denouncing intention and information through symbology.
What I don't get is why something like In Search of Lost Time from Proust, which I love, is THAT much better than Diary of a Wimpy Kid, when it sometimes explores a lot of similar ideas except using a different aesthetic.
Is the value in art to be judged by how prestigious the aesthetics imply said art to be? Some SpongeBob SquarePants episodes have the same depth as a great Azimov short story except that's really far from how they're categorized.
