NP-Proust

Tue Sep 25 13:02:27 CDT 2012

Paul,

Wonderful link and news...makes me want to plunge in...

I adjust going to do a mini-rant on a phrase that I hate in talking abt (most) books....
It is "not for everyone".........as if this needs be said.........(true perhaps of some kinds of books but 
Why is it true of any reader intelligent enough to know who Proust is that it is NOT for them???)

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 25, 2012, at 10:51 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:

> On 9/24/2012 2:26 PM, Paul Mackin wrote:
>> On 9/24/2012 12:19 PM, Phillip Greenlief wrote:
>>> the modern library edition was the one i read (and thoroughly enjoyed). 
>>> 
>>> it's a marvellous structure - populated with more and more thoughts that open like a chinese box. one thing leads miraculously to another. that whole opening sequence in the overature is a glimpse of what is to come - have re-read that passage numerous times. so good. can't say which volume i liked best ... within a budding grove, or maybe the past regained ... such beautiful prose -  innits own right, but almost sensuous prose ... the writing itself, not the subject, although there is obviously a great deal of deconstructing desire going on.
>>> 
>>> i've always thought of reading it again and read some good things about that new translation that came out 2-3 years ago ... can't remember the name of the translator.
>> 
>> There was a different one for each book.
> 
> Here's maybe a better answer:
> 
> Yale University Press also will publish a new version of C.K. Scott Moncrieff's classic translation of Swann's Way, which Carter is updating and annotating. Yale plans to publish a volume a year until the entire novel is published in updated form. 
> 
> http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/09/uab_professor_gearing_up_for_a.html
> 
>> 
>> P
>>> 
>>> it took over a year to get through it ... in comparison, it took two years to read finnegans wake the first time i read that ... i've read a few more times, which took far less time in successive readings.
>>> 
>>> sent from phillip's iPhone
>>> 
>>> On Sep 24, 2012, at 8:03 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On 9/23/2012 9:43 PM, Mark Sacha wrote:
>>>>> Shelled out for a revised Enright translation recently... not having done any research beforehand, and possibly lazily assuming the Modern Library edition would be sufficient. Hope I won't be missing anything.
>>>> 
>>>> That's the one i used last time through.  Important revisions including relocating some material from one book to another.  Also a better translation of the title had been adopted.
>>>> 
>>>> P
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 9:09 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Wow, Bekah, Proust I've not read past two pages.  Slow, no? Maybe Western Zen? I wouldn't know...
>>>>> But I doN't want to sound like a redneck!
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Sunday, September 23, 2012, Bekah wrote:
>>>>> I'm not sure it matters -   I've read the volumes in different translations (LOL!)
>>>>> 
>>>>> The reason is that I already had Swann's Way on the shelf in the old Scott Montcrieff translation but when I went to get the next three they were available in the new Penguin translations by James Grieve,  Mark Trehane,  John Sturrock.  But the last 2 volumes had not been translated for that series so I went back to the Scott Montrcrieff.
>>>>> 
>>>>> **** THIS IS A REVIEW BY AN AMAZON READER **** (but I agree with it):
>>>>> 
>>>>> Just as a general note with Proust translations, compare them in a bookstore before you buy any of them.
>>>>> 
>>>>> There is the original C.K. Scott Moncrieff translation, which is beautiful, though based on a flawed edition put together shortly after Proust's death (especially the later books in the set).
>>>>> 
>>>>> Then there is Terrence Kilmartin's revision, which is based on a much better French edition. You can still find editions of this used, and occasionally new as well. I prefer this one, as Kilmartin didn't change most of the truly beautiful language that Moncrieff rendered except in a few places to clarify confusing sentences.
>>>>> 
>>>>> D.J. Enright, who worked with Kilmartin, made further revisions after the latter's death,                           whose work (so he says) was incomplete. His reworking is based on yet an even newer edition of the French text, though with fewer changes than the previous French edition had from the original. I feel that Enright modernized the language too much. He claims French hasn't changed much as a language compared to English since the early 20th Century, so to approximate how it would read to a French person today, it needs to be put into more comtemporary language. I don't care for it personally.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I've read some of these other, altogether new translations, which is a good effort considering the potential for incoherence you might have reading a revision of a revision of a translation (whew!). They're not bad, but nowhere near as much of a "new standard" as, say, the Pevear-Volokhonsky translations of Dostoevsky, which give the reader a clearer original while still using beautiful and idiomatic English.
>>>>> 
>>>>> But back to Proust. Decide for yourself! Compare an old version of Moncrieff's translation to his revisors, and then check out these new ones published by Penguin.
>>>>> 
>>>>> And better yet, if you understand French at all, look at a French copy and just absorb the rhythm, the flow of the words, and find a translation that feels the same.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I can't tell you how many times I've spoken to people who hated foreign books in translation, only to find out they read a translation that reads like a textbook and not like something that was meant to be enjoyed!!
>>>>> 
>>>>> **********************************
>>>>> 
>>>>> Me again:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Bottom line, imo  -  if you're a new reader and not used to the old Montcrieff or Enright                           or something,  go with the newer Penguin Classics translations (2005).  If you've already started one of the old translations,  try the new version and see how you like it -  if not - go with what you like.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Try them out in some bookstore or sample you find online.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The Penguin translations are NOT done by the same person all the way through.  This means they're not all smooth like the Moncrieff/Kilmartin/ Enright ones. Each book reads a bit differently, style-wise.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Bekah
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Sep 23, 2012, at 12:24 AM, Rich Clavey <antizoyd at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> > Any opinions as to which English translation of Proust to read?
>>>>> > Thanks
>>>>> > rich
>>>>> >
>>>>> > http://www.macclaveyphotography.com/
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>> 
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