Marcel Proust : Swann's way / Sheila Stern.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stern, Sheila.

Series:

Landmarks of world literature

Landmarks of world literature.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922. Du côté de chez Swann.

Proust, Marcel.

Physical Description:

ix, 128 pages ; 21 cm.

Other Title:

Proust Swann's way.

Swann's way.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Summary:

Swann's Way, published in 1913, is the first part of Proust's seven-part novel A la Recherche du temps perdu. The author's expansion, revision and correction of the work were cut short by his death in 1922, and sixty-six years later editors are still producing variants of the last three volumes based on working notebooks. The novel's structure was compared by its author to that of a cathedral, and its status is that of one of the greatest literary landmarks of the twentieth century.

Sheila Stern's study begins with a summary of the whole novel and goes on to give an account of the activity of reading as part of its subject-matter. Two chapters are devoted to Swann's Way itself, with close attention to the opening pages, and to such topics as memory, time, imagery and names. The book's reception in various Western literatures is discussed, and there is a guide to further reading.

Contents:

1 The matter of A la Recherche du temps perdu 1

2 The readers in the book 23

3 Combray 29

The book and the bed 29

Memory and the will 33

The reader's role 39

'Combray takes on form and solidity'

the third opening 41

The naming of Charles Swann 44

The rainbow of snobbery 47

Moral refinements and moral judgments 54

Time and tense 68

Time out of joint 75

Imagery 81

Time, metaphor and St Hilaire 84

A conceit and its form 90

4 Un Amour de Swann 96

An adult world 96

The name of Verdurin 97

Swann cast out 101

Lies 107

The type of Odette 109

Noms de pays: le nom 112

5 The reception of Proust's novel 119

6 Critical works mentioned in the text and further reading 125.

Notes:

Cover title: Proust Swann's way.

Bibliography: pages 124-128.

ISBN:

0521328160

0521315441

OCLC:

18682389