In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 2 (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

(NOTE: This is a review of the James Grieve translation of Marcel Proust's "In The Shadow Of Young Girls In Flower" as published by Penguin. This is *not* the William Carter/Scott Moncrieff translation.)"In The Shadow Of Young Girls In Flower" is the second volume of Proust's "In Search Of Lost Time." Like "Swann's Way" (well, parts 2 and 3 anyway), "Shadow" is a collection of love stories.Proust's original plan for the entire novel was to follow "Swann's Way" with "The Guermantes Way." But the book's publication was interrupted by World War I. During that time, Proust created the character Albertine Simonet, a change that led to an end-to-end rework of the whole book, including the creation of "Shadow.""Shadow" is 533 pages long (not including the Notes and Synopsis) but has only two chapters: "At Mme Swann's" and "Place Names: The Place".The first chapter is "At Mme Swann's". This is a continuation of the (Narrator)-Gilberte story that ended in "Swann's Way." Gilberte has finally returned to Paris, and the (Narrator) successfully wins approval from her parents (Charles Swann and Odette de Crécy) to allow unlimited visits. But the relation becomes strained when the visits begin to interfere with Gilberte's other interests. In addition, as Odette sees the relationship unraveling, she begins inviting the (Narrator) to see *her* when he visits.The second chapter is "Place Names: The Place". With the Gilberte relation in tatters, the love-sick adolescent, along with Francoise and his grandmother, spends his summer at the seaside resort town of Balbec (the "Place"). There, he resumes his relations with his Jewish schoolmate Bloch, makes a new close friend in the independent-minded Marquis Robert de Saint-Cloud, and meets a famous artist, Elstir.But what really makes his summer is meeting a group of girls ("la petite bande") about his age: Albertine Simonet, Andrée, and Rosamonde. Thus begins a sort of group love affair with the majority of the focus on Albertine."In Search Of Lost Time" was essentially self-published, and was never reviewed by an editor, one of the few famous novels published this way. As a result, there are bloopers. For instance, on p 254, the First President was from Caens and the bâtonnier from Cherbourg. But on p. 530, they are described as being from Rennes and Caens. On p 226, he misidentifies the names of the grandmother's two sisters, as Céline and Victoire (in "Swann's Way," they were Céline and Flora).I found this book noticeably easier to read since it has more actual plot. Instead of long, laborious essays on wildflowers and church steeples, we get extensive discussions on people, feelings, and love relationships, which I found far more interesting. On p. 470 is a rather depressing description of how pretty young girls all turn into ugly old trolls. In "Shadow," you will not see any of the nature-centered memoir that readers struggled with in "Swann's Way."Like the translator of "Swann's Way," James Grieve uses modern-day, user-friendly language, rather than a word-for-word approach to produce an easier reading experience. He also uses liberal amounts of punctuation to break up the long sentences and paragraphs. Purists who want a more poetic sound will definitely not like this translation. But some also say you shouldn’t read *any* translation other than the original French, which is ridiculous."Shadow" has a gallery of flamboyant characters - Norpois, the notable notary, the First President, the bâtonnier, Aimé the headwaiter, Octave the baccarat player, the "lift" - that you would see in a typical Dickens novel, and just as entertaining. Also, we see more anti-Semitism which is actually quite enlightening to see in a French novel written decades before rise of Nazism.The narrator (still unnamed) is the same girl-crazy adolescent who narrated "Swann's Way"; he still hasn't developed very mature social habits, even with the passing of two years. In his quest to score, he is the epitome of selfishness: he manipulates other people's trust and betrays close friends; he also seems incapable of reading the feelings of others when he finally gets them in bed. It's probably divine justice, then, when his amorous pursuits more often than not lead to utter failure.I found two big plot holes: on p. 1, we are told that Swann and Odette are married. And on p.483, we learn that the narrator has resumed relations with Gilberte Swann. In "Swann's Way," these two plot lines are definitively closed; no cliffhanger endings of any kind, nor any hint that the plots would take a drastic turn. In a 533-page novel, surely the author could have better explained how these two eye-openers came about.In addition, there is the character of Rosamonde. She is a regular member of the "gang of girls" yet Proust devotes virtually no material on her. Rosamonde is basically a name without a story. Proust should’ve made her just another one of the other nameless characters in the book.Like the first book, "Shadow" has a "Synopsis" in back which I found very handy when searching for names or events.The brilliant sense of observation that some people ascribe to Proust is really just the author editorializing and pontificating on various subjects. This is one of the major reasons his books are so wordy. While many probably see his observations as brilliant, I personally think it's kind of hard to accept love advice from an author who lives in his bedroom all day long and never goes out.Five stars for the user-friendly translation, as well as the handy notes and synopsis.Highly recommended English translation for casual readers who want to get closer to this literary classic.

There are currently four easily available translations of this volume of "In Search of Lost Time." The Scott Moncrieff translation (Random House), the Enright-revised translation (Modern Library), and this, Carter's translation for Yale, are all great; I would recommend any one of them.On the other hand, avoid Grieve's translation (Penguin), which distorts Proust's French far too much for my taste.I really like the wide margins of Carter's translation. Great for those marginal notes!And while it's nice to have notes in the margins (as opposed to endnotes), I find so many of Carter's notes maddening and pedantic.First, Carter occasionally chooses to note how Scott Moncrieff translated a phrase. For example, on page 218 note 377 Carter notes that what he translated as "Good evening," Scott Moncrieff translates as "Must you go? Good-bye." I have no idea why Carter thinks this is noteworthy, nor how it illuminates the text.Second, Carter often provides information in the note which, although true, is tangential to the specificity of the passage, and in this way, feels pedantic. For example, on page 192 Proust mentions "ten just men" and Carter rightly notes that this refers to the destruction of Sodom (note 335). But then he continues, citing from Genesis 19:24: "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." Ok, true, but why append this passage in particular after identifying the "ten just men"? On pages 256-7 Proust lists the names of four cities which also name those cities' cathedrals: Vezelay, Chartres, Bourges, and Beauvais. Carter's note (30) lists what each of these cathedrals is particularly famous for. Great! But the passage has nothing to do with what those cathedrals are famous for, it's about the power words have on how we imagine places. Or again, Carter notes the passage "we were eating hard-boiled eggs in salad, which as considered common and not done in the best society in Alançon" (277) with "Alançon became a center for lacemaking in the sixteenth century" (n63). Ok, true, but in the context of this passage, so what?Finally, while I am happy to learn how secondary texts can illuminate Proust, Carter is parsimonious. For example, on page 212 note 368 Carter writes: "The Narrator's focus on the interplay of these colors (red, orange, and black) highlights the integral importance of color in the novel. See Allan H. Pasco 'The Color Keys to A la recherche du temps perdu'". Ok...so...what actually is the integral importance of color in the novel? Can't you give me even a little sense of Pasco's thesis? Carter affirms that color it significant in the novel, but doesn't say how or why. That's far from helpful.In sum, what sets this translation apart from others are its wide margins. And while many of Carter's marginal notes are helpful, so many others land like dud, seem half-baked and pedantically ill-considered. In this regard, he has not been well-served by his editors at Yale UP.

It's getting difficult to find good collections of Proust, and Penguin's herculean effort at a new edition of In Search of Lost Time is laudable. I'm happy to see it. Yet, at least in this volume, it's no improvement on the decades-old Modern Library Collection editions—editions which are today difficult to find and costly to acquire.James Grieve's translation is easy-ish to read (no translation of Proust can be said to be *easy* to read), though it's sometimes oddly anachronistic, with turns of phrase which sound more 2019 than 1919. Occasionally this jars me from Proust's world. As I read more of Penguin's new editions, I'll be interested to know whether this was unique to Grieve, or whether it's the influence of the series editor, Christopher Prendergast. The anachronisms leave an odd flavor in their wake.I didn't read Penguin's first volume, of Swann's Way, because Swann's Way is so much more familiar to me. I return to its text, the Modern Library edition I first read in college, repeatedly. Eventually, I'll circle back to Penguin's new edition of Swann's Way, but for now it's on to The Guermantes Way.All in all, I'm happy to see (and read) these editions, but so far they're not quite 100%. If you can, in English, read the Modern Library editions. They're like reading pure, beautiful, magical music.

Very up to date & readable re-working of CKS Moncrieff. There are hundreds of explanatory notes and wide margins for annotation. Preferable to the Enright version, for my money. Seems to have a more natural flow.

...unsere Zeit. Obwohl es noch eine ganze Zeit dauern wird, bis ich alle sechs Bände gelesen habe.Einziges Problem war die Bestellung des gesammelten Werkes, da man diese nicht zusammen bestellen kann. Man muss die Einzelbände zusammensuchen und aufpassen, dass man wirklich die verschiedenen Bände kauft und nicht versehentlich eine gleiche Ausgabe nur mit einem anderen Cover.Würde ich das gesammelte Werk beurteilen, gäbe es dafür einen Punktabzug.Da ich aber jeden Band einzeln bewerte, kann ich dabei keinen Punkt abziehen. Würde auch dem großartigen Inhalt nicht gerecht werden!