Marcel ProustFinding Time Again: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 7 (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Time is precious. And there is possibly no better use of one's time that reading Proust. This was my fourth time or more reading through all seven volumes of Proust's mammoth novel, and my first time through these new translations. This is the first new English translation in almost a century, and it was needed. The prose of the admirable previous translation, by Terrence Kilmartin, et al, was often more purple and florid than Proust's original. These new translations, however, bring home what I had always suspected: that while Proust is a very long read, it needn't, and in fact shouldn't be, a slow read. The prose is limpid, flowing, clear. For this edition, each of the novel's seven volumes was tackled by a different translator, overseen by a senior editor. Although there is a remarkable uniformity across these seven volumes, the prize for the most crisp, lucid prose goes to Carol Clark, translator of Volume V, "The Prisoner". Since this is a review for Volume 7, I will say that it is not the most readable of the bunch, but that is probably due more to the disjointed nature of Proust's original, and not any fault of the translator. Had I been one of the translators, Volume 7 is not the one I would have wanted assigned to me (that would in fact have been Volume 3, the novel's massive centerpiece, "The Guermantes Way".)These Vintage Deluxe paperbacks are beautiful to look at, and a delight to hold in one's hands. The production quality is extremely high.Five stars. In fact, a million wouldn't be enough.

It feels so good to have finished the four year project that has been reading Proust's work, my favorite parts of this volume were the realization of memory's present connection to the past in the middle and the exploration into time at the end. It is a rougher work-due to being unfinished by Proust, and not as easy to read as his earlier volumes. The above mentioned parts will stick with me, but I do not think I would go back and reread this volume in its entirety.

Abysmal title translation. A bad as the first English title translations (more often pure inventions/impositions than actual "translations") of Scott-Moncrieff were (not only the overall series title, but also the individual volumes), one of the few he got right was "Time Regained," for "Le Temps retrouvé." "Finding Time Again" is so utterly tone deaf and awful, I would reject this translation on that basis alone. Get the Kilmartin revision of Scott-Moncrieff instead.

If you’re looking for a “new”(post-2020 say) translation of this work, then this ain’t it. It’s just the earlier Penguin translation by Ian Patterson from 2002. But with that said, it’s a gem worth adding to your collection of Proust books!