The Thing

Michael Wood

In Search of Lost Time: Vol. I: The Way by Swann’s by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by Lydia Davis Buy this book
In Search of Lost Time: Vol.II: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by James Grieve Buy this book
In Search of Lost Time: Vol. III: The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by Mark Treharne Buy this book
In Search of Lost Time: Vol. IV: Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by John Sturrock Buy this book
In Search of Lost Time: Vol. V: ‘The Prisoner’ and ‘The Fugitive’ by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by Carol Clark and Peter Collier Buy this book
In Search of Lost Time: Vol. VI: Finding Time Again by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by Ian Patterson Buy this book
The Proust Project edited by André Aciman

What was it Proust said about paradise? That all paradises are lost paradises? That the only true paradise is a lost paradise? That it isn’t paradise until it’s lost? That paradise is a name for a favourite form of loss? He can plausibly be read as saying any of these things, and perhaps more than one at once. But the propositions are not identical, and it’s not easy to choose among them. Can’t we look at what Proust actually wrote? We can look at what he literally wrote, but that’s not quite the same thing.

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From the LRB letters page: [ 20 January 2005 ] L.J. Hurst.

Michael Wood teaches at Princeton. His most recent book is Literature and the Taste of Knowledge.