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بروست
"[The Magic Lantern of Marcel Proust] reduces the ungainly and intricately designed masterpiece to its shape, and with hardly a wasted word...The paragraphs on habit and memory are truly wonderful—wonderful as explication, as psychology, and as philosophy."—John Updike
"Almost everything Moss says seems to me right, illuminating, and new. This is the book of a mature and individual mind and sensibility, with a deep experience of moral, social, psychological, and aesthetic values which is rare among critics." —George D. Painter
"A moving and inspiring book. Moss clears away dark corners, clarifies motivations, and places the huge work within the reader's perspective. A book of great value to the scholar and the general reader." —Publishers Weekly
"Remembrance of Things Past is more than a novel; it is a work in which a single person's life is transformed into a mythology, with its own pantheon of gods, its own religious rituals, and its own moral laws. A total vision, it does not rely on any system outside itself for support. It is as if Dante had set out to write the Paradiso and the Inferno utilizing only the facts of his own existence without any reference to Christianity...Other novelists describe or invent worlds. Remembrance of Things Past is an entire universe created and interpreted by Marcel Proust." — from Chapter 1
Howard Moss was poetry editor of the New Yorker for almost forty years. He also wrote more than a dozen books of poetry, plays, criticism, and a book of arch parody-microbiographies of cultural figures, Instant Lives, illustrated by Edward Gorey.
"Almost everything Moss says seems to me right, illuminating, and new. This is the book of a mature and individual mind and sensibility, with a deep experience of moral, social, psychological, and aesthetic values which is rare among critics." —George D. Painter
"A moving and inspiring book. Moss clears away dark corners, clarifies motivations, and places the huge work within the reader's perspective. A book of great value to the scholar and the general reader." —Publishers Weekly
"Remembrance of Things Past is more than a novel; it is a work in which a single person's life is transformed into a mythology, with its own pantheon of gods, its own religious rituals, and its own moral laws. A total vision, it does not rely on any system outside itself for support. It is as if Dante had set out to write the Paradiso and the Inferno utilizing only the facts of his own existence without any reference to Christianity...Other novelists describe or invent worlds. Remembrance of Things Past is an entire universe created and interpreted by Marcel Proust." — from Chapter 1
Howard Moss was poetry editor of the New Yorker for almost forty years. He also wrote more than a dozen books of poetry, plays, criticism, and a book of arch parody-microbiographies of cultural figures, Instant Lives, illustrated by Edward Gorey.
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
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July 31, 2022I didn't really learn anything from this book. That seems to be the way it goes with these sort of companion books. I've read Proust and then selectively re-read certain volumes of his novel. So it always goes back to reading Proust.
However, I got a biography of Proust by Andre Maurois that I'm reading now. For one thing, at 300 pages, it's more realistic to read than either of the two +one-thousand word tomes that have since come out.
However, I got a biography of Proust by Andre Maurois that I'm reading now. For one thing, at 300 pages, it's more realistic to read than either of the two +one-thousand word tomes that have since come out.
February 21, 2016
Howard Moss ist vor allem als Kritiker und Lyriker bekannt geworden, und das schlägt sich in THE MAGIC LANTERN nieder: Moss hat die RECHERCHE ungemein genau gelesen und folgt Prousts Motivketten und Themen durch die sieben Bände. Dabei wird deutlich, wie sehr in der RECHERCHE alles von der Perspektive abhängt, die durch Raum und Zeit beeinflußt wird. Die poetischen Wahrheiten, auf die er den Leser stößt, sind eine perfekte Vorbereitung für die eigene Lektüre der RECHERCHE und machen Zusammenhänge deutlich, die mir über die Distanz von einigen tausend Seiten oft entgangen wären. Es scheint keine unbedeutenden Passagen oder Zufälle bei Proust zu geben, alles fügt sich in den Großmythos, von dem Moss eingangs schreibt:
"Rememberance of Things Past is more than a novel; it is a work in which a single person´s life is transformed into a mythology, with its own pantheon of gods, its own religious rituals, and its own moral laws. A total vision, it does not rely on any system outside itself for support. It is as if Dante had set out to write the Paradiso and the Inferno utilizing only the facts of his own existence without any reference to Christianity."
Auch nach fünf Jahrzehnten ist THE MAGIC LANTERN noch lesenswerte und hilfreiche Sekundärliteratur, denn nie mutmaßt oder schwafelt Moss, sondern reiht Beleg an Beleg, ohne dass sein Buch dadurch akademisch-trocken würde.
Hier noch ein Fragment aus dem Schlussbefund:
"Proust is the greatest of disenchanters. But only because he was so greatly enchanted. Rememberance of Things Past is a gigantic disappearing act in which the magician vanishes along with his magic in the service of illusion. He does so to prove to us that the illusory is real."
"Rememberance of Things Past is more than a novel; it is a work in which a single person´s life is transformed into a mythology, with its own pantheon of gods, its own religious rituals, and its own moral laws. A total vision, it does not rely on any system outside itself for support. It is as if Dante had set out to write the Paradiso and the Inferno utilizing only the facts of his own existence without any reference to Christianity."
Auch nach fünf Jahrzehnten ist THE MAGIC LANTERN noch lesenswerte und hilfreiche Sekundärliteratur, denn nie mutmaßt oder schwafelt Moss, sondern reiht Beleg an Beleg, ohne dass sein Buch dadurch akademisch-trocken würde.
Hier noch ein Fragment aus dem Schlussbefund:
"Proust is the greatest of disenchanters. But only because he was so greatly enchanted. Rememberance of Things Past is a gigantic disappearing act in which the magician vanishes along with his magic in the service of illusion. He does so to prove to us that the illusory is real."
July 28, 2020
ويقولُ الأديبُ والمترجم الكبير نجيب المانع في وصفِ بروست ورائعتِهِ "بحثاً عن الزمن المفقود":
"... إلّا أنّ جزءاً كبيراً من حياةِ المرء ينبغي أن يُنفَقَ في كَونِ بروست، أو لِنَقُل: عالَمِه، كي يستطيعَ أن يحيا شيئاً من الزمان في وِهادِهِ ووديانِهِ وهِضابِهِ وجِباله، ويرتقيها مُتفيّئاً الظلّ هُنا وسابِحاً في ماءِ بُحيرةٍ هُناك ومُتحدّثاً إلى شخصيّة مُضحكةٍ تحوّلَت بفِعلِ عملِ الساحِرِ - الذي هوَ بروست - إلى كائنٍ فخمٍ رزينٍ مُحترم، أو شخصيّة تندمجُ في جمهرةِ الحفلاتِ الكِثار التي يُقيمُها بروست في روايتهِ كأنّها أيامُ الحَشر.
ولهذا، فإنّ المُستعجلين لا يميلونَ إلى بروست".
"... إلّا أنّ جزءاً كبيراً من حياةِ المرء ينبغي أن يُنفَقَ في كَونِ بروست، أو لِنَقُل: عالَمِه، كي يستطيعَ أن يحيا شيئاً من الزمان في وِهادِهِ ووديانِهِ وهِضابِهِ وجِباله، ويرتقيها مُتفيّئاً الظلّ هُنا وسابِحاً في ماءِ بُحيرةٍ هُناك ومُتحدّثاً إلى شخصيّة مُضحكةٍ تحوّلَت بفِعلِ عملِ الساحِرِ - الذي هوَ بروست - إلى كائنٍ فخمٍ رزينٍ مُحترم، أو شخصيّة تندمجُ في جمهرةِ الحفلاتِ الكِثار التي يُقيمُها بروست في روايتهِ كأنّها أيامُ الحَشر.
ولهذا، فإنّ المُستعجلين لا يميلونَ إلى بروست".
August 18, 2025
This was a fairly profound little book which really has a lot to say about the philosophical and aesthetic underpinnings of Proust’s masterpiece. The book examines time, memory, and identity, as well as Proust’s originality when dealing with parties, class, homosexuality, anti-semitism, painting, music, literature, and politics (specifically, the Dreyfus Affair). Overall, one gets the sense that Proust was interpreting everything he encountered from a perspective than can be compared to Einstein’s, or perhaps he ontology has a better analogue in quantum mechanics, since the Proust seems to be saying that the very act of observing or remembering something changes that thing.
April 29, 2022
“It is the story of how a little boy becomes a writer. That is the first—and last—simple statement that can be made about it.”
June 10, 2018
https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/174761...
…Place, then, is one of the first instigators of expectation and, therefore, one of the cornerstones of disenchantment…
It is doubtful I there remains time enough for me to ever read Proust’s seven volume masterpiece. By reading instead this critical review, in some respects, I feel as if I am cheating or taking the easy way out with CliffNotes. But I wanted to get a feel for what is found inside the pages. Having read around half of the first volume years ago I did have some inkling, but wanted a more academic or literary assessment in regards to the entire affair. Obviously, my indulging in this critical study would prove more meaningful if I had previously having read the entire Proust text. Due to my failure to complete that task I am hesitant to comment too much on this one.
…Art, the embalmer of memory, is the only human vocation in which time regained by memory can be permanently fixed…In involuntary memory, disguise is done away with; then becomes now in reality, not symbolically…Involuntary memory, unlike unconscious memory, is miraculous…We truly remember only what we have forgotten. Memory is a human form of time. It is all we know of it, and when memory ceases, in the insane, in the dead, we may assume that time ceases for those particular organisms.
If what Moss wrote is accurate, it seems Mr. Proust was a bit obsessed with sex. And what is hidden within it. Homosexual, social, and political, Proust dealt with the issues of the day deemed most important to him. Using involuntary memory as his main building block Proust was able to structure an artifact that continues to live and breathe today.
The true power of involuntary memory lies not in what we remember but in the process of memory itself. It restores to us not only experiences of the past but the selves that experienced them.
…Place, then, is one of the first instigators of expectation and, therefore, one of the cornerstones of disenchantment…
It is doubtful I there remains time enough for me to ever read Proust’s seven volume masterpiece. By reading instead this critical review, in some respects, I feel as if I am cheating or taking the easy way out with CliffNotes. But I wanted to get a feel for what is found inside the pages. Having read around half of the first volume years ago I did have some inkling, but wanted a more academic or literary assessment in regards to the entire affair. Obviously, my indulging in this critical study would prove more meaningful if I had previously having read the entire Proust text. Due to my failure to complete that task I am hesitant to comment too much on this one.
…Art, the embalmer of memory, is the only human vocation in which time regained by memory can be permanently fixed…In involuntary memory, disguise is done away with; then becomes now in reality, not symbolically…Involuntary memory, unlike unconscious memory, is miraculous…We truly remember only what we have forgotten. Memory is a human form of time. It is all we know of it, and when memory ceases, in the insane, in the dead, we may assume that time ceases for those particular organisms.
If what Moss wrote is accurate, it seems Mr. Proust was a bit obsessed with sex. And what is hidden within it. Homosexual, social, and political, Proust dealt with the issues of the day deemed most important to him. Using involuntary memory as his main building block Proust was able to structure an artifact that continues to live and breathe today.
The true power of involuntary memory lies not in what we remember but in the process of memory itself. It restores to us not only experiences of the past but the selves that experienced them.
May 3, 2022
This is a magnificent, indispensable companion to In Search of Lost Time. Moss is both a disentangler of the brier patch that is ISOLT, as well as a totally original reader of the work.
Moss systematically takes us through major, uniting thematic elements of Proust (with chapter titles including "The Gardens," "The Parties," and "The Steeples"), writing with precision and making breathtaking connections across ISOLT's 1.2 million-word expanse. Not a word of Moss's is wasted.
Proust is all constructing meaning, breaking the shackles of time through transcendent art. That's what Moss does for us for ISOLT. Moss's literary criticism is a Bible study for the universe of Proust, assigning meaning and conjuring connections in wholly original ways.
From observing Swann and Charlus as dueling scions who cleave the work in half (Swann as the organizing force of the early volumes, and Charlus for the later volumes) to drawing connections between the three steeples at Martinville and an obscure, passing reference to three trees, Moss finds meaning in all corners of Proust. In doing so, he avails us of countless, untold layers of Proust's masterwork.
Moss systematically takes us through major, uniting thematic elements of Proust (with chapter titles including "The Gardens," "The Parties," and "The Steeples"), writing with precision and making breathtaking connections across ISOLT's 1.2 million-word expanse. Not a word of Moss's is wasted.
Proust is all constructing meaning, breaking the shackles of time through transcendent art. That's what Moss does for us for ISOLT. Moss's literary criticism is a Bible study for the universe of Proust, assigning meaning and conjuring connections in wholly original ways.
From observing Swann and Charlus as dueling scions who cleave the work in half (Swann as the organizing force of the early volumes, and Charlus for the later volumes) to drawing connections between the three steeples at Martinville and an obscure, passing reference to three trees, Moss finds meaning in all corners of Proust. In doing so, he avails us of countless, untold layers of Proust's masterwork.
January 8, 2020
A slim but wonderful discussion of some of the key themes in In Search of Lost Time. Not as comprehensive as Bowie or Shattuck but gets to the heart of the book in ways that they perhaps do not. Enlighntening and magnificent.
November 1, 2015
For admirers of In Search of Lost Time, this book is indispensable. Tightly and beautifully written, Moss illuminates Proust's vision and motivation. Loved it.
October 19, 2025
Kinda neeeeed to go forget some more stuff so I that I can truly remember it later...
May 10, 2024
Insightful and thought provoking, especially in terms of its exploration of certain crucial thematic elements in Proust's great roman fleuve such as the two "ways", the use of flower and garden imagery, scenes voyeuristically glimpsed by the narrator through windows, and the way in which involuntary memory plays such a pivotal role.
For is it not the case that in Proust involuntary memory undermines Time itself by bestowing upon past events the sense that they are occurring right now in the present?
For is it not the case that in Proust involuntary memory undermines Time itself by bestowing upon past events the sense that they are occurring right now in the present?
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews