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Proust, Blanchot and a Woman in Red (Volume 5)
Following her acclaimed translation of Swann’s Way , Lydia Davis offers a partial alphabet of Proust translation problems – and their solutions. She muses on the near-impossibility of summarizing works by Maurice Blanchot, and ends with a group of short narratives that explore the space between dream and waking reality. This cahier is a wondrous adventure into the perils and delights of translating, of reading–and of dreaming.
48 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2012
234 people want to read
About the author
Lydia Davis
350 books1,456 followersLydia Davis, acclaimed fiction writer and translator, is famous in literary circles for her extremely brief and brilliantly inventive short stories. In fall 2003 she received one of 25 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” awards. In granting the award the MacArthur Foundation praised Davis’s work for showing “how language itself can entertain, how all that what one word says, and leaves unsaid, can hold a reader’s interest. . . . Davis grants readers a glimpse of life’s previously invisible details, revealing new sources of philosophical insights and beauty.” In 2013 She was the winner of the Man Booker International prize.
Davis’s recent collection, “Varieties of Disturbance” (May 2007), was featured on the front cover of the “Los Angeles Times Book Review” and garnered a starred review from “Publishers Weekly.” Her “Samuel Johnson Is Indignant” (2001) was praised by “Elle” magazine for its “Highly intelligent, wildly entertaining stories, bound by visionary, philosophical, comic prose—part Gertrude Stein, part Simone Weil, and pure Lydia Davis.”
Davis is also a celebrated translator of French literature into English. The French government named her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her fiction and her distinguished translations of works by Maurice Blanchot, Pierre Jean Jouve, Michel Butor and others.
Davis recently published a new translation (the first in more than 80 years) of Marcel Proust’s masterpiece, “Swann’s Way” (2003), the first volume of Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time.” A story of childhood and sexual jealousy set in fin de siecle France, “Swann’s Way” is widely regarded as one of the most important literary works of the 20th century.
The “Sunday Telegraph” (London) called the new translation “A triumph [that] will bring this inexhaustible artwork to new audiences throughout the English-speaking world.” Writing for the “Irish Times,” Frank Wynne said, “What soars in this new version is the simplicity of language and fidelity to the cambers of Proust’s prose… Davis’ translation is magnificent, precise.”
Davis’s previous works include “Almost No Memory” (stories, 1997), “The End of the Story” (novel, 1995), “Break It Down” (stories, 1986), “Story and Other Stories” (1983), and “The Thirteenth Woman” (stories, 1976).
Grace Paley wrote of “Almost No Memory” that Lydia Davis is the kind of writer who “makes you say, ‘Oh, at last!’—brains, language, energy, a playfulness with form, and what appears to be a generous nature.” The collection was chosen as one of the “25 Favorite Books of 1997” by the “Voice Literary Supplement” and one of the “100 Best Books of 1997” by the “Los Angeles Times.”
Davis first received serious critical attention for her collection of stories, “Break It Down,” which was selected as a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. The book’s positive critical reception helped Davis win a prestigious Whiting Writer’s Award in 1988.
She is the daughter of Robert Gorham Davis and Hope Hale Davis. From 1974 to 1978 Davis was married to Paul Auster, with whom she has a son, Daniel Auster. Davis is currently married to painter Alan Cote, with whom she has a son, Theo Cote. She is a professor of creative writing at University at Albany, SUNY.
Davis is considered hugely influential by a generation of writers including Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers, who once wrote that she "blows the roof off of so many of our assumptions about what constitutes short fiction."
Davis’s recent collection, “Varieties of Disturbance” (May 2007), was featured on the front cover of the “Los Angeles Times Book Review” and garnered a starred review from “Publishers Weekly.” Her “Samuel Johnson Is Indignant” (2001) was praised by “Elle” magazine for its “Highly intelligent, wildly entertaining stories, bound by visionary, philosophical, comic prose—part Gertrude Stein, part Simone Weil, and pure Lydia Davis.”
Davis is also a celebrated translator of French literature into English. The French government named her a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her fiction and her distinguished translations of works by Maurice Blanchot, Pierre Jean Jouve, Michel Butor and others.
Davis recently published a new translation (the first in more than 80 years) of Marcel Proust’s masterpiece, “Swann’s Way” (2003), the first volume of Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time.” A story of childhood and sexual jealousy set in fin de siecle France, “Swann’s Way” is widely regarded as one of the most important literary works of the 20th century.
The “Sunday Telegraph” (London) called the new translation “A triumph [that] will bring this inexhaustible artwork to new audiences throughout the English-speaking world.” Writing for the “Irish Times,” Frank Wynne said, “What soars in this new version is the simplicity of language and fidelity to the cambers of Proust’s prose… Davis’ translation is magnificent, precise.”
Davis’s previous works include “Almost No Memory” (stories, 1997), “The End of the Story” (novel, 1995), “Break It Down” (stories, 1986), “Story and Other Stories” (1983), and “The Thirteenth Woman” (stories, 1976).
Grace Paley wrote of “Almost No Memory” that Lydia Davis is the kind of writer who “makes you say, ‘Oh, at last!’—brains, language, energy, a playfulness with form, and what appears to be a generous nature.” The collection was chosen as one of the “25 Favorite Books of 1997” by the “Voice Literary Supplement” and one of the “100 Best Books of 1997” by the “Los Angeles Times.”
Davis first received serious critical attention for her collection of stories, “Break It Down,” which was selected as a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. The book’s positive critical reception helped Davis win a prestigious Whiting Writer’s Award in 1988.
She is the daughter of Robert Gorham Davis and Hope Hale Davis. From 1974 to 1978 Davis was married to Paul Auster, with whom she has a son, Daniel Auster. Davis is currently married to painter Alan Cote, with whom she has a son, Theo Cote. She is a professor of creative writing at University at Albany, SUNY.
Davis is considered hugely influential by a generation of writers including Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers, who once wrote that she "blows the roof off of so many of our assumptions about what constitutes short fiction."
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 22, 2012
A chapbook that is beautifully designed and elegant. Very much like the author Lydia Davis, who is known for her short stories but also for her English translations of rather difficult works in French. in other words, I adore her. The Cahiers Series is a collection of chapbooks all concerning the nature of translations or translating literature. A subject matter close to my heart, due that my press TamTam Books is pretty much focused on works from the French language translated into English.
As an editor and publisher I really appreciate Davis' take on the role of the translator, especially when it concerns the works of Marcel Proust, Maurice Blanchot, and my personal fave, Michel Leiris. Only 44 pages long, but as they say, size doesn't matter. Its the contents that is important, and Davis tearing apart the prose of Proust and comparing it with other translators of the same work (Swann) is a fascinating procedure in looking into language -especially from such a stylish writer like Proust.
The other two chapters focus on the work of Blanchot and Leiris. Fleeting thoughts on those two authors, but what is fleeting to the average, is somewhat an essential aspect of Davis' style and thinking. This whole series looks great, and going into the world of Lydia Davis is not a bad thing at all.
As an editor and publisher I really appreciate Davis' take on the role of the translator, especially when it concerns the works of Marcel Proust, Maurice Blanchot, and my personal fave, Michel Leiris. Only 44 pages long, but as they say, size doesn't matter. Its the contents that is important, and Davis tearing apart the prose of Proust and comparing it with other translators of the same work (Swann) is a fascinating procedure in looking into language -especially from such a stylish writer like Proust.
The other two chapters focus on the work of Blanchot and Leiris. Fleeting thoughts on those two authors, but what is fleeting to the average, is somewhat an essential aspect of Davis' style and thinking. This whole series looks great, and going into the world of Lydia Davis is not a bad thing at all.
May 5, 2008
We're lucky to have as fine a writer as Lydia Davis translating as well. If you've enjoyed her translation of Swann's Way then--despite it's being pretty pricey for a chapbook, albeit gorgeously produced, you will want to learn more about the kinds of micro-decision-making that went into it, exemplified here in "A Proust Alphabet." A brief text on Blanchot and a sequence of dream (or just dreamlike) narratives modeled on Leiris fill out the publication. It has whetted my appetite for her forthcoming Madame Bovary.
November 24, 2013
Lydia Davis is an extraordinary woman. She has an intense passion for her work and through this short, little book you are given such a beautiful view into the art of translation. For what else can translation be, other than art?
February 21, 2012
The essay on translating Proust is wonderful - a must-read for anyone interested in translation. The other two essays are peculiar and interesting but harder to get a handle on.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews