Den genfundne tid 1

by Marcel Proust

A la recherche du temps perdu. 1, Du cote de chez Swann / Marcel Proust
Date de l'edition originale: 1919

Ce livre est la reproduction fidele d'une oeuvre publiee avant 1920 et fait partie d'une collection de livres reimprimes a la demande editee par Hachette Livre, dans le cadre d'un partenariat avec la Bibliotheque nationale de France, offrant l'opportunite d'acceder a des ouvrages anciens et souvent rares issus des fonds patrimoniaux de la BnF.
Les oeuvres faisant partie de cette collection ont ete numerisees par la BnF et sont presentes sur Gallica, sa bibliotheque numerique.

En entreprenant de redonner vie a ces ouvrages au travers d'une collection de livres reimprimes a la demande, nous leur donnons la possibilite de rencontrer un public elargi et participons a la transmission de connaissances et de savoirs parfois difficilement accessibles.
Nous avons cherche a concilier la reproduction fidele d'un livre ancien a partir de sa version numerisee avec le souci d'un confort de lecture optimal. Nous esperons que les ouvrages de cette nouvelle collection vous apporteront entiere satisfaction.

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Genres: Classics, French Literature, Fiction, 20th Century, LGBT, Classic Literature

261 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Marcel Proust was a French novelist, best known for his 3000 page masterpiece À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time), a pseudo-autobiographical novel told mostly in a stream-of-consciousness style.

Born in the first year of the Third Republic, the young Marcel, like his narrator, was a delicate child from a bourgeois family. He was active in Parisian high society during the 80s and 90s, welcomed in the most fashionable and exclusive salons of his day. However, his position there was also one of an outsider, due to his Jewishness and homosexuality. Towards the end of 1890s Proust began to withdraw more and more from society, and although he was never entirely reclusive, as is sometimes made out, he lapsed more completely into his lifelong tendency to sleep during the day and work at night. He was also plagued with severe asthma, which had troubled him intermittently since childhood, and a terror of his own death, especially in case it should come before his novel had been completed. The first volume, after some difficulty finding a publisher, came out in 1913, and Proust continued to work with an almost inhuman dedication on his masterpiece right up until his death in 1922, at the age of 51.

Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century, and À la recherche du temps perdu as one of the most dazzling and significant works of literature to be written in modern times.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg

This is a series of two volumes. Le Temps retrouvé is the seventh and final volume of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu, published posthumously in 1927.

TABLE DES MATIÈRES

CHAPITRE PREMIER
TANSONVILLE 7

CHAPITRE II
M. DE CHARLUS PENDANT LA GUERRE; SES OPINIONS,
SES PLAISIRS 41

CHAPITRE III
MATINÉE CHEZ LA PRINCESSE DE GUERMANTES 195

5* Du côté de chez Swann (À la recherche du temps perdu, #1)
5* Du côté de chez Swann (À la recherche du temps perdu, #2)
3* À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (A la recherche du temps perdu, #3)
3* À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (A la recherche du temps perdu, #4)
3* À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (A la recherche du temps perdu, #5)
4* Le Côté de Guermantes 1/3 (À la recherche du temps perdu, #6)
4* Le Côté de Guermantes 2/3 (À la recherche du temps perdu, #7)
4* Le Côté de Guermantes 3/3 (À la recherche du temps perdu, #8)
4* Sodome et Gomorrhe 1/2 (À la recherche du temps perdu, #9)
4* Sodome et Gomorrhe 2/2 (À la recherche du temps perdu, #10)
5* La Prisonnière (À la recherche du temps perdu, #11)
5* Albertine Disparue Vol 1 of 2 (À la recherche du temps perdu, #12)
5* Albertine Disparue Vol 2 of 2 (À la recherche du temps perdu, #13)
5* Le temps retrouvé: Tome 1/2 (À la recherche du temps perdu, #14)
5* Le temps retrouvé: Tome 2/2 (À la recherche du temps perdu, #15)
5* Un amour de Swann
5* Within a Budding Grove
5* Les Plaisirs et les Jours
4* L'affaire Lemoine
5* Pastiches et Mélanges

[Allan Schaufuss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hvis man i livet er drevet frem af dysten om til stadighed at vinde mere prestige, magt eller formue, hvornår og hvordan kan man så reelt vinde? Først med døden kan den endelige score gøres op, men døden kan næppe betragtes som en fejringsværdig sejr.

Hvis livets brændstof er relationernes opbygning og udbygning, risikerer målet at blive midlet, så relationerne reelt bliver det stof, der forbrændes på vejen mod flere og mere af relationerne. Så fordamper meningen med det hele.

Hvis oplevelser, refleksioner og meningsfuldhed betragtes som livets gyldne valuta, så risikerer livsudfoldelsen overvejende at folde sig indad, hvor prestige, magt, formue og relationer reelt bliver reduceret til næring til selvtilstrækkelig åndelig fordøjelse.

På den anden side, hvis det var nemt, ville det måske også hurtigt blive kedeligt.

“Selv når jeg gik til middagsselskaber, så jeg ikke de andre gæster, for når jeg troede at jeg betragtede dem, tog jeg i virkeligheden røntgenfotografier af dem” s. 12.37

[Nene La Beet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeg synes faktisk, det er lidt svært at forholde sig til alt det, Prousts hovedperson mener at vide om homoseksualitet. Og jeg er heller ikke altid helt sikker på, hvor Proust selv vil hen med det. I forlængelse af det er en af romanens hovedkarakterer, Monsieur de Charlus, på vej længere og længere ud i den totale dekadence (homoseksualitet kombineret med andre seksuelle excesser). Vi får det beskrevet i, hvad der ved romanens udgivelse må have været, usædvanlig grafisk stil.

Ellers er vi nået til begyndelsen af WWI, og det er interessant at læse disse næsten samtidige overvejelser om krigen set fra overklasse-Paris. Dengang var det jo stadig sædvane, at overklassens sønner drog i krig, så krigen mærkes tydeligt, også i "de bedre kredse" (i øvrigt et begreb, der er helt centralt, og som jeg altid tøver overfor – hvad mente Proust egentlig selv om dem?).

Dette er også bindet, hvor protagonisten forholder sig til sin egen evne som skribent. Han skriver et sted: "(...) min ærgrelse over ikke at være i besiddelse af nogen litterær begavelse, (...)".
Men hov, da vi næsten når slutningen af bind 12, erkender han, at det alligevel ikke passer. Jeg lo højt, da jeg læste den sætning.

Som i forrige bind gentager han også jævnligt, at han helt har glemt Albertine, fx ved at skrive, at "erindringen om den spadseretur var blevet mig helt ligegyldig".

Vi kommer også til en af de få gange, hvor Proust træder ud fra bag sin protagonist og skriver, at alt i På Sporet, hver eneste person og begivenhed, er fiktion, lige bortset fra tjenestepigen Françoises familie (s 231). Når for den da!

Det ser faktisk ud, som om jeg kan holde mit løfte til mig selv og have fuldført romanen inden nytår. Go me!

[K's Bognoter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Halleluja! Hvilken finale! Sidste del af Prousts monstrøse magnum opus binder det hele sammen og er i sig selv en så udsøgt fornøjelse, at jeg føler mig fristet til bare at starte forfra med en genlæsning af hele værket med det samme.
Læs min anmeldelse på K’s bognoter: https://bognoter.dk/2021/08/04/marcel...

[Kirstine · Rating 5 out of 5]

World War I finally takes the stage. Described mostly with Marcels experiences in Paris, there are also letters from Gilberte and Saint Loup that detail the destruction and disruptiveness of the war at the frontlines. To everyone the war takes precedence, and anything that happened before the war seemed to have happened a life time ago.

The volume mirrors that sentiment in a very concrete way: it jumps quite severely in time. It starts in Tansonville with Gilberte and Marcel around 1903 and ends a while after the war. Marcel has spent most of his time at an institution for his health, and when he returns more than 10 years later the world has changed. And so will Marcel.

While visiting Gilberte Marcel reads a bit in a book by the Goncourts brothers, and what he reads makes him seriously doubt his own skills as an author and observer. Where as the Goncourt brothers notice surface details, the stories people tell the, what they were wearing etc., Marcel laments that he was never any good at those things. He’d always been preoccupied with the things that move behind the surface of people, their motives, their feelings, their thoughts. He feels it’s insignificant, that it’s not the sort of thing you write a book about.

However, we’ve just spent almost four thousand pages reading that exact type of book. We’re nearing something here, an epiphany of his. It’ll take another 10+ years for him to reach it on his own, but we know that he does. That he’ll come to see the significance of observing what moves the human heart, the soul, the mind.

It’s the hero faltering before picking himself back up.

There’s a beautiful and terrible and poignant meeting with Charlus again. Charlus whose turned depraved and masochistic in an attempt to fulfill his own vision, his own desire. He is no longer the bombastic, eloquent, fascinating character we’ve come to know, he’s lost some of his uniqueness, he’s turn into a stereotype. He shows us the danger of letting the general eradicate the individual, and perhaps more important: the difference between being passionate and being artistic. The way in which you bring to life your vision is not unimportant.

This volume (the entirety of it, not just the first part) is full of decay, of changes, of alterations and revelations. You suddenly realize you've come a long way since Marcel was a small boy in Combray. And you've got so little way yet to go.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le Temps Retrouve by Marcel Proust



After the second reading of most of In Search of Lost Time, I still think that Marcel Proust is the best writer of all time. This opinion will explain the size of these notes, for the longest review I will ever write. Proust’s name has kept coming back to me: from “How Proust Can Change Your Life „to a mention in the lectures of Tal Ben-Shahar at Harvard, where the hypothesis appears that if Proust were positive, optimistic, instead of gloomy, he would have been even more productive, perhaps even more creative…it is mind boggling to think of that possibility.

A La Recherche du Temps Perdu is the ultimate novel, rien ne va plus. I do not know of any other work that can be considered better. Marcel Proust reveals the truth and infinite aspects on nearly any subject under the sun. the main theme I’d say is love, but we go through the names of villages and their origin as well. The readers are not just readers of the book, but they read within themselves. Time is the major issue in this last installment of A La Recherche. What it does to people how changed we all are. Marcel does not recognize people at a kind of a last supper. There is a feeling of deep sadness hanging over the last pages.

I read (fact is I listen to) lectures form Harvard on Positive Psychology. At one point they come to Proust and his well known melancholy and negative moods. With a more positive attitude, he might have been even more productive: positive, happy people work better, are healthier and live longer. Marcel Proust died quite young.

Death is discussed from a unique perspective. The author has no fear of death: he has seen his various selves die many times. We change so much that we become completely different persons and we do not regret those who have died within us. Very accurate and worth keeping in mind for old age.

In the last “episode “of A La Recherche du Temps Perdu Proust writes quite a few pages about the First World War. Interesting for me was the fact that he mentions Romania and some of the negotiations going on. In order to enter the war on the side of France Romania wanted to obtain the “Great Union”. Monsieur Norpois writes that if there is a delay, Romania may find its dream dead in the water. Proust recounts this with humor: this threat towards Romania was kind of old- if you do not join us, it would be too late…but this had been going on for three years- which seems incorrect, since Romania did enter the war, on the side of France and its allies, in 1916 and if we consider that the war had started in 1914 this means only two years delay.

Most of the characters have been affected by the war- le petit clan de Verdurin, changed location to Venice, in the first place and then to another mansion in Paris. Madame Verdurin needs a prescription from Cotard and is very critical of people who “drove a general through Paris”, but did not go to the front. That proves to be incorrect, some of those accused by Madame Verdurin had gone to the first line.

Morel deserted and Bloch had been very militaristic, until he was declared apt to go to war.

Gisele went to her chateau, only to find that the Germans or les “boches” as they were called by their enemies, were at the site. Life is complex and it turns out that the French troops, withdrawing, caused much more damage to the chateau than the Germans did.


We learn that Saint Loup is homosexual and loves Morel, the former lover of Monsieur de Charlus.
The latter is in disgrace and finds it difficult to be invited in society.
Madame Verdurin et Madame de Bontemps is the leaders of the new wave of people en vogue. Their salons are appreciated and the former “bores „are invited at the parties given by the Verdurins.

Brichot, the academician, is writing for a journal with great success- he is famous now, even if out of favor with Madame Verdurin, who mocks his articles and says they are like “written by a pig”

In the morning, while jogging I listen to Le Temps Retrouve. There is talk of the war, with Francoise empathising with soldiers, bombs trown from German planes.
Saint Loup dies, while trying to protect his men.

His uncle, Monsieur de Charlus is in bondage in a „maison de passe” where he is hit by a man called Maurice. The baron is into what we would call today BDSM, I think. Monsieur de Charlus is not to happy with the man found by Jupien, he wants somebody really bad and this Maurice is just faking it and lacks authenticity.
We meet Morel, who is afraid to make peace with the baron and we learn that the baron wanted to kill him. It turns out that we have all the twists and plots of a modern day soap opera and I should add that Gisele is married to Saint Loup, he is unfaithful in an unexpected way, having affairs with men.

In an interesting twist, we learn about La Riviere- the only real name in the book, which the author says that has no other „personages a cle”.
Le Baron de Charlus has a stroke and is temporarily blinded. In this state and because of it perhaps, le baron seems to have molested a child who was less than ten years old.

Une heure n’est pas qu’une heure, c’est un vase rempli de parfums, de sons, de projets et de climats. Ce que nous appelons la réalité est un certain rapport entre ces sensations et ces souvenirs…
Et tout d’un coup je me dis que la vraie Gilberte, la vraie Albertine, c’étaient peut-être celles qui s’étaient au premier instant livrées dans leur regard, l’une devant la haie d’épines roses, l’autre sur la plage… which reminds me of Blink, Malcolm Gladwell

Proust writes about the way we change, the characters in the last volume of A La Recherche change so much that the hero- author does not recognize them. Indeed, there is the theme of different people having the same name: all the cells in body tend to change, so much so that we can talk about of a completly different person. The author is at times puzzled and even upset by the way the other guests of Le Prince de Guermantes address him: „mon plus vieux amis or vous, un vieux parisien” . Marcel is the name given to the hero, even if Proust says it is a different person and if we consider only the sexual orientation, the main character has a lot from Proust, but he is not Proust 100%. The author –narrator invites Gilberte de Saint Loup to go out, if she doesn’t mind what one would say of her being accompanied by a young man. People laugh and Marcel corrects himself saying an old man. Some of the former enemies have transfoermed themselves into harmless old men.

The king of Romania is mentioned, with his support of France, in spite of his Germano philia and his German origins.

Wonderful passages are written on the work of art. Critics expected books to become short, quick because of the change in society, with the arrival of the „fast”cars. Proust points out a way in which the coming of age of the automobile did help: remote churches would become more visited, when better means of transportation to places where it had been difficult to get to in the past.

A book makes us see the world in a different way, it is like a glass through which we get a different view from the one we had had before we started the book.

[Henrik Jespersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is a unique look into the horrors of World War I seen through the all-seeing eye of the aristocratic narrator.

The letter from Gilberte about the front at Combray and the all-encompassing destruction is touching.

It is, as usual, an experience to hear about Monsieur de Charlus in Paris…
and thought to read a gay masochistic BDSM scene (who would have imagined that 😈)

As well as this:
And the darkness that is like a new element everything bathes in has the irresistibly tempting consequence for certain people that you can skip the first stage of desire and without further ado reach an area of ​​caress that you usually only get access to after a while... "

…..

Er et enestående blik ind i I verdenskrigs rædsler set med den aristokratiske fortællers altseende øje.

Brevet fra Gilberte om fronten ved Combray og de altomfattende ødelæggelser er rørende.

Det er som sædvanligt en oplevelse at høre om Monsieur de Charlus i Paris…
og tænkt at læse en homoseksuel masochistisk BDSM scene (hvem havde forestillet sig det 😈)

Samt det her:
Og det mørke der er som et nyt element alting bader i, har den for visse mennesker uimodståeligt fristende følgevirkning at man kan springe lystens første stadium over og uden videre nå frem til et område af kærtegn man sædvanligvis først får adgang til efter et stykke tid…”

[Teaandbooksplease · Rating 5 out of 5]

The aptly stunning final volume in a truly great work of literature. If I never used my French again, it would have been worth learning the whole language just to read Proust.

At the beginning of the book, war dominates the narrative and the author delivers some amazing reflections on the stereotype of virility (as held by gay men and society in general) in which real (military) men express no emotion at the death of a friend, but rather discuss strategy more loudly and with infinite precision. He paints the attitudes toward war, from the heroism of Robert de Saint-Loup, to the cowardice of Morel, to the ambiguity of M de Charlus, and sneaks us into a whorehouse during an air raid where men fear discovery more than death.

Finally, the narrator's maturity comes to fruition as discovers that true art lies where the present meets the past, where the specific meets the general and creates something out of time all together, something universal.

[Kahina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but way too long

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

The aptly stunning final volume in a truly great work of literature. If I never used my French again, it would have been worth learning the whole language just to read Proust.

At the beginning of the book, war dominates the narrative and the author delivers some amazing reflections on the stereotype of virility (as held by gay men and society in general) in which real (military) men express no emotion at the death of a friend, but rather discuss strategy more loudly and with infinite precision. He paints the attitudes toward war, from the heroism of Robert de Saint-Loup, to the cowardice of Morel, to the ambiguity of M de Charlus, and sneaks us into a whorehouse during an air raid where men fear discovery more than death.

Finally, the narrator's maturity comes to fruition as discovers that true art lies where the present meets the past, where the specific meets the general and creates something out of time all together, something universal.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free download in French available at La Bibliothèque électronique du Québec - 1ere partie.

Cette édition numérisée reprend le texte de l’édition Gallimard, Paris, 1946-47, en 15 volumes :
5* 1. Du côté de chez Swann. Première partie.
5* 2. Du côté de chez Swann. Deuxième partie.
3* 3. À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. Première partie.
3* 4. À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. Deuxième partie.
3* 5. À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. Troisième partie.
4* 6. Le côté de Guermantes. Première partie.
4* 7. Le côté de Guermantes. Deuxième partie.
4* 8. Le côté de Guermantes. Troisième partie.
4* 9. Sodome et Gomorrhe. Première partie.
4* 10. Sodome et Gomorrhe. Deuxième partie.
3* 11. La Prisonnière. Première partie.
3* 12. La Prisonnière. Deuxième partie.
4* 13. Albertine disparue.
4* 14. Le temps retrouvé. Première partie.
TR 15. Le temps retrouvé. Deuxième partie.

[Michel Van Goethem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le Temps retrouvé, 1
by Marcel Proust