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Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - Cities of the Plain; The Captive; The Sweet Cheat Gone; & The Past Recaptured
Volume II of
Cities of the Plain
The Captive
The Sweet Cheat Gone
The Past Recaptured
Cities of the Plain
The Captive
The Sweet Cheat Gone
The Past Recaptured
1124 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1932
About the author
Marcel Proust
2,327 books7,844 followersMarcel 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
September 19, 2020
I just completed "Cities of the Plain".
So four sections of the novel completed and three to go. I will definitely take a break before continuing and need to carefully consider whether I wish to finish the other parts.
"Cities" was tedious with so much of the narration concerned with whether or not some characters were homosexual.
Although there is some truly delicate and descriptive writing here, the flow of the story is deadly slow and without significant action.
The Marcel narrator is sickly and hyper-sensitive and not an engaging character.
The lives of the characters are filled with attending social engagements and dining. I probably have experienced all I need to of Proust's prose and subjects.
So four sections of the novel completed and three to go. I will definitely take a break before continuing and need to carefully consider whether I wish to finish the other parts.
"Cities" was tedious with so much of the narration concerned with whether or not some characters were homosexual.
Although there is some truly delicate and descriptive writing here, the flow of the story is deadly slow and without significant action.
The Marcel narrator is sickly and hyper-sensitive and not an engaging character.
The lives of the characters are filled with attending social engagements and dining. I probably have experienced all I need to of Proust's prose and subjects.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review