Marcel Proust

By: Edmund White

Narrated by: David Case

Considered one of the greatest—and most influential—writers of the twentieth century, Marcel Proust was also one of its most fascinating figures. A strange, reclusive genius who often lay in bed for days at a time obsessively rewriting his masterpiece, Remembrance of Things Past, Proust was at other times a tireless socialite, attending the grandest parties and dazzling guests with his vivacity and wit. But as a boy Proust was yearning and lonely, an ambitious grasper after honors, and a miserably closeted homosexual, an aspect of his life that this book explores frankly and perceptively.

“White has a novelist’s eye for the telling detail or the remarkable phrase.”—New York Times Book Review©1999 Edmund White; (P)2000 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"White has a novelist's eye for the telling detail or the remarkable phrase and, like Proust himself, concentrates upon the minutiae of the past so that it might live again. He has a wonderful sympathy with his subject, adduced in such reflections as ''Proust fancied that so long as he failed to begin his life's work, his life would go on.'' -- Peter Ackroyd, The New York Times Book Review

"White's deft prose is densely packed with information but never burdensome. He gives a good sense of why Proust's work is valuable, and why it remains eternally fresh." -- Washington Post

"A tale of twentieth-century literature 'par excellence' that White makes fun, accessible, and insightful."
-The Philadelphia Inquirer

"White's biography of Proust is a paragon of the genre; an engrossing and delightful piece of work."
-Norah Vincent, author of Self-Made Man

Good bio, so-and-so reading

Would you listen to Marcel Proust again? Why?

Absolutely.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Marcel Proust?

The bio is a wonderful mix of biographical details and well picked quotes from his works.

What didn’t you like about David Case’s performance?

I didn't like it. He has a pretentious tone, especially at the end of the sentence, which makes his reading slightly annoying and monotonous, thus diminishing the richness of the text.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. It deserves a slower read.

An excellent biography

What did you love best about Marcel Proust?

He was a reader since childhood. And he transformed his own life as the subject of his books, writing it as fiction and creating his proper style of writing.

What other book might you compare Marcel Proust to and why?

James Joyce's Ulysses because both Joyce and Proust books recreate a new form of making literature with te subject of their proper lives, but adding a sense of irony.

What about David Case’s performance did you like?

Excellent.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The narration of the author's childhood.

Read Proust himself instead.

Edmund White’s biography of Marcel Proust weaves biographical research about its subject with material from ? la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), Proust’s seven volume masterpiece, arguably the greatest literary achievement of all time. White covers Proust’s life as well as material from all seven of the titles that comprise ? la recherche, though Le temps retrouv? (Time Regained) gets rather short shrift.

For someone with absolutely no knowledge of Proust, this book would make a decent little introduction, though it is somewhat scattered, both in presentation and selection from the literary and biographical material. Even those who have only read Du c?t? de chez Swann (Swann’s Way) and have yet to read the remainder of the novels might find some interesting insights into the overall architecture of the entire work (though White tends to pick only the rather obvious).

Indeed, one would get a better introduction to Proust simply by reading his own writings (which are now available on Audible in the unabridged so-so C.K. Scott Moncrieff translation).

For veteran readers of Proust as well as for Proust scholars, this book is largely a waste of time, unless academic pressures require one to know what Edmund White happens to think of the author. Scholars certainly do not share some of his views, for instance that Proust’s women in ? la recherche are merely the men from his life in literary drag.

The narrator for this title, David Case, has a nice reading tone. He does, however, have the annoying habit of affecting quotations from Proust in an odd exaggerated voice that starts to seem demeaning. His pronunciation of French is also inadequate. For instance, he pronounces “fille” (daughter) like “fils” (son).

Overall, I found this book disappointing.