Marcel Proust and His Contexts: A Critical Bibliography of English-language Scholarship by Elisabeth Russell Taylor (review)

Book Reviews107 Svoboda's book is essentially a study of the manuscript versions ofthe novel that are housed in the Hemingway collection of the Kennedy Library and the University of Virginia Library. Hemingway scholars who have not yet seen the Kennedy collection will find a rich sampling of the manuscripts of The Sun Also Rises in the plates printed in Svoboda's book. Twenty-three plates reproduce pages of the holograph "Fiesta" manuscript and associated notes and false starts; thirteen plates picture typescript pages; and one plate shows the galley proofs of the beginning which Hemingway cut before publishing the novel. Other documents of interest to specialists are a transcription of the entire text of the nearly three galleys cut from the original setting of the novel and the text of the letter in which F. Scott Fitzgerald criticized the opening of the novel, a letter previously published in the Fitzgerald/Hemingway Annual and two other books. But Hemingway and "The Sun Also Rises" is more than a book for Hemingway specialists. Svoboda's introductory chapters will stand alone as a good introduction to the way Hemingway worked — his apprenticeship in journalism and its effect on his style, his use of the "iceberg principle," and his method of revision. It is in his discussion of Hemingway's revision that Svoboda does his best critical work. The heart of his book, pages 43-95, considers in detail four heavily revised scenes, from their first appearance in the handwritten notebooks of the "Fiesta" manuscript to final published form. Here the reader can follow Hemingway through his "most difficult job of revision" and see him laying the foundation of his reputation as an unparalleled craftsman in prose fiction. Hemingway and "The Sun Also Rises" is a far better book than the only other full-length work on that novel, Bertram Sarason's Hemingway and "The Sun" Set (1972), a study of the real-life prototypes of the characters in the novel. It stands with Michael S. Reynolds's Hemingway's First War: The Making of"A Farewell toArms" and Bernard Oldsey's Hemingway's Hidden Craft: The Writing of "A Farewell to Arms" as a major piece of new Hemingway scholarship which makes intelligent use of manuscripts not available to an earlier generation of scholars. ROBERT E. FLEMING University of New Mexico Elisabeth Russell Taylor. Marcel Proust and His Contexts: A Critical Bibliography of English-language Scholarship. New York: Garland, 1981. 235p. Another contribution to the ever-growing corpus of Proust scholarship. The scope of this survey is limited to articles and books written in English, or translated into English; the author lists her sources in the Preface. It can be used as a compendium to the monumental bibliography established by a team of scholars under the direction of Proust specialist Douglas W. Alden in A Critical Bibliography of French Literature, Richard A. Brooks, general editor, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1980, vol. VI, chapter III, pp. 198-350 (Nos. 1631-2955). Following the Preface and a brief Chronology, the main body of work is organized into sections as follows: - Proust's published works in French (items 1-25) - Proust's works in English translations (items 26-44) - Biographical studies: Books and articles, and correspondence (items 45-135) - General studies (items 136-697; this section includes a list of seven catalogues of museum exhibits) 108ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW - Studies on selected themes: (items 698-1369) 1. Society and historical background 1. Imagery 3.Places 4.Philosophy and Psychology 5.Literature 6.The Theater 7.The Visual Arts 8.Music (also includes six titles of records, items 1370-1375) - Bibliographical studies (items 1376-1393) The two main divisions, General studies and Studies on selected themes, show the author's eclecticism anda rather random approach; comments after each entry are optional, and vary greatly in length, substance, and interest. Obviously fascinated by Proust and his contexts, Taylor seems to have embarked on an extensive reading expedition; the result shows the péripéties of an itinerary not exactly prescribed by academic guidelines — rather an individualistic tour which led to a wealth of personal discoveries. The work concludes with a section entitled Useful Addresses, and both a Subject...