A Reader's Guide to Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' (review)

Reading Proust is a challenging pleasure. The sheer length of À la recherche du temps perdu can provoke flight instincts in any prospective reader who happens to weigh the five Pléiade volumes in his or her hands. A guide, therefore, can be an invaluable resource. It has been quite a while since the publication of an academic introduction to Proust's novel, so this one is timely. David Ellison, an acclaimed specialist in the field (his Reading of Proust appeared in 1984), offers an introduction of a different kind, however. Addressing in clear and unpretentious language a readership of advanced undergraduates, graduates, and other 'intellectually curious readers' (p. ix), he opens quite traditionally with an introductory meditation on Proust's life and literary career. Yet, by contrast with recent critics such as Richard Bales, Roger Shattuck, or Ingrid Wassenaar, Ellison has opted for a chronological close reading of Proust's novel instead of the more commonly adopted thematic format. Rather than positioning himself with regard to the main critical debates, he has sought to avoid casting his 'own shadow over this universe' (p. x) and focuses on 'the immediate experience of reading Proust' (p. ix). The main body of Ellison's guide thus consists of a detailed, learned account of the plot, main characters, and themes, all richly illustrated by quotations from both the original text and the 2003 Penguin translation. Additional orientation is offered by a brief chronology of Proust's life and a select bibliography, although the latter, given the ever-increasing number of critical works on Proust, would have benefited from division into more specific subsections. Ellison's pursuit of the novel's sequential twists and turns is meticulous, and generally the guide is an informative and enjoyable read. Yet, its culmination in an interpretation of Le Temps retrouvé as the 'capstone' of Proust's literary quest (p. 162) suggests, perhaps unwittingly, that there is an architectural and poetical unity to the entire novel, which, since Gérard Genette, has often been contested. More significant than this philological side effect of the way that Ellison decided to structure his guide, however, is the question of didactic concerns. Think, for instance, of someone who already expends considerable effort in studying the original text: such a reader will have little use for Ellison's attempt to recreate the 'sentence-by-sentence experience' (p. 5); rather, he or she will turn to a thematically organized introduction that offers, first and foremost, an easily accessible orientation for negotiating Proust's oceanic text. Or imagine, perhaps, someone who has not yet embarked on the novel: he or she will be tempted to forego Ellison's often extensive summaries, well crafted though they may be, for the experience of reading the original. In summary, this is an extremely knowledgeable and well-written study of À la recherche du temps perdu; yet, on account of its conceptional layout, it does not quite work in the manner intended — an 'invitation to reading' Proust (p. x).