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  • In Search of Lost Time, iii: The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust
  • Cynthia Gamble
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time, iii: The Guermantes Way. Translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff; edited and annotated by William C. Carter. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. xiii + 666 pp., ill.

The Guermantes Way incorporates in one volume a translation of Le Côté de Guermantes i (1920) and Le Côté de Guermantes ii (1921), comprising the longest unit of À la recherche du temps perdu. These two parts were first published in English translation by C. K. Scott Moncrieff as volumes v and vi of Remembrance of Things Past (London: Chatto & Windus, 1925). Translating these volumes presents huge challenges due to their often incoherent, contradictory structure and multiple typographical mistakes. Scott Moncrieff recognized these obstacles and altered the sequences in several places of the ‘extremely inaccurate’ text (Scott Moncrieff, in Remembrance of Things Past, v, ‘Contents’, n.p.). William C. Carter has restored these sequences to their position in the printed version of Proust’s novel. Scott Moncrieff’s Scottish voice of 1925, interpreting Proust’s of 1920 and 1921, has been given new life and transformed into a rich, musical trio through the addition of Carter’s American voice of 2018. More current vocabulary replaces ‘on the morrow’ by ‘tomorrow’, ‘betrothal’ by ‘engagement’, ‘jolly pleased’ by ‘extremely pleased’, ‘stays’ by ‘corset’. The word ‘gay’, frequently used by Scott Moncrieff, is substituted by a different adjective: ‘gay midnight-reveller’ by ‘merry midnight reveller’, ‘gay bachelor’ by ‘young bachelor’ and ‘gay life’ by ‘pleasure-seeking life’. Carter retains, where possible, French words now in common usage such as ‘sommelier’, ‘pâtisserie’, ‘coterie’; he gives ‘pouf ’ for ‘tuffet’, ‘petit bourgeois’ for ‘humble middle-class gentleman’, ‘“gratin” nephews’ for ‘“men about town” nephews’, and ‘pocket bonbonnière’ for ‘comfit-box’. Regional and foreign accents are tricky to convey, as in the following example regarding the Alsatian Prince von Faffenheim: ‘le fait qu’en s’inclinant, petit, rouge et ventru, devant Mme de Villeparisis, le Rhingrave lui dit: “Ponchour, matame la marquise” avec le même accent qu’un concierge alsacien’ (À la recherche du temps perdu, ed. by Jean-Yves Tadié, 4 vols (Paris: Gallimard, 1987–89), ii (1988), p. 560). Here is Scott Moncrieff’s rendering: ‘as he bowed, short, red, corpulent, over the hand of Mme. de Villeparisis, the Rheingraf said to her: “Aow to you too, Matame la Marquise”, in the accent of an Alsatian porter’ (Remembrance of Things Past, v, 361). And Carter’s: ‘as he bowed, short, red-faced, and potbellied, over the hand of Mme de Villeparisis, the Rheingraf said to her: “Ponchour, Matame la Marquise”, in the accent of an Alsatian concierge’ (p. 286). Unsurprisingly, Carter’s revision is dotted with American words such as ‘streetcars’, ‘beltway train’, and ‘elevator’. The British game of ‘patience’ becomes ‘solitaire’; Fahrenheit measurements are given instead of Celsius. Carter’s monumental task has been undertaken with meticulous care and attention to detail. Every word of Scott Moncrieff’s has been checked against Proust’s and rectified if necessary, or amended according to Carter’s taste; occasionally a phrase has been inserted that the Scottish translator has inadvertently but rarely omitted. Marginal notes providing useful clarifications of words and phrases, and cross-references to previous volumes, enhance the understanding and pleasure of reading Proust by specialists and the general public. [End Page 139]

Cynthia Gamble
University of Exeter
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