The Guermantes Way - Softcover

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). He was born in Auteuil, Paris at the home of his great-uncle, two months after the Treaty of Frankfurt formally ended the Franco-Prussian War. By the age of nine, Proust had his first serious asthma attack, and thereafter he was considered a sickly child. Despite his poor health, he served a year (1889–90) as an enlisted man in the French army, stationed at Coligny Barracks in Orléans, an experience that provided a lengthy episode in The Guermantes' Way, part three of his novel. He was a closeted homosexual, and was one of the first European novelists to feature homosexuality in his novels, openly and at length. He spent the last three years of his life mostly confined to his cork-lined bedroom, sleeping during the day and working at night to complete his novel. He died of pneumonia and a pulmonary abscess in 1922.

Naxos AudioBooks continue with their latest instalment from Marcel Proust's inimitable saga, Remembrance of Things Past in the form of The Guermantes Way. This is the third book of seven and is usually split into two, but here we have the whole 23 hours read with inimitable poise by the great Neville Jason. In The Guermantes Way we explore Marcel's acquaintance with Parisian high society in the form of the Guermantes family, fabulously rich and with property all over the country. Their estates at the fictional Combray are also a link with Marcel's past as he recalls those wonderful days of his childhood at that lovely seaside town. We also encounter the predatory Baron de Charlus, who pursues Marcel with his homosexual tendencies. It goes without saying that Jason is supreme in this Proust unabridged translation and The Guermantes Way is certainly essential listening. One looks forward to further instalments in this series with Sodom and Gomorrah up next. --Gerald Fenech - Malta News Online