I am really in love with the way Lydia Davis writes, and I am also full of admiration for this translation. Her translation approach brings the text alive, which for me, was absent in the other, previous translation (forgive me, I forget the name of the translator, but use to have a copy). Others I know, including some reputable readers and publishers, prefer that one better. They read this presumably in their youth. There is nostalgia in that. But I don't find room in Proust for my nostalgia. I agree, these books may be appreciated in a more profound way as you get older. There are so many reasons. As long as we have, though, academic programs that attack great literature like a box of chocolates that must be consumed quickly, this issue will remain.
I too have read the old translation that was the only translation for such a long time. I haven’t gotten around to Lydia Davis one but I admire her writing so much that I must read it. I’m not 95 yet but 85 ought to be sufficient. Thanks Tosh!
I read the previous translation of À la recherche back in the '90s. (I was curious, partially because Monty Python had used it or Proust as a punchline more than once.) I loved it. I hope that I find the time before I depart the etage to reread it in the Lydia Davis translation. Chilean director Raúl Ruiz did a great adaptation of Le Temps retrouvé in French in 1999.
I mean the nostalgia of the reader and the translation they have read . . . I don't think of Proust as nostalgia either. The nostalgia of the reader's version of Proust controlling their preferences of translation.
I am really in love with the way Lydia Davis writes, and I am also full of admiration for this translation. Her translation approach brings the text alive, which for me, was absent in the other, previous translation (forgive me, I forget the name of the translator, but use to have a copy). Others I know, including some reputable readers and publishers, prefer that one better. They read this presumably in their youth. There is nostalgia in that. But I don't find room in Proust for my nostalgia. I agree, these books may be appreciated in a more profound way as you get older. There are so many reasons. As long as we have, though, academic programs that attack great literature like a box of chocolates that must be consumed quickly, this issue will remain.
I too have read the old translation that was the only translation for such a long time. I haven’t gotten around to Lydia Davis one but I admire her writing so much that I must read it. I’m not 95 yet but 85 ought to be sufficient. Thanks Tosh!
I read the previous translation of À la recherche back in the '90s. (I was curious, partially because Monty Python had used it or Proust as a punchline more than once.) I loved it. I hope that I find the time before I depart the etage to reread it in the Lydia Davis translation. Chilean director Raúl Ruiz did a great adaptation of Le Temps retrouvé in French in 1999.
A permanently mysterious masterpiece. Elusive and elegant reverie.
I mean the nostalgia of the reader and the translation they have read . . . I don't think of Proust as nostalgia either. The nostalgia of the reader's version of Proust controlling their preferences of translation.