Comments on: Ghosts of Oxford - The Bird and Baby http://thespiritworld.net/2006/09/26/birdandbaby/ Quenching your thirst with sips, nips and tipples. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:16:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Donavan Hall http://thespiritworld.net/2006/09/26/birdandbaby/#comment-447 Tue, 26 Sep 2006 18:39:22 +0000 http://thespiritworld.net/2006/09/26/birdandbaby/#comment-447 I enjoy the Moncrieff translation too. Since reading de Botton's introduction, I've read the first volume of Proust's novel and am somewhere in the middle of the second. I would suggest sipping on a nice Biere de Garde while reading Swann's Way. You could switch to a Saison when you get to Within a Budding Grove. Ah, I'm getting thirsty. I enjoy the Moncrieff translation too. Since reading de Botton’s introduction, I’ve read the first volume of Proust’s novel and am somewhere in the middle of the second. I would suggest sipping on a nice Biere de Garde while reading Swann’s Way. You could switch to a Saison when you get to Within a Budding Grove. Ah, I’m getting thirsty.

]]> by: joseph http://thespiritworld.net/2006/09/26/birdandbaby/#comment-446 Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:30:52 +0000 http://thespiritworld.net/2006/09/26/birdandbaby/#comment-446 Conversely, on a trip to France I made time for a side trip to Illiers (the "Combray" of Proust) and found it uniquely evocative in visualizing the great masterwork. I have to add that if you have any doubts about whether reading Proust is worthwhile, take not just one author's view on it, but the text itself---give it a hundred pages, then you can make up your mind.<br /> <br /> FWIW, I prefer the Moncrieff translation. "Things Past" already exists in our language as a recognizably classic phrase, as "Temps Perdu" now does in French. "Time regained" is downright clumsy next to "The Past Recaptured" as are so many of the ISOLT decisions. Conversely, on a trip to France I made time for a side trip to Illiers (the “Combray” of Proust) and found it uniquely evocative in visualizing the great masterwork. I have to add that if you have any doubts about whether reading Proust is worthwhile, take not just one author’s view on it, but the text itself—give it a hundred pages, then you can make up your mind.

FWIW, I prefer the Moncrieff translation. “Things Past” already exists in our language as a recognizably classic phrase, as “Temps Perdu” now does in French. “Time regained” is downright clumsy next to “The Past Recaptured” as are so many of the ISOLT decisions.

]]>