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Living and Dying with Marcel Proust

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Living and Dying with Marcel Proust

By: Christopher Prendergast
Narrated by: John Lee
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About this listen

Living and Dying with Marcel Proust is the result of a lifetime's reading of, reflection on, and love for Proust's masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time.

One of the masterpieces of twentieth-century fiction, Proust's In Search of Lost Time describes a unique journey, combining elements drawn from the timeless narratives of great expectations and lost illusions. In this lively and entertaining book, Christopher Prendergast traces that journey as it unfolds on an arc defined by the polarities in his title: living and dying.

At once a careful contemplation Proust's masterwork and an exploration of the rich sensory and impressionistic tapestry of a lived world, Living and Dying with Marcel Proust addresses such disparate Proustian obsessions as insomnia, food, digestion, color, addiction, memory, breath and breathing, breasts, snobbism, music, and humor.

Entertaining and erudite, Prendergast's book will surely become the companion for all listeners either about to reembark on Proust's three-million-word journey or setting out for the first time.

©2022 Christopher Prendergast (P)2022 Tantor European Literary History & Criticism World Literature Witty
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This is a stunning display of images and concepts inspired by Proust. Not a single sentence is dull. Each one fizzes with ideas that were new and fresh. I will reread this as often as I reread Proust

A firework display of ideas and images

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As several other reviewers mentioned, the voice actor reads it as if it was Shakespeare or Jane Austin, which makes it harder to follow, and Prendergast is regularly dropping some French expressions, which I don't understand and I cannot look up, as I cannot spell it based on pronunciation.

The whole book feels like it could have been a lot shorter and sharper, but instead it is seeped in a sauce of unnecessary attempts at humor. It is a shame, cause there are some great observations in there, it is just so much work to find them.

Very good and kind of infuriating

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I enjoyed this imaginative interpretation of Proust written by the general editor of the most recent English translation. A profound and learned reflection but touching and humorous too.

Thoughtful account of Proust

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