Not to turn this conversation in the dreary direction of weighing the limitations of reading great works in translation, but to experience Proust in his native language must be a transporting experience. Think about what is lost, inevitably, in translations of Shakespeare. For us English-only folks, it's the same, in reverse, for Proust, Tolstoy, Balzac, Dante ... anyone we can't read in the original.

The creator and moderator of this blog fails to mention that she read "Combray" in French! One would certainly need to stumble around a good while to glean everything gleanable from that field. My reading of the novel, in translation, was not nearly so studious or precise; it took until about the end of the third volume before I started to "get" what Proust was trying to do. Before that, I just slogged along blind. For that reason alone, it'll be worth re-reading the whole all over again ... this time, not the warhorse mostly-Moncrieff translation but the new one with multiple translators. (FYI: Apparently, U.S. publication of the last three volumes will be held up for years due to copyright issues.)

On a related note, isn't it too bad that the novel's title is now widely rendered in English as "In Search of Lost Time"? OK, OK, so it is a more accurate translation of "La Recherche du Temps Perdu"; but it has none of the poetic redundancy of "Remembrance of Things Past."
--Gene-o
<mailto:eugene_downs@hotmail.com>

Yes, it frightens me to think how much is lost reading works in translation. The Russian language is a great vehicle created by hundreds of struggles and years. It pains me to think how much English translations drain it of meaning.
--MB

Have you noticed how trendy it has become to say that one has read "ISOLT"? "Newsweek" has a feature in each issue where they ask an author to name his or her favorite/most influential novels. Three of the last four weeks, the author has included "ISOLT"! It's becoming the ultimate highbrow cliche, the literary equivalent of corporate execs who compete in triathlons.
--Gene
<mailto:eugene_downs@hotmail.com>