In Search of Lost Time Volume IV Sodom and Gomorrah

Revised by D.J. Enright
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Paperback
$20.00 US
On sale Feb 16, 1999 | 784 Pages | 9780375753107

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"The thing about Proust is his combination of the utmost sensibility with the utmost tenacity. He searches out these butterfly shades to the last grain. . . . And he will I suppose both influence me and make me out of temper with every sentence of my own."
--Virginia Woolf

Sodom and Gomorrah opens a new phase of In Search of Lost Time. While waiting in the courtyard of the Duchesse de Guermantes to observe the pollination of her orchid, the narrator secretly observes a sexual encounter between two men, the Baron de Charlus and Jupien, that is played out "as though in obedience to the laws of an occult art." This begins a meditation on sexuality and desire, and is fueled, in turn, by the narrator's own erotic attachment to the beautiful Albertine. Samuel Beckett wrote of Proust's representation of sexuality: "Flower and plant have no conscious will. They are shameless, exposing their genitals. And so in a sense are Proust's men and women . . . shameless. There is no question of right and wrong."

The final volume of a new, definitive text of À la recherche du temps perdu was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989. For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin's acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff's translation to take into account the new French editions.

À la recherche du temps perdu is available from the Modern Library in six volumes in paperback.

SWANN'S WAY, Volume I;  $12.95; 640pp; 0-375-75154-8  

WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE, Volume II; $13.95; 768pp.; 375-75219-6

THE GUERMANTES WAY, Volume III; $14.95; 864pp.; 375-75233-1

SODOM AND GOMORRAH, Volume IV;         $13.95; 768pp.; 375-75310-9

THE CAPTIVE & THE FUGITIVE, Volume V; $14.95; 976pp.;375-75311-7

TIME REGAINED & THE GUIDE TO PROUST, Volume VI; $13.95; 768pp.; 375-75312-5
Marcel Proust was born in the Parisian suburb of Auteuil on July 10, 1871. He began work on In Search of Lost Time sometime around 1908, and the first volume, Swann’s Way, was published in 1913. In 1919 the second volume, Within a Budding Grove, won the Goncourt Prize, bringing Proust great and instantaneous fame. Two subsequent installments—The Guermantes Way (1920–21) and Sodom and Gomorrah (1921)—appeared in his lifetime. The remaining volumes were published following Proust’s death on November 18, 1922: The Captive in 1923, The Fugitive in 1925, and Time Regained in 1927. View titles by Marcel Proust

About

"The thing about Proust is his combination of the utmost sensibility with the utmost tenacity. He searches out these butterfly shades to the last grain. . . . And he will I suppose both influence me and make me out of temper with every sentence of my own."
--Virginia Woolf

Sodom and Gomorrah opens a new phase of In Search of Lost Time. While waiting in the courtyard of the Duchesse de Guermantes to observe the pollination of her orchid, the narrator secretly observes a sexual encounter between two men, the Baron de Charlus and Jupien, that is played out "as though in obedience to the laws of an occult art." This begins a meditation on sexuality and desire, and is fueled, in turn, by the narrator's own erotic attachment to the beautiful Albertine. Samuel Beckett wrote of Proust's representation of sexuality: "Flower and plant have no conscious will. They are shameless, exposing their genitals. And so in a sense are Proust's men and women . . . shameless. There is no question of right and wrong."

The final volume of a new, definitive text of À la recherche du temps perdu was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989. For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin's acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff's translation to take into account the new French editions.

À la recherche du temps perdu is available from the Modern Library in six volumes in paperback.

SWANN'S WAY, Volume I;  $12.95; 640pp; 0-375-75154-8  

WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE, Volume II; $13.95; 768pp.; 375-75219-6

THE GUERMANTES WAY, Volume III; $14.95; 864pp.; 375-75233-1

SODOM AND GOMORRAH, Volume IV;         $13.95; 768pp.; 375-75310-9

THE CAPTIVE & THE FUGITIVE, Volume V; $14.95; 976pp.;375-75311-7

TIME REGAINED & THE GUIDE TO PROUST, Volume VI; $13.95; 768pp.; 375-75312-5

Author

Marcel Proust was born in the Parisian suburb of Auteuil on July 10, 1871. He began work on In Search of Lost Time sometime around 1908, and the first volume, Swann’s Way, was published in 1913. In 1919 the second volume, Within a Budding Grove, won the Goncourt Prize, bringing Proust great and instantaneous fame. Two subsequent installments—The Guermantes Way (1920–21) and Sodom and Gomorrah (1921)—appeared in his lifetime. The remaining volumes were published following Proust’s death on November 18, 1922: The Captive in 1923, The Fugitive in 1925, and Time Regained in 1927. View titles by Marcel Proust

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