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The Guermantes Way

Remembrance of Things Past, Volume 3

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The Guermantes Way

By: Marcel Proust
Narrated by: Neville Jason
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About this listen

Remembrance of Things Past is one of the monuments of 20th-century literature. Neville Jason’s widely praised abridged version has rightly become an audiobook landmark and now, upon numerous requests, he is recording the whole work unabridged which, when complete, will run for some 140 hours.

The Guermantes Way is the third of seven volumes. The narrator penetrates the inner sanctum of Paris high society and falls in love with the fascinating Duchesse de Guermantes. Proust describes vividly the struggles for political, social, and sexual supremacy played out beneath a veneer of elegant manners. He also finds himself pursued by the predatory Baron de Charlus.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2012 Naxos AudioBooks Classics
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The simple deconstruction of this 3rd volume of Proust is that the elite upper class is very similar to the lowest and most insular examples of the superstitious peasant, insofar as they are set in their ways, of which there are scrupulous rituals for everything; are mistrustful of outsiders, superficial, and, as is outlined by the obsession with the polarising effect of the Dreyfuss case and the old French aristocracy’s embracing the lie in order to cozy up with the nationalist movement - unethical. In the midst of this surgical separation from the Name with the Reality, Proust reveals the phenomenon of the “Salon”, which at its epitome housed the paragon of taste and fashion, but above all, in the Geurmantes salon - wit! From out of the clash of characters such as the ominously anti-Semitic German Prince Fon; the sleazy diplomat Nompoire (who is just like a modern politician), and various other sub-characters who populate the Salon, the outstanding personalities are the Duke De Geurmantes, his brother the Barron De Charlus, and the great Lady of the age Orianne - the Duchess De Guermantes. She is without doubt the most fleshed out duchess in literature, and possibly one of the great women characters in literature. She is so complicated. For one thing she is strong, and unlike, for example, Anna Karenin, is self-determined. It would take a whole essay or a book to really discuss Orianne.
My personal favourite is the gay brother!! If anyone is a fan of the film Withnail and I, then the Barron De Charlus in Guernantes Way will be easily recognisable as Uncle Monty. The comedy is multiplied by the fact that the “and I” character (presumably Marcel but in similar fashion to the movie he is never named) is a young, handsome naïf who is the subject to the comic advances of a ludicrous seducer (whom, to be fair to the character of Charlus, tried to use every psychological trick in the book of seduction without actually coming-out, in a time where homosexuality was still known as “the love that dare not speak its name).
The absurdist comedy culminates in the shredding of the Barron’s silk hat, and the less-than-subtle band hidden in the next room that stricken up Beethoven on queue...baring in mind there were no record players or remote controls.
The performance by Neville Jason is so convincing that I feel he should get an award. His perfect intonation if what are frequently impossible sentences with multiple layers of reference, requiring up to a dozen voice modulations in order to catch the meaning as it is written, is the best I’ve ever read. Actually the more complicated the thought process embodied in a sentence the less room there is for interpretation, and so in 99% of Proust there is simply no scope for interpretation- it needs to be read just-so. This can not be done except through an utter devotion to the work and an implicit understanding of the characters. Jason has truly mastered it. For this Australian listener in 2019 (I have read Proust several times and never got as much as through listening to Jason) the existence of Neville Jason is just as critical as the existence of Moncrieff and Marcel Proust himself.

Uncle Monty on steroids

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the work is such a scale and by the end of volume three one has been sitting with it for such time, you don’t notice how it seeps into your being / I think the audio book is a great way to approach the novel and I’d recommend keeping the annotated text close to hand to reference / it’s a glorious world to step into, both foreign in terms of custom and class, and recognizable emotionally / it will make you uncomfortable, challenge you, and move you to laughter and tears

what Proust is bringing me

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Love Proust and listening to this narration while I follow with my physical book has made this read achievable and thoroughly enjoyable.

Brilliant narration

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