Remembrance of Things Past: Combray (Remembrance of Things Past (Graphic Novels)) - Hardcover

Heuet, Stephane; Proust, Marcel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1561632783 ISBN 13: 9781561632787

Publisher: Nbm Pub Co, 2003

Synopsis

At last brought to the U.S., the best-selling comics adaptation of the great classic of French literature that scandalized the French establishment as reported on the front page of the New York Times! Step back into a world of insightful reflection as Proust is brought back, through the legendary magic of the smell of a madeleine, to his youth in a small town of France.

About this title

Reviews

Adult/High School-In 1998, the first of Heuet's well-researched volumes adapting Proust's novel to graphic-novel format reached publication in France. Now, it is available to American readers, who will be delighted to find that the wait paid off. Johnson's English renderings of the Proustian prose to which Heuet remained faithful in both his dialogue balloons and narrative panels maintain the tone, pacing, and spirit of the original work. The color illustrations use clear line and are well informed by the research into the appearances of Proust's material world of turn-of-the-century France. In this volume, the narrator is a young boy living in the middle-class comfort of his ancient relatives' country home in Combray. The household is rife with secrets, imagined secrets, and self-dramatizing, while the neighborhood includes secrets in the way of M. Swann, the church, an uncle who entertains the wrong sort of female company, and other folks. Heuet's rendition will bring Proust new audiences as well as readers invited back by this visual taste of the fabled madeleine. This is no dumbing down of great literature, but rather a great riff and interpretive play on the original.

Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

When this, the first in a proposed 12-volume comic-strip version of Remembrance of Things Past, appeared in France in 1998, the first printing sold out despite scathing reviews. Illustrator Heuet, an advertising executive, calls the project an "effort to democratize Proust," and on that level it can hardly be faulted. Heavily reliant on massive direct extracts from the novel's text, the adaptation is dutiful enough to impart a working knowledge of Proust that obviates actually reading him. It is rather a Classics Illustrated treatment for culture snobs, and its literalness prevents it's being good literature. Furthermore, Heuet's standard Eurocomics draftsmanship, which renders characters with near-iconic simplicity (young Marcel resembles an enervated Tintin) ensures that it isn't good comics, either. A more imaginative visualization of its source, like that of filmmaker Raoul Ruiz in Time Regained, still might have displeased Proust purists, but it might have better exploited the strengths of the comics medium. Still, the audacity of Heuet's effort guarantees it a large audience of curiosity seekers, at least for the first installment. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Remembrance of Things Past

By Marcel Proust

Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing

Copyright © 2003 Marcel Proust
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781561632787

Acknowledgement

La Sociiti des Amis de Marcel Proust et des Amis de Combray - Institut Marcel Proust International, its President, Mr. Jean. Pierre Angremy, of the Acadimie frangaise, the President of the Bibltiothhque Nationale de France, and its Secretary General, my friend Anne Borrel, whose assistance and encouragement have been priceless, M. Jean-Pierre Samoyault, Conservateur giniral du Patrimoine, Administrateur giniral du Mobilier National et des manufactures des Gobelins, de Beauvais et de la Savonnerie, Mme. Michhle Pierron, librarian of the Musie de l'Armie,Mme. Marie-Claude de Maneville, of the Sociiti Nouvelle d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, Mme. Catherine Fajour, of Iditions Gallimard,Messrs. Girard Toupet and Guillaume Piens, of the Httel Scribe, first seat of the Jockey Club, Mme. Brigitte Guillamot, of the Sociiti Nanciienne Varin-Bernier, The mayor and residents of Illiers-Combray (Eure-et-Loir), and all the friends who helped me.

Chapter One

PART ONE COMBRAY For a long time, I would go to bed early. ... and when I would awaken in the middle of the night, since I was unaware of where I was, at first I did not even know who I was; ... but then the memory (not yet of the place where I was, but of some of those where I had lived and where I could have been) came to me like help from above to pull me away from the void ... ... My memory was set in motion ... ... I would spend the better part of the night remembering our past life at my great-aunt's in Combray, at Balbec, Paris. Dancihres, Venice, and elsewhere still ... At Combray everyday as the afternoon ended, long before the moment when I would have to go to bed and remain there, sleeplessly, far from my mother and grandmother, my bedroom would again become the painful, fixed point of my worries. In order to distract me on evenings when I seemed too unhappy someone had had the good idea to give me a magic lantern ...YOUR MOTHER TOLD METO SET UP THE MAGICLANTERN WHILE WAITINGFOR DINNER TIME.YOUR GREAT-AUNT'SCOMING UP.I'VE PREPARED THELEGEND OF GENEVIEVEDE BRABANTVERY WELL, FRANCOISETHIS EVENINGWE'RE HAVING BEEFCASSEROLE."... SO THE WICKED GOLO GAVE THEORDER TO HIS LACKEYS TO THROWTHE POOR GENEVIEVE INTHE DUNGEON ..." "... MOVED BY SUCH MISFORTUNE, THESWORDSMEN PRETENDED TO PUT HERTO DEATH AND LET HER FLEEINTO THE FOREST ...""... FOR MONTHS, POOR GENEVIEVEHID WITH HER CHILD IN THEDEPTHS OF THE FOREST ...""... FEARING THAT THE INFAMOUS GOLO WOULD FIND AND KILL HER ..."DINNER'SSERVED! After dinner, alas, I was soon obliged to leave Mama who would stay to chat with the others, in the garden if it were nice out, in the small parlor where everyone would retire if the weather were bad.AH, IT'SRAINING.FRANCOISE,SERVE THELIQUEURS INTHE PARLOR. Everyone, except my grandmother who, in all weather, even when the rain was pouring, would run up and down the soaked pathways.IT'S A SHAMETO STAY SHUTAWAY IN THECOUNTRY. YOUCAN FINALLYBREATHE! When these walks in the garden took place after dinner, only one thing had the power to draw her back inside: To tease her, since my grandfather was forbidden any liqueurs, my great-aunt would make him drink a few drops.GO AHEAD,AMADEE.BATHILDE! COME STOPYOUR HUSBAND FROMDRINKING ANY BRANDY! Alas! I was unaware that, far more than her husband's slight dietary slips, it was my own lack of will power, my delicate health, the uncertainty they cast on my future that sadly worried my grandmother during the course of those perambulations ... My sole consolation, when I would go upstairs to sleep, was that Mama would come up to kiss me once I was in my bed. But this goodnight lasted for so little time ... I got to where I hoped that it would came as late as possible, so the moment of respite when Mama had not yet come might be prolonged. But on the whole, those evenings when my Mama spent so little time in my room, were sweet indeed when compared to those when there were guests for dinner and when, because of that, she would not come up to say goodnight. Our company was usually limited to Monsieur Swann, who, besides a few passing strangers, was about the only person who ever came to our house, sometimes for a neighborly dinner (less often since his unfortunate marriage, for my parents did not wish to welcome his wife), sometimes after dinner, just dropping in ...A VISITOR?WHO COULDTHAT BE?DON'T WHISPER, NOTHING'S MOREUNPLEASANT FOR SOMEONE JUST ARRIVING.I RECOGNIZESWANN'S VOICE. Monsieur Swann, although much younger than he, was very attached to my grandfather, who had been one of the best friends of Swann's father ... For many years, however, especially before his marriage, the younger Swarm often came to see us at Combray, ... ... my great-aunt and my grandparents did not suspect that they were receiving one of the most elegant members of the Jockey Club, ... ... the particular friend of the Comte de Paris and the Prince of Wales, ... ... one of the most sought after men in the high society of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. If the conversation fell upon the princes of the House of France:... PEOPLETHATNEITHERYOU NOR IWILL EVERKNOW,AND WE'LL DOJUST FINEWITHOUT,WON'T WE? Thus, my great-aunt used to treat him in an off-hand manner ... handling this otherwise so refined being with a naove roughness of a child playing with a collector's antique with little more care than with a cheap toy. Our social personality is a creation of the thoughts of others. We fill out the physical appearance of the being we see with all the notions we have about him ... Middle-class people back then had a rather Hindu idea about society and considered it to be composed of closed castes where each individual, from his birth on, found himself placed into the rank his parents occupied, from which nothing could remove you ... ... and allow you to climb to a superior caste.MY GOODNESS! SWANNIS ONE OF THE MOSTFAITHFUL REGULARS ATTHE LUNCHES OF THEDUC DE ...AMEDEE!PLEASE!BUT AFTER ALL, SWANNCOULD ASK HIM FOR MEWHY HIS UNCLE, IN HISMEMOIRS ...AMEDEE, WHATPLEASURE DO YOU FINDSPEAKING OF SUCHFOOLISHNESS?FOOLISHNESS?PASQUIER? A PRESIDENTOF THE HOUSEOF PEERS!HOW UNBECOMING!A SWANN AT THELUNCHES OF ADUKE!POOR SWANN.DID YOU SEE THATHE'S ALSO "HONORED"IN LE FIGARO?ONE OF THEPAINTINGS FROMHIS COLLECTION ISIN THE COROTEXHIBITION!SINCE HE'S COMINGTO DINNER TOMORROW, WE'LL TALK TOHIM ABOUT ITI DON'T THINK YOU'DPLEASE HIM AT ALL; IKNOW THAT IT WOULD BEQUITE UNPLEASANT FORME TO SEE MY NAMEBOLDLY PRINTED LIKE THATIN A NEWSPAPER, AND IWOULDN'T AT ALL BE FLATTEREDIF SOMEONETALKED TO ME ABOUT IT.GOOD LORD, I'LL HAVE TOHAVE DINNER BEFORE EVERYONEELSE TOMORROW,AND MAMAWON'T COMEUP TO KISSME.IT'S FROM MR. SWANNFOR MONSIEUR AMEDEE'SSISTERS-IN-LAW.AND, THE EVENINGOF THE DINNER ...DO THINK TO THANK HIM INTELLIGIBLYFOR HIS WINE, YOU KNOW HOW DELICIOUS IT ISAND THE CASE IS ENORMOUS.DON'T START WHISPERING,HOW PLEASANT IT IS TOARRIVE IN A HOUSE WHEREEVERYONE'S SPEAKING INHUSHED TONES!COME ALONG ANDSIT WITH ALL OF US!... AND WHAT DOESAUDIFFRET-PASQUIERHAVE TO SAY, SINCEIT SEEMS THAT YOUDINE WITH HIM?I SAY. WHAT I AMGOING TO TELL YOUHAS MORE TO DOWITH WHAT YOU'REASKING ME THAN ITMAY APPEAR, I WAS ...I MET A RATHERKIND NEIGHBOR OFMONSIEUR VINTEUIL.MONSIEURVINTEUIL ISN'TTHE ONLY ONE TOHAVE KINDNEIGHBORS!... RIGHT, SO I WASRE-READING SAINT-SIMON'SMEMOIRSTHIS MORNING ...... IT'S SCARCELYMORE THAN AJOURNAL, BUTADMIRABLYWRITTEN AND ...THERE AREDAYS WHENREADINGJOURNALISMSEEMS RATHERPLEASANT TOME ...... WHEN THEYSPEAK OF THINGSAND PEOPLE WHOINTEREST US!! RIGHT ... SO, SAINT-SIMONSAYS ABOUT MAULEVRIER:"NEVER DID I SEE IN THATCRUDE BOTTLE ANYTHINGOTHER THAN ILL-HUMOR,COARSENESS, ANDFOOLISHNESS."CRUDE OR NOT, IKNOW OF SOMEBOTTLES WHERETHERE'S SOMETHINGELSE ALTOGETHER ...REMIND ME OF THE VERSE THAT YOUTAUGHT ME THAT ALWAYS COMFORTS ME INSUCH MOMENTS. AH, YES: "LORD, HOW MUCHVIRTUOUSNESS YOU MAKE US HATE!"THE LITTLE ONE LOOKS TIRED,HE SHOULD GO ON UP TO BED.BESIDES, WE'RE EATING LATERTHIS EVENING.YES, GOAHEAD, GETTO BED.DINNER ISSERVED!NO, NO, GO ON AND LETYOUR MOTHER BE, YOU'VEBOTH SAID GOODNIGHTENOUGH, THESE DISPLAYSARE RIDICULOUS. GETON UPSTAIRS!FRANCOISE, DIE YOU SET UP THESUMMER BED IN HIS ROOM?YES, MA'AM,THE LITTLEIRON BED. I wanted to try a condemned man's ruse ...FRANCOISE, COULD YOU TAKETHIS NOTE TO MAMA?WHILE, THOSE LADIES AND GENTLEMAN ARE AT THE TABLE?IT'S NOT MY FAULT! MAMAWANTED THIS ANSWER ANDSHE'S AWAITING IT IMPATIENTLY! Mama would surely comeWE'LL, I'LLGO SEE. alas ... and later ...MADAME YOURMOTHER SAYS TOTELL YOU THERE'SNO ANSWER.DO YOU WANT SOME TEA, ORFOR ME TO STAY WITH YOU?NO, THANK YOU,FRANCOISE, I'MGOING TO BED. and I closed my eyes, trying not to hear the voices of my parents who were having coffee in the garden. Suddenly ...NO! WHATEVER ITCOSTS ME, I WON'TFALL ASLEEP WITHOUTSEEING MAMA AGAIN! When my mother saw that I had stayed up to tell her goodnight again, they would enroll me to the school the next day Oh, well! ... I preferred that. What I wanted now was Mama and to tell her goodnight.AH, THERENOW, MONSIEURSWANN HASTAKEN HIS LEAVE.... YES, THE CRAYFISH WAS GOOD,BUT THE ICE CREAM WASRATHER ORDINARY.WELL NOW! MY DEAR SISTERS-IN-LAW,YOU SEE, YOU DIDN'TTHANK SWANN FOR THE ASTI ...WHAT, DIDN'T THANK HIM? IEVEN BELIEVE THAT I DID SORATHER DELICATELY.YES, YOU MANAGEDTHAT VERY WELL,AND I WAS RATHERPROUD OF MY BITABOUT THE KINDNEIGHBORS.I THINK SWANN'SCHANGING. HE'SLIKE AN OLDMAN!I THINK HE HAS A LOT OFWORRIES WITH THAT HUSSYOF A WIFE OF HIS WHO, AS ALLCOMBRAY KNOWS, IS LIVING WITH ACERTAIN MONSIEUR DE CHARLUS.WHAT, THAT'S WHAT YOU CALL THANKING! YOUCAN BE SURE THAT HE UNDERSTOOD NOTHING.I GIVE UP. I'M GOING TO BED.RUN ALONG, RUNALONG, SO ATLEAST YOURFATHER DOESN'TSEE YOU LIKETHIS, WAITING LIKEA CRAZY BOY!SO HE'S NOT ASLEEP THEN?THE CHILDLOOKSRATHERSAD!COME,COME SAYGOODNIGHT!SINCE THERE ARETWO BEDS IN HIS ROOM,THEN SPEND THE NIGHTWITH HIM. ANYHOW, GOODNIGHT. I'M NOT SO FRETFUL,SO I'M GOING TO BED. Mama stayed in my bedroom that night. I ought to have been happy, but I was not. It seemed to me that even if I had just won a victory it was against her, and that this evening was the beginning of an era and would remain a sad date. So it was for a long time, when, lying awake at night, recalling Combray, I never saw more than that kind of luminous image, cut out of indistinct shadows. As if Combray had consisted of no more than two floors linked by a slender stairway and as if it had never been but seven in the evening. I would never have had any desire to dream of other things and other hours at Combray. All that was, in reality, dead to me. Forever dead? Possibly. It is wasted effort to seek to evoke our past. All the efforts of our intelligence are useless.



Continues...

Excerpted from Remembrance of Things Pastby Marcel Proust Copyright © 2003 by Marcel Proust. Excerpted by permission.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Nbm Pub Co
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1561632783
• ISBN 13: 9781561632787
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 72