JEAN SANTEUIL

by Marcel Proust ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 1956

As James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is to his masterpiece Ulysses, so is Jean Santeuil to Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. It is the ""first state"" of that great novel, and in germ it contains most, if not all, of the themes which will form the mature work. The history of this novel is in itself fasinating. After the last world war, the unsuspected manuscript was found in Proust's famous cork-lined room. All the great themes which were so deeply Proust's preoccupation- nature, love, jealousy, time, and above all memory- are in evidence. The novel is frankly autobiographical in detail, and even uses, in part, the first person. This is Proust's first attempt to tell the story of his own life and to mirror the life around him. Already he shows that combination of sheer realism and pure poetry which are the hallmark of his later work. The complexity of the later book, the long sentence, worked out with intricate perfection, the elaborate metaphors and philosophical passages are missing-as well as his explicit philosophy of time and space. But this is balanced by a freshness of observation and a certain youthful spontaneity. if Proust had written nothing else, this unpolished and unfinished work would rank him as a great writer... All devotees will of course welcome this book. But it is also possible that many readers who cannot labor through the subtleties and intricacies of the major work will find this a thoroughly readable novel of life in France at the start of the century.

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION