Hurrah For Scott Moncrieff
Aug. 28th, 2025 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo No, I decided, it's not good enough to wait for a copy of A La Recherche du Temps Perdu to just turn up. Synchronicity is definitely a thing, but maybe this is an instance where I should try and meet the Universe halfway- so I looked online and found a three volume set in the right translation at a reduced asking price in an eBay sale with half an hour to run. I bought it and it should be here over the weekend.....
The right translation is the one by Scott Moncrieff. It may not be the most accurate but it has the merit of being contemporary- of coming out of the same time frame and culture. It's been said that Moncrieff's English is even more elegant than Proust's French.
Moncrieff took liberties. That's obvious from the titles he assigned to the books. Remembrance of Things Past is not a faithful translation of A la Recherche- but it has a more of a lilt to it than In Search of Lost Time- which is what most later translators have opted for. Within a Budding Grove is a genius rendition of A la Ombre de Jeune Filles en Fleur- which comes out awkward and more than a little creepy if rendered word for word. The Sweet Cheat Gone- a line lifted from de la Mare- is a long long way from Proust's Albertine Disparue- but is so very much more poetic......
The right translation is the one by Scott Moncrieff. It may not be the most accurate but it has the merit of being contemporary- of coming out of the same time frame and culture. It's been said that Moncrieff's English is even more elegant than Proust's French.
Moncrieff took liberties. That's obvious from the titles he assigned to the books. Remembrance of Things Past is not a faithful translation of A la Recherche- but it has a more of a lilt to it than In Search of Lost Time- which is what most later translators have opted for. Within a Budding Grove is a genius rendition of A la Ombre de Jeune Filles en Fleur- which comes out awkward and more than a little creepy if rendered word for word. The Sweet Cheat Gone- a line lifted from de la Mare- is a long long way from Proust's Albertine Disparue- but is so very much more poetic......
