Remembrance of Things Past

Swann's Way

By: Marcel Proust, Scott Moncrieff - translator

Narrated by: John Rowe

Length: 19 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Exclusively from Audible

Swann's Way is Marcel Proust's literary masterpiece and the first part of the multivolume audiobook Remembrance of Things Past.

In the opening volume, the narrator travels back in time to recall his childhood and to introduce the listener to Charles Swann, a wealthy friend of the family and celebrity in the Parisian social scene. He again travels back, this time to the youth of Charles Swann in the French town of Combray, to tell the story of the love affair that took place before his own birth. The jealous love that Swann feels for the courtesan Odette, is a foretelling of the narrator's own future relationships.

Proust paints an unforgettable, scathing and at times comic portrait of French society at the close of the 19th century and reveals a profound vision of obsessive love. The remarkable details from his memory are the fundamental triumph of the audiobook; details like his younger self's desperate need for a goodnight kiss from his mother.

In 1922, Virginia Woolf marvelled, 'Oh if I could write like that!'

Many adaptations have been made of Swann's Way including the 1984 English language film, Swann in Love, starring Jeremy Irons, and a graphic novel by French comic artist Stéphane Heuet that was first published in 1998.

Narrator Biography

Whilst training at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama, John Rowe did his first radio plays for the BBC before spending several years acting in repertory theatre. He then joined the BBC's Radio Drama Company at Broadcasting House and after a three year stint on stage with the Prospect Company at The Old Vic he became a committed radio actor. He is well known for his role as Professor Jim Lloyd in The Archers. He has not only worked extensively in radio but also in television and film, as well as narrating many audiobooks, including Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust. His film appearances have included The Heart of Me (2002) and Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001). He has most recently appeared on onscreen in the Netflix series The Crown (2016) and the BBC TV series Broken (2017).

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

A pleasure to immerse yourself in

This may mark me as a true philistine, but I dearly love this audiobook because — and I am NOT being ironic — it has the most magical power to let me drift off to sleep. And after all, “Swann’s Way" is, at least in the beginning, a book about sleep. (The first publisher to whom it had been submitted turned it down, supposedly because, if memory serves, he didn’t want to publish "a book whose hero takes 30 pages to turn over in bed.") John Rowe’s wonderfully cultivated British voice is sonorous and calming, especially at .75 or .9 speed, and since Proust's narrator is basically spinning memories of his sheltered upper-middle-class childhood, there’s nothing in the subject matter to jar you — no action, no anguish, no suspense. And at bedtime, that’s all to the good. A number of audiobooks have the desirable ability to put me to sleep; but this one — along with Bernard Mayes’ rendition of Boswell’s "Life of Johnson” and Barnaby Edwards’ reading of "The Voyage of the Beagle — is the very best.

Philosophical masterwork from a bygone era

There isn’t much of a story here, but there are 22 hours of ‘remembrances’ from the point of view of the main character as a boy, and of his neighbor Mssr Swann. It is full of small observations that everyone can relate to, and childish desires and upper class issues that most people can not relate to as adults or as modern people without servants.

The reader is very good, and easily understandable at 1.25x speed. If you are thinking of giving up on this, try speeding it up and hang in a little longer.

First Love

Funny, elegant, rich with glittering internal landscapes, and a depth of vocabulary that will delight the logophile and startles with its precise and nuanced word choices. John Rowe reads oh so well, and brings this text alive in way that few can. The Moncrieff translation is superb. I'm a latecomer to Proust, but it is quite something to rediscover the mystery and whimsical side of life in this way in later years. It's a book that should be taken in slowly and with an alert mind so as to not miss any of a myriad of wildflowers along the journey. Don't expect action or cliffhangers--nothing much happens. Here you will find the subtlety of emotions, the world of unspoken thought and subconscious yearnings, all unfurling richly and quietly as a shadow play that frames the vulnerability, humility, melancholy, joy and humor of our 'humanness'.
Making my way now through volume three of the Remembrance of Things past series. Sorry to see that John Rowe's reading stopped after volume 2.

Elegant Mastery

Beautifully written, Eminently listenable, it is sheer craft both in style and idea...a great Audible experience

Oh to be read to

I’ve read Swann’s way twice before. But I never before encountered its humor; or how it actually feels to be jealous or desirous. The performance opened up a whole new Proust for me.

The reader is wonderful!

I would listen to any book that John Rowe reads. He s expression, diction, and feeling for the work are spot on!

This is only Part 1!

The wording on this is unclear. This is Part 1, which, when you download it, has Part 1 and Part 2. However, there is a Part 2, which also has Part 1 and Part 2 (and costs more money). I bought the first and was surprised when the book seemed to end in mid-sentence (as if you could tell with Proust). I see now there there is another version including the whole book for half the price. I don't know whether this one is better, but the narrator is good, so perhaps it is.

Wonderful narrator and story!

I have always heard how ‘difficult’ a read this book can be, but the narrator was spectacular. Once you get used to the way Proust writes, the book becomes more and more beautiful. —And now I’m at the end of Part I...bit of a cliffhanger!...and I’m so relieved to have Part 2 ahead, read again by narrator John Rowe.

Wretched excess

Parts of the story are extremely intriguing. However Troost beats to death first the tail of his obsession for his mother and then Swan’s tale of his obsession for a doubt. Also I read a very high level and some of the descriptions were incomprehensible.

Magnificent

John Rowe’s reading makes Proust’s magnificent language singular and classic. If you missed Proust in college now is your chance