• The Guermantes Way

  • Remembrance of Things Past, Volume 3
  • By: Marcel Proust
  • Narrated by: Neville Jason
  • Length: 28 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (339 ratings)

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The Guermantes Way

By: Marcel Proust
Narrated by: Neville Jason
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Publisher's summary

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.

Public Domain (P)2012 Naxos AudioBooks

What listeners say about The Guermantes Way

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Makes a very big reading project a breeze!

Where does The Guermantes Way rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is the best of the series of seven books now known as Proust's "In Search of Lost Time." Unfortunately, only five of the seven volumes have beed recorded on NAXOS in an unabridged form. The series will be completed soon, I imagine, but the main frustration altogether resides in the sad fact that after all is completed, it will be of an outdated translation by Scott Moncrieff which, however excellent and widely celebrated, is inferior in some ways to the brand new translations published in England by PENGUIN BOOKS (General Editor Christopher Pendergast) and which, because of a US Random House copyright, are NOT FOR SALE [at least the last four volumes are not] in the United States. One has to explore various Internet bookstores to find them in this country. Furthermore, the audiobook is the UNCORRECTED C.K. Scott Moncrieff version which was famously brought up to date several years ago. Sigh! So, as good as this recording is, MR NEVILLE JASON is exhausting himself on outdated material -- 2,500,000 words of it before he is finished. One notes that the first audiobook in the series is called THE REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST for which the newer translation is given as IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME. Right away the reader sees the problem. However, this book -- THE GUERMANTES WAY -- is wonderful to listen to, and some generation (my grandmother's perhaps) was delighted with this translation which -- indeed -- was the only one in English and made the book famous in the English speaking world.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Guermantes Way?

The book is packed with memorable incidents. The "classy" party scenes, of course, are always to be looked forward to since Proust's commentary is hilariously satirical. Most people do not realize that Proust can be very, very funny -- and in a very cutting manner as well.

Have you listened to any of Neville Jason’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This man is SUPERB -- and he makes everything totally comprehensible. Long Proustian sentences I cannot figure out when reading them on paper come over with total clarity and sense.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes. I am 71 years old and am thrilled to be reading this masterpiece at long last. I am glad I skipped it in my 20s and 30s, however; it's far too cynical in its world views. Nothing is as it seems at first! I would have been disillusioned for my entire life! Proust turns the world upside down. And did I say there's an awful lot of sex in it? Nobody warned me about that.

Any additional comments?

I am delighted with the recording -- but sorry the newer translations will likely not be recorded in my lifetime. Proust is easier to listen to than to read, so the audiobook is a blessing. I did, by the way, order the new print translations from England and have had fun comparing them with this one.

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27 people found this helpful

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Carries Proust Readers Deeper into Memory/Society

In 'The Guermantes Way', Proust pushes several social forces together. He examines the cult of aristocracy, meditates on the role of the military in French society, examines French antisemitism through the Dreyfus affair, French art, and the banal conversations and selfish superficiality that permeate throughout the drawing rooms of the upperclass denizens of the Faubourg St. Germain.

Three times in the novel (the death of the Narrator's grandmother, the illness of of Amanien d"Osmond, and the announcement by Swann to Mme de Guermantes and the Duc that he is dying) Proust shows how the French aristocracy are concerned more with the shallow requirements of society (shoes, promptness, etc) than real human compassion for the dying.

This third volume of Proust's epic 'A la Recherche du Temps Perdu', carries the reader deeper into Proust's analysis of memory, society, language, and art.

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21 people found this helpful

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Neville Jason

Wish the later volumes were available with John Rowe as a reader, but Neville Jason is acceptable.

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Another fine entry in the project

If you're looking this far into the gigantic Proust novel, I'll assume you need no recommendations regarding the "story", such as it is, but I will say that Guermantes Way is likely one of the most entertaining and funny of all the volumes. Proust's dead-on critique of high society is full of cynical humour as he comes to realize that the princes and duchesses he's worshipped from afar are either vain, stupid or badly wasting any wit or talent they possess.

Neville Jason has undertaken the huge task of rendering Remembrance of Things Past into audio-book form in English. He gives a fine read, giving characters equivalent British accents (the Duc de Guermantes is given a London aristocrats' accent, Fran??oise an Irish servant's tones, etc.) and pronounces all surviving French words correctly. The short pdf reader's guide that comes with the audiobook was actually written by Jason as well, and he does a good job of introducing the general reader to Proust.

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Dazzling reading of a great book

Where does The Guermantes Way rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Among the very best

What other book might you compare The Guermantes Way to and why?

To be judged with the other sections of this book.

Have you listened to any of Neville Jason’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Only his volumes of Proust, all similar.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Happiness I am reading Proust in English.

Any additional comments?

You must begin with the first section of A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, Swann's Way, and decide to read all (6 or 7) sections, of which this is the third. You will not regret it. I have read French fluently for over 60 years, but failed to make headway with Proust. This translation and reading is a joy, and I am confidently on my way to listening to the whole book, which is unmistakably the great European novel of the 20th. century.

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Great reading of Vol 3 of "In Search of Lost Time"

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is volume 3 in a 7 volume series comprising the entire novel "In Search of Lost Time". This volume describes the narrator's young adulthood, his quest for sexual gratification, and his attempts to penetrate high society. His family rents an apartment in a building owned by the Guermantes (part of the highest strata of society), so he begins to stalk the Duchess, one of his childhood crushes from Combray, in the hope of impressing her. His efforts to be introduced to her come to naught until a chance friendship made in Balbec pays off. Many people don't realize how funny Proust is; some of his humor is tongue-in-cheek, so pay attention.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Guermantes Way?

Rather than a moment, it's a section of the volume that will break your heart. About 50 pages in print, it describes Marcel's Grandmother's stroke (when they are in the park), her illness (including the state of medicine 100 years ago), and death. It combines tragedy with comedy and pathos. Unbelievably well written.

What about Neville Jason’s performance did you like?

Neville Jason's reading is a pleasure to listen to. He's a great voice actor, which makes it easier to identify the characters. it was quite an undertaking to read at 1.25 million words for all 7 volumes. (If all 7 volumes are not available when you read this, please put in a request for the missing volumes to Audible.)

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The death of Marcel's Grandmother is the climax of the story of her stroke and illness. Marcel describes her body: "Life in withdrawing from her had taken with it the disillusionments of life. A smile seemed to be hovering on my grandmother’s lips. On that funeral couch, death, like a sculptor of the middle ages, had laid her in the form of a young maiden."

Any additional comments?

Today, Moncrieff's title "Remembrance of Things Past" has been updated to "In Search of Lost Time", a better translation of the original French. Moncrieff's translation of what is perhaps the greatest twentieth-century novel was a work of art in itself, but the translation included some errors and is out of date. I recommend obtaining William C. Carters translation of this volume in paperback from Yale to read or browse when it becomes available, but this is still a great recording.

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Superb performance by Neville Jason

What did you love best about The Guermantes Way?

Great audiobook. Proust can be hard to read particularly in Monctieff's translation. This is a beautiful performance.

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An excellent reading of the third volume

The wonderful reading of Neville Jason adds to the experience of reading one of the most important books of the twentieth century. And it ends like a season finale with questions to be answered in the next book.

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À Sweeping Saga of Belle Epoque France

Audible, thank you for making it possible for me to listen to this masterpiece. Now, after finishing The Guermantes Way, I appreciate Proust’s genius even more. Surrounded and immersed in the rarefied atmosphere of the highest circles of the wealthy aristocracy, both in Balbec and in Paris, Proust exposes the vanity egoism, selfishness, pettiness, cowardice, cruelty, ignorance, and, yes, the suffering, inherent in 99.5% of human beings. He develops one of the themes of In Search of Lost Time, that « chacun est bien seul», that each person is very much alone, by objectively exposing with his pen, like an electronic microscope that does not miss an atom, the characters of several key figures to be found in various socioeconomic classes of French society in the years leading to World War I. Everyone is in search of love. Everyone breaks someone’s heart, and, in turn, has his/her heart broken by someone. Almost everyone is using physical beauty and sexual attraction as a weapon. Almost everyone lies, negotiates, barters, bribes, blackmails in order to survive and not to be undone by the Ways of the World. What a saga Proust is weaving, in glorious metaphors and images, in minute recreations of hilarious, absurd, and, yes, even tedious conversations, like a Spy in the most prestigious Salons of Belle Epoque Paris;and, lastly, only as Proust can, in his long, philosophical ruminations on the foibles, triumphs, desires, illusions, and obsessions of the human heart.

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Great Book, Terrible Reading

I am a huge fan of Proust, and this volume is my very favorite. It is Proust at his best. However, the reading is totally horrible, and impossible to listen to without getting very irritated. The guy reading is terrible because he talks very slow, and, when it comes to reading Francoise's parts he switches to a horrible low-class accent, which is very, very, very irritating. I understand French, and I listen to the French version of this book, and I do not see that the reader there gives Francoise a low class accent. Nor does he give such low class accent to any of the servants. So this is a terrible, horrible, dis-service to Proust. I cannot wait to hear a better version of the book by John Rowe or some ones else. I listen to this on two-times speed, but I really cannot stand it even the fast I cannot stand it. This guy is horrible, terrible, stupid, boring--a complete, total, absolute idiot. I don't say this lightly. He is complete idiot. A total moron. Hs no idea what a great book he is reading. Please get some one else to read Proust. What a waste of a great book!!!

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