Time Regained

Remembrance of Things Past, Volume 7

De: Marcel Proust

Narrado por: Neville Jason

Remembrance of Things Past is one of the monuments of 20th-century literature. Neville Jason’s unabridged recording of the work runs to 150 hours. Time Regained is the final volume.

Lost in the blacked-out streets of Paris during the First World War, Marcel stumbles into a brothel and accidentally witnesses a shocking scene involving the Baron de Charlus. Later, at a reception given by the Prince de Guermates, his meditations on the passage of time lead to his determination to embark on his life's work at last.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2012 Naxos AudioBooks

Time Again

A wonderful reading of all seven volumes that will satisfy both Proust and the listeners as the listeners becomes “the readers of their own selves,”

It all ends too soon and is too short

The longest book I’ve ever read or listened to is as exquisite as ever- this was my 4th time through over 30 years and during the time of Covid was like a friend I was getting to know better- perhaps it was the heightened sensitivity of this moment but I found myself many times tearing up at the sheer beauty of the language- Neville Jason is magnificent-

Phenomenal

What can I say?

I dedicated myself a good while ago to completing all seven volumes of In Search of Lost Time. And here I’ve come, all the way through to the conclusion.

I do feel this is one of the finest accomplishments in my life’s literary endeavors. For indeed I strongly believe that this achievement by Proust is very close to the top in all literature, one of the very best and most notable novels ever written.

As I’ve said in reviews of the other six volumes, the use of language is likely the grandest such achievement anywhere and at any time. And the rest of its elements are extraordinary as well.

This seventh episode, while quite good, is not, I believe, the best. Yet, the final third of it reaches high peaks, especially in its consideration of aging and death and the evolution of time that brings us along through the years of life toward the end.

The closing out of Marcel’s story in the novel is very nicely woven and the portrayal of the next (and sometimes final) stages of the lives of many of the novel’s other major characters is fascinating and necessary to read for all who’ve come this distance with In Search…

So, though not showing the literary strength of several of the other volumes, this seventh is fine and, obviously, an absolute must to complete.

It’s hard to say good-bye to this phenomenal experience, so I’ll just say au revoir!

Full of emotional/intellectual/experiential joules

Wow, Proust kills it with this last book in his masterpiece In Search of Lost Time. He pulls it all together. I loved Proust's reflections on literary and artistic creation, reality, memory, pain, death and time -- and how in 'Time Regained' he draws all his themes together.

About 2/3 into 'Time Regained' the book started to swarm with emotional, intellectual, and experiential energy. You can feel Proust near a climax. IT is like the last movement of a great classical piece. The book feels like all his themes and fugues are twisting together, increasing in tempo, and taking a firmer shape: page by page, word after word.

I'm almost sad that it is over. There are few books I've ever wanted to start reading/listening to again immediately after finishing. Today as I was setting down 'Time Regained', I almost reached for 'Swann's Way'. I feel like there was so much I missed, whole sections that I just didn't get in the beginning. Gems that dropped between the pages of my cognition.

At the same time, I think that is the essence of Proust: the recognition that in the end, his novel is just us. My same need or desire to go back and read 'In Search of Lost Time' again is similar to my desire to go back into my own past and re-experience my youth with the knowledge I have now. It is a futile, but a very human desire. It is an impulse created by recognizing the expanse and limitations of time and memory. The genius of Proust is his ability to transport the reader to that point where we recognize the art within our own lives at the intersection of our memory and experience.

I'm glad I had the audiobook version to help me pace through this masterpiece.

Final volume of worlds greatest novel

This is The final volume of the best novel ever written, wonderfully well Read by Neville Jason. This is not the latest translation from the French, but I think it is still the best one.