Marcel Proust
“Everything great in the world comes from neurotics,” said Marcel Proust, one of the most admired and important writers of the twentieth century.
Letters to His Neighbor
Nonfiction by Marcel Proust
Translated from the French by Lydia Davis
Marcel Proust’s genius for illuminating pain is on spectacular display in this recently discovered trove of his correspondence, Letters to His Neighbor. Already suffering from noise within his cork-lined walls, Proust’s poor soul was not ready for the fresh hell of his new upstairs neighbor, Dr. Williams, a dentist with a thriving practice directly above his head.
Chiefly to Mme Williams, these ever-polite letters (often accompanied by flowers, books, or compliments) are frequently hilarious—Proust couches his pained frustration in gracious eloquence.…
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—Jessica Leigh Hester, City LabProust elevated grumbling to an art.
—The Times Literary SupplementIf you have suffered from noisy neighbours, you will sympathize with Marcel Proust.
—AysmptoteThoughtfully curated in English by New Directions with a scholarly and rigorous afterword by translator Lydia Davis, the letters are inflected by fine observations and moments of deep empathy. They are suffused with the intimate textures of daily life—flowers and fragrance—and allow us an insight into the larger social context of the time, with reports of the wounded returning from war. Thematically, they are often concerned with art, poetry, and ruins. As a collection, they obliquely chart the passing of seasons as well as the publication history of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.
—The Village VoiceLetters to His Neighbor, brilliantly translated by Lydia Davis, is inadvertently hilarious in hyper-genteel poise; we see Proust at his most desperate, charming to the extreme, an effect no doubt amplified by Davis’s elegant prose.
—Kirkus ReviewsA trove of charming correspondence from literature’s most famous ‘noise phobic.’
—Evan Lavender-Smith, HTMLGiantProust whining rhapsodically about the sounds of frolicking children on the other side of his bedroom wall, as translated by Lydia Davis—what’s not to love here?
—Publishers WeeklyLydia Davis’s translation gives one a feeling similar to that of encountering an old master painting that has just been cleaned. Exhilarating.
—Claire Messud, NewsdayA sensitive and direct translation. Lydia Davis does us a great service in bringing back Proust.
