Proust Among the Stars - by Malcolm Bowie (Paperback)

About the Book

A matchless close reading of Remembrance of Things Past and a lesson in how to read the great books profitably and pleasurably. Bowie asserts that Proust's novel is one of the great exercises in speculative imagining in the world's literature and that its originality lies first in the quality of Proust's textual invention--line after line, page after page.

Book Synopsis

For many, Proust is the supreme European writer of the twentieth century. This book tackles his achievement head-on. Art, death, sex, politics, loss, guilt, morality--Proust's major themes are revealed and explained here.

Proust Among the Stars is a matchless close reading of Remembrance of Things Past and a lesson in how to read the great books profitably and pleasurably. Malcolm Bowie asserts that Proust's novel is one of the great exercises in speculative imagining in the world's literature; and that its originality lies first in the quality of Proust's textual invention, page after page, line after line. Proust's world constantly shimmers with a sense of multiple possibilities and is at the same time infused with the urge to order, obsessively to organize. Bowie examines how Proust achieves this in his writing, as opposed to his themes, plots, or theories.

An original, beautiful, and deeply moving book, Proust Among the Stars shows how Proust's work deepens our understanding of our lives and ourselves.

Review Quotes

A searching attempt to grasp the nature of Proust's vast project.... Brilliant analyses.-- "Times (London)"

Bowie can say more in three sentences than many a scholar in a belabored chapter... This is criticism motivated by intellectual joy, creatively sustained by felicities of expression.--Victor Brombert "Los Angeles Times"

Bowie is one of our best living critics.... [His] moving wit sends his reader straight back to the text itself. Which is what criticism should do.--A. S. Byatt "London Daily Telegraph"

Each [chapter] challenges traditional interpretations of Proust's handling of these themes, and deepens one's pleasure in and understanding of the novel.... Excellent.-- "Guardian"

Genteel and meditative.-- "Lingua Franca"

The best general study of Proust's 3,000-page work.-- "Times Literary Supplement"

About the Author

Malcolm Bowie is Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at Oxford University and a Fellow of All Souls College. His previous books include Freud, Proust, and Lacan and Lacan: A Modern Master. He reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, Guardian, London Review of Books, and the Times Higher Education Supplement.