Mary Ann Caws

Book Details

1-58567-648-9 (pb)
1-58567-405-2 (hc)
(hc) 5 x 7 1/8 160 pp
2003-09-15 Fall 2003

Paperback: $12.95

Hardcover: $19.95 

Overlook Illustrated Lives 

Marcel Proust's combination of solitary genius and passionate observance of social custom has made him an object of fascination to generations of readers captured by his great masterpieces, In Search of Lost Time. Mary Ann Caws, the acclaimed author of Virginia Woolf, succintly and vividly captures the details of Proust's life, from his daily routines to the elite social circle that fascinated his youth.

Containing lavish illustrations and photos--including Proust's favorite paintings, portraits of people he was close to, sources for his fictional characterizations (of Sarah Bernhardt, Emile Zola, Alfred Dreyfuss, and others), scores of music he loved, manuscripts, sketches, and the places dear to him and central to the great novel that was his life's work--Marcel Proust offers readers the unique opportunity to partake in the author's vision and to see him as his contemporaries did.

"A wonderful, brief work, with copious illustrations, that reads like an extended public talk with slides, by a scholar who bridges the worlds of literature, art and biography."--Harold Augenbaum, The Proust Society of America

"Ms. Caws's evocation of the way we visualize Proust makes her biography stand apart."--Carl Rollyson, New York. 

Mary Ann Caws is Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature at the graduate school of the City University of New York. She is the author of many books, including Virginia Woolf, another title in the Overlook Illustrated Lives series. She lives in New York City. 

當初在國內的網路書店搜尋到這本書，立即訂購也就幸運地買到，美金19.95元，換算台幣698元的訂價(目前似已無法訂購)，相較於一般的書本有些昂貴，但64張黑白及41張彩色的圖片(雖然有些跟Proust不怎麼相關) 應該會讓你願意省下幾餐的飯錢換得，就像柳永寫的詞句，衣帶漸寬終不悔… 

這本書簡潔的內容比不上 Edmund White 所寫的 Proust 傳記，雖然有不少珍貴的照片，但也不及 Paul Nadar 的 The World of Proust，此外，就圖文的豐富性甚至跟 Jean-Yves Tadie 的普魯斯特－建構時光大教堂(時報出版翻譯)相差甚遠…但儘管如此，我還是願意用較高的評價來看待這本書，終究這是一本有關 Proust 輕薄易讀、印刷精美、圖文並茂的傳記。 

書本的背面引用了大家所熟知 VIRGINIA WOOLF 的一段話

“My great adventure is really Proust. Well ─ what remains to be written after that ? …I am in a state of amazement. One has to put down the book and gasp” 

類此跟 Proust 相關的迭聞軼事在這本書中俯拾皆是、掬手可得，但卻不具結構性、非組織化的四處散落，不論是否與目錄章節的標題相符，也不論其出現的位置、篇幅長短是否合宜…

我們可以看到 Loves and characters 以及 Multiple Loves and Worlds 一些人名稍縱即逝、浮光掠影一般地pass by，也可以看到 Nijinsky 被大篇幅地介紹，當然同時代的作家、畫家及畫作也都出其不意的魚貫而入，穿梭其中。 

amazon.com 提供了這本書的 Customer Reviews，其中一篇的內容及建議(詳粗體)，個人覺得相當中肯：

Caws really writes about Proust's world, rather than about Proust. Much essential biographical material is left out entirely, and many characters in his great novel are mentioned, references that will be unintelligible to anyone who hasn't already read Proust. Working in this manner, Caws is able to get in a surprising amount of detail in this relatively brief book.

……

In fact, the book functions very well as a photographic supplement to a biography of Proust. The content of the text seems to rely very heavily upon William C. Carter's massive English language biography on Proust, but contains a wealth of images not found in that book. The collection of Paul Nadar photographs, THE WORLD OF PROUST, surpasses this slender volume in its coverage of the personalities of the time, but does not contain images not taken by Nadar himself.

For anyone wanting to study Proust's life to any degree, I would strongly recommend reading one of the larger biographies, preferably Tadie or Carter, or the Edmund White short biography, and supplement that with this small volume and the Nadar volume for the illustrations. 

書中有篇名為”Appearances”的章節，提到跟 Proust 同時代的女作家 Collete，她對Proust有著以下深刻的描述

“His extreme politeness, the excessive attention he paid to his interlocutors, especially if they were women, an attentiveness which emphazised the difference between them and him. He looked singularly young, younger than any of the men or any of the women. Large, melancholy, blackish-brown eye sockets, a complexion sometimes rosy and sometimes pale, anxious eyes, the mouth, when it was silent, tight and puckered, as if for a kiss, formal clothes and one intransigent lock of hair.”  

當看完這117頁，同時把書闔上，映入眼簾的是封面 Proust 坐姿的側影，我們似乎依舊可以想望當時他出入沙龍，談笑風生、頻獻殷勤的迷人身影。