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REVIEW

MARCEL PROUST, In Search of Lost Time, III: The Guermantes Way. Translated by C. K. SCOTT
MONCRIEFF; edited and annotated by WILLIAM C. CARTER. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2018. xiii þ 666 pp., ill.
The Guermantes Way incorporates in one volume a translation of Le Côté de Guermantes I
(1920) and Le Côté de Guermantes II (1921), comprising the longest unit of A la recherche du
temps perdu. These two parts were first published in English translation by C. K. Scott
Moncrieff as volumes V and VI of Remembrance of Things Past (London: Chatto & Windus,
1925). Translating these volumes presents huge challenges due to their often incoherent,
contradictory structure and multiple typographical mistakes. Scott Moncrieff recognized
these obstacles and altered the sequences in several places of the ‘extremely inaccurate’
text (Scott Moncrieff, in Remembrance of Things Past, V, ‘Contents’, n.p.). William C. Carter
has restored these sequences to their position in the printed version of Proust’s novel.
Scott Moncrieff ’s Scottish voice of 1925, interpreting Proust’s of 1920 and 1921, has been
given new life and transformed into a rich, musical trio through the addition of Carter’s
American voice of 2018. More current vocabulary replaces ‘on the morrow’ by ‘tomor-
row’, ‘betrothal’ by ‘engagement’, ‘jolly pleased’ by ‘extremely pleased’, ‘stays’ by ‘corset’.
The word ‘gay’, frequently used by Scott Moncrieff, is substituted by a different adjective:
‘gay midnight-reveller’ by ‘merry midnight reveller’, ‘gay bachelor’ by ‘young bachelor’
and ‘gay life’ by ‘pleasure-seeking life’. Carter retains, where possible, French words now
in common usage such as ‘sommelier’, ‘pâtisserie’, ‘coterie’; he gives ‘pouf ’ for ‘tuffet’,
‘petit bourgeois’ for ‘humble middle-class gentleman’, ‘“gratin” nephews’ for ‘“men about
town” nephews’, and ‘pocket bonbonnière’ for ‘comfit-box’. Regional and foreign accents
are tricky to convey, as in the following example regarding the Alsatian Prince von
Faffenheim: ‘le fait qu’en s’inclinant, petit, rouge et ventru, devant Mme de Villeparisis, le
Rhingrave lui dit: “Ponchour, matame la marquise” avec le même accent qu’un concierge
alsacien’ ( A la recherche du temps perdu, ed. by Jean-Yves Tadié, 4 vols (Paris: Gallimard,
1987–89), II (1988), p. 560). Here is Scott Moncrieff ’s rendering: ‘as he bowed, short, red,
corpulent, over the hand of Mme. de Villeparisis, the Rheingraf said to her: “Aow to you
too, Matame la Marquise”, in the accent of an Alsatian porter’ (Remembrance of Things Past,
V, 361). And Carter’s: ‘as he bowed, short, red-faced, and potbellied, over the hand of
Mme de Villeparisis, the Rheingraf said to her: “Ponchour, Matame la Marquise”, in the
accent of an Alsatian concierge’ (p. 286). Unsurprisingly, Carter’s revision is dotted with
American words such as ‘streetcars’, ‘beltway train’, and ‘elevator’. The British game of
‘patience’ becomes ‘solitaire’; Fahrenheit measurements are given instead of Celsius.
Carter’s monumental task has been undertaken with meticulous care and attention to de-
tail. Every word of Scott Moncrieff ’s has been checked against Proust’s and rectified if
necessary, or amended according to Carter’s taste; occasionally a phrase has been inserted
that the Scottish translator has inadvertently but rarely omitted. Marginal notes providing
useful clarifications of words and phrases, and cross-references to previous volumes, en-
hance the understanding and pleasure of reading Proust by specialists and the general
public.

CYNTHIA GAMBLE
doi:10.1093/fs/knz182 UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

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