Details:
- author: Marcel Proust
- full title: The Mysterious Correspondent
- narrator: Simon Vance
- genre: literary fiction, short stories
- topics: #love, #lgqt
- publisher: Tantor Audio
- publish date: 03.06.2021
- timing: 2:13:00
My Rating of the Audiobook:
- content: 💙💙💙💙💙
- narration: 💙💙💙💙💙
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| Goodreads |
Excerpt from the Book:
What do these stories contain? Why did Proust not speak of them to anyone? And given his apparent interest in keeping them to himself, why were they even written?
While all those enigmas cannot be resolved once and for all, one can learn something about them through their subject matter, since almost all these texts deal with homosexuality. Some, like texts already known, transpose the question Proust is concerned with into female homosexuality. Others have no transposition. No doubt their young author chose to keep these revealing stories, which were probably too scandalous at the time, secret. But he did feel the need to write them. They comprise, hiding in plain sight, the private diary the writer entrusted to no one.
(from the Introduction by Luc Fraisse, Professor at the University of Strasbourg)
My Thoughts:
I have wanted to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust since forever. These fragments gave me a glimpse of Proust's writing, and now I'm even more convinced that I have to read it.
Not all these texts are full-length short stories. They are mostly just shorter fragments that the author has taken out from his work. All these stories, with one exception, remained unpublished. The audiobook contains a lengthy introduction as well as comments to each short story or fragment. I returned to the comments at the beginning after each part to help me better understand the text.
The Mysterious Correspondent is an excellent audiobook. The narration is very good, clear. But only those who already read Marcel Proust and were amazed by his writing will find it interesting. It will probably help you understand the author a bit more. Also, scholars will appreciate this. So, I would recommend this only to those who know Marcel Proust and scholars. If you want to read fun (and complete) short stories, this may not be what you are looking for.
About the Author:
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier rendered as Remembrance of Things Past), published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.
