For those who've read "A la Recherché..." in French:
For how long were you learning French before you could read it, and is it written in an experimental or oblique way?
>>7478230
>how long
a long ass time.
>experimental
yes, but not in a way that makes it harder to read, imo. it still can be challenging though
Hey, actual French so I couldn't tell you how long I had to learn french sorry.
However, about the "experimental" aspects of A la recherche du temps perdu, it is what we call in lit studies a Méta Roman, which is a novel that gives the reader matter to think about the very process of writing.
It's accessible though and easily understandable, it just covers a wide range of philosophical and other wide and open-ended interrogations about life and what creation is all about.
Hope it helped, needless to say that I encourage you to read this book, one of the best of the 20th century in my opinion.
>>7478242
Would you say that Proust is one of those authors who loses more than most other French writers in translation?
>>7478242
I don't know why, but I've always thought that "A la Recherché" has the same sort of prestige as a French novel that "Ulysses" has as an English-language novel.
That got me thinking of the difficulties of trying to read a novel like "Ulysses" if English was a second or third language, just because it's so radical and irreverent with language and form.
What I'm wondering, is Proust similarly experimental with language or is it a complicated novel written in simple language?
>>7478260
lose the accent on the last e
Proust isn't experimenting with language as much as Joyce. I'm reading Swann's Way right now and it is accessible (tho I too am french).
>>7478249
I haven't read any Proust translation since I don't really need to. That being said, I think other authors have much more to lose in translation such as Baudelaire ou Apollinaire, or even Flaubert, those authors would lose a lot since the very shape of their sentences is the product of intense reflexion (For example, Flaubert had a "Gueuloir" a room where he could yell every sentences he wrote in order to check if they sounded good). Proust isn't exactly a "formal" novelist, and gives most of his creative intention in the reflexion itself, much like Zola or the Goncourt Brothers.
For that reason, I don't think you would loose much by reading the translation, even though it's always better to read what the author's mind first intended.
I've read Swann's Way in translation and there are sentences with 200+ words in them.
>>7478264
I see.
Last question: is Hugo difficult to read for a French speaker?
Thanks.
>>7478285
>I'll be brief here.
No but it's fucking boring
>>7478288
Par rapport à Proust ça se tient, mais il sera toujours moins sexy que Céline.
