In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust is one of the most profoundly visual works in Western literature, a novel devoted to the description of people, their manners and their arts. This book celebrates the close relationship between the visual and literary arts in Prousts masterpiece. Eric Karpeles has identified and located all of the paintings to which Proust makes exact reference, and over 200 are reproduced here in full colour. With accompanying texts drawn from the Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright translation of In Search of Lost Time, this book is an essential addition to the libraries of Proustians worldwide and a handsome volume in its own right.
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Review
'Beautifully presented ... leads the reader farther into an imaginative labyrinth towards those ponderous depths where the painterly and poetic merge' -- Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times
'Gets to the novel's troubled heart... [but] you do not need to have read a page of Proust to appreciate this beautiful book... magnificent'
-- The Daily Telegraph
`A riveting browse and will equip you for dinner party one-upmanship'
-- RA Magazine
`Academics, art historians or philosophical bookworms, you would be hard pushed to find a more exciting tome ... an extraordinary read'
-- Artists & Illustrators Magazine
`An intelligent and passionate introduction from a painter who deeply understands Proust ... this book seduces us with its ... easy access to gems of Proust's wit' -- The Irish Times
`An invaluable tool for all those students of literature who are yet unfamiliar with the canon of Western painting' -- The Art Newspaper
`Delightful' -- Michael Glover, The Independent
`Even hardened Proustians may be surprised at the outcome, which reveals In Search of Lost Time to be the Gesamtkunstwerk it always was'
-- Charles Darwent, The Independent on Sunday
`Irresistible to the Proust enthusiast, and hardly less so to those interested in art and its crossover with literature, this book will tempt every reader'
-- House & Garden
`This has been at my bedside for weeks; it will thrill any Proust lover' -- Jackie Wullschlager, The Financial Times
'Gets to the novel's troubled heart... [but] you do not need to have read a page of Proust to appreciate this beautiful book... magnificent'
-- The Daily Telegraph
`A riveting browse and will equip you for dinner party one-upmanship'
-- RA Magazine
`Academics, art historians or philosophical bookworms, you would be hard pushed to find a more exciting tome ... an extraordinary read'
-- Artists & Illustrators Magazine
`An intelligent and passionate introduction from a painter who deeply understands Proust ... this book seduces us with its ... easy access to gems of Proust's wit' -- The Irish Times
`An invaluable tool for all those students of literature who are yet unfamiliar with the canon of Western painting' -- The Art Newspaper
`Delightful' -- Michael Glover, The Independent
`Even hardened Proustians may be surprised at the outcome, which reveals In Search of Lost Time to be the Gesamtkunstwerk it always was'
-- Charles Darwent, The Independent on Sunday
`Irresistible to the Proust enthusiast, and hardly less so to those interested in art and its crossover with literature, this book will tempt every reader'
-- House & Garden
`This has been at my bedside for weeks; it will thrill any Proust lover' -- Jackie Wullschlager, The Financial Times
Review
`An intelligent and passionate introduction from a painter who deeply understands Proust ... this book seduces us with its ... easy access to gems of Proust's wit'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Karpeles is well-qualified - as a practising artist and a devoted Proustian - to have undertaken the unprecedented task of assembling references to paintings and painters in Proust's great work. He had a good idea and saw it to publication. (There is, incidentally, a successful French version which is the one I have read, in order to examine Proust's actual texts rather than rely on translations.)
Karpeles sheds new light on Proust's extraordinary novel. His work substantiates his claim in the subtle Introduction that Proust regarded his references to paintings and painters as crucial to the book, not just because they stimulate the reader's visual imagination and evoke emotions and sensations, but also because the ideal - and therefore unreachable - worlds of art correspond to the unattainability of fulfilment in love. The novel of course refers to itself: it too presents an ideal or idealised world as the best paintings do. Proust also wants to show that painters operate unconsciously as well as deliberately: they create images for which words are inadequate. Proust's narrator often says he has no eye for art or for visual description when the opposite is of course the case.
No book is perfect - this one isn't.
(a)I share other reviewers' reservations about the size of certain reproductions (the publishers have not adopted a consistent practice in this regard) and the legibility of some captions. But the book is in other respects well-produced
(b)Karpeles sometimes chooses bizarre examples of the work of an artist mentioned by Proust (would he really have compared Albertine to Rembrandt's Bathsheba?) and does not follow up all the references to all of Proust's allusions either to images in art or to artists.... Read more ›
Karpeles sheds new light on Proust's extraordinary novel. His work substantiates his claim in the subtle Introduction that Proust regarded his references to paintings and painters as crucial to the book, not just because they stimulate the reader's visual imagination and evoke emotions and sensations, but also because the ideal - and therefore unreachable - worlds of art correspond to the unattainability of fulfilment in love. The novel of course refers to itself: it too presents an ideal or idealised world as the best paintings do. Proust also wants to show that painters operate unconsciously as well as deliberately: they create images for which words are inadequate. Proust's narrator often says he has no eye for art or for visual description when the opposite is of course the case.
No book is perfect - this one isn't.
(a)I share other reviewers' reservations about the size of certain reproductions (the publishers have not adopted a consistent practice in this regard) and the legibility of some captions. But the book is in other respects well-produced
(b)Karpeles sometimes chooses bizarre examples of the work of an artist mentioned by Proust (would he really have compared Albertine to Rembrandt's Bathsheba?) and does not follow up all the references to all of Proust's allusions either to images in art or to artists.... Read more ›
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Aesthetically pleasing, but too rich for anything other than small doses
24 July 2010
By Phil O'Sofa
Format:Hardcover
As a fan of both Proust and of painting I was looking forward to reading this. The format is simple enough: the author, or perhaps compiler would be a better word as this is rather an academic exercise, has taken every reference to a painting in Proust's 3,500-page novel, In Search of Lost Time, and provided us with an image of the artwork alongside the relevant paragraph from the book. Karpeles, an American artist, has obviously done a great deal of research: a labour of love, no doubt, and the result is very appealing, with over 200 paintings covered. But this is a book to be taken in small doses, such is the richness and the repetitive nature of the format.
What Karpeles has really achieved is to remind us what a brilliant writer Proust was and how many works of art he referred to in his great masterpiece. This is an admirable achievement, but it doesn't add up to much more than a pleasurable treat, something to dip into now and again.
My biggest complaint is with the pointlessly small type size of the captions that accompany each illustration: although the quality of the colour printing is excellent, anyone with less than perfect eyesight will find it a struggle to read, even though there is plenty of space on every page and the captions could easily have been made bigger.
Much as I enjoyed being reminded of Proust's incomparable writing, and also the reproductions of some beautiful paintings, I was glad that I'd borrowed the book from the library rather than forked out £25 for something I would be unlikely to spend much time reading.
What Karpeles has really achieved is to remind us what a brilliant writer Proust was and how many works of art he referred to in his great masterpiece. This is an admirable achievement, but it doesn't add up to much more than a pleasurable treat, something to dip into now and again.
My biggest complaint is with the pointlessly small type size of the captions that accompany each illustration: although the quality of the colour printing is excellent, anyone with less than perfect eyesight will find it a struggle to read, even though there is plenty of space on every page and the captions could easily have been made bigger.
Much as I enjoyed being reminded of Proust's incomparable writing, and also the reproductions of some beautiful paintings, I was glad that I'd borrowed the book from the library rather than forked out £25 for something I would be unlikely to spend much time reading.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Felipe
Format:Hardcover
A well-produced book, with good illustrations, essential for those of us who wish to visualise the paintings and painters' styles mentioned in Proust's work.
One glaring omission by the author that "...has identified and located all of the paintings to which Proust makes exact reference" is Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 'Ecce Ancilla Domini', named in the text as the inspiration for a budding actress's stage dress but not mentioned here - nor indeed is Rossetti. As Proust was an admirer also of Rossetti's poetry this seems a little unfortunate.
Perhaps it should have been noted in the introductory text that many of the modern photographs reproduced here show paintings after 20th century restorations and as a result may look somewhat different than they did to Proust. Vermeer's 'Diana and her Companions' for instance has now a rather significantly different appearance than it had a century ago. Further, Proust likely saw many paintings only in reproduction in his own time - black and white photographs or engravings for instance. So while a being an excellent visual guide to Proust's great work this volume does not necessarily represent what he actually saw, although this is of course a minor point.
One glaring omission by the author that "...has identified and located all of the paintings to which Proust makes exact reference" is Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 'Ecce Ancilla Domini', named in the text as the inspiration for a budding actress's stage dress but not mentioned here - nor indeed is Rossetti. As Proust was an admirer also of Rossetti's poetry this seems a little unfortunate.
Perhaps it should have been noted in the introductory text that many of the modern photographs reproduced here show paintings after 20th century restorations and as a result may look somewhat different than they did to Proust. Vermeer's 'Diana and her Companions' for instance has now a rather significantly different appearance than it had a century ago. Further, Proust likely saw many paintings only in reproduction in his own time - black and white photographs or engravings for instance. So while a being an excellent visual guide to Proust's great work this volume does not necessarily represent what he actually saw, although this is of course a minor point.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a delicious book and has already given me a lot of background understanding to reading Proust's "In search of lost time". I would recommend it as an introduction to reading his actual work.
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