Proust Among the Stars: How to Read Him; Why Read Him?

The first book to address everyone who relishes reading Proust and wants to know more about how his writing works.

This is a matchless close reading of a literary masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time, and a lesson in how to read the Great Books profitably and pleasurably.

‘Read this excellent book’ Stuart Jeffries, Guardian

‘Very refreshing… a splendidly tough-minded and generous introduction’ Gabriel Josipovici, Independent

‘Brilliant’ Peter Conrad, Observer

‘A splendidly thought-filled book’ Eric Griffiths, Evening Standard

A book that recalls that Proust’s novel is one of the great exercises in speculative imagining in the world’s literature; and that its originality lies first in the quality of Proust’s textual invention, page after page, line after line. Art, death, sex, politics, loss, guilt, morality – all Proust’s major themes are here in all their glory, but revealed close up.

**

ReviewThe best general study of Proust's 3,000-page work. (Times Literary Supplement)

Genteel and meditative. (Lingua Franca)

Bowie can say more in three sentences than many a scholar in a belabored chapter... This is criticism motivated by intellectual joy, creatively sustained by felicities of expression. (Victor Brombert Los Angeles Times)

Bowie is one of our best living critics.... [His] moving wit sends his reader straight back to the text itself. Which is what criticism should do. (A. S. Byatt London Daily Telegraph)

Each [chapter] challenges traditional interpretations of Proust's handling of these themes, and deepens one's pleasure in and understanding of the novel.... Excellent. (Guardian)

A searching attempt to grasp the nature of Proust's vast project.... Brilliant analyses. (Times (London))

About the Author

Malcolm Bowie is Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at Oxford University and a Fellow of All Souls College. His previous books include Freud, Proust, and Lacan and Lacan: A Modern Master. He reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, Guardian, London Review of Books, and the Times Higher Education Supplement.