The long-awaited fifth volume--representing the very summit of
Proust's art (Slate)--in the acclaimed Penguin translation of the
greatest literary work of the twentieth century (The New York Times)
A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, with flaps and deckle-edged paper
Carol Clark's acclaimed translation of The Prisoner introduces a new
generation of American readers to the literary riches of Marcel
Proust*.* The fifth volume in Penguin Classics' superb new edition of
In Search of Lost Time--the first completely new translation of
Proust's masterpiece since the 1920s--brings us a more comic and lucid
prose than readers of English have previously been able to enjoy.
The titular prisoner is Albertine, the tall, dark orphan with whom
Marcel had fallen in love at the end of Sodom and Gomorrah (volume 4).
Albertine has moved in with Marcel in his family's apartment in Paris,
where the pair have a seemingly limitless supply of money and are
chaperoned only by Marcel's judgmental family servant, Françoise.
Marcel, who worries obsessively about Albertine's relationships with
other women, grows more and more irrational in his attempts to control
her, keeping her prisoner in his apartment and buying her couture gowns,
furs, and jewelry in an attempt to protect her from herself and from the
outside world and. And yet in addition to being a tragedy of possessive
love, The Prisoner is also a comedy of human folly and
misunderstanding, linked to the other volumes of the larger novel
through its themes of class differences, art, irrationality, social
snobbery, and, of course, time and memory.
For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher
of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than
2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best
works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers
trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by
introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary
authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning
translators.
