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Title: Swann's Way

Author: Marcel Proust, Scott Moncrieff - translator

Narrator: George Guidall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-29-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 49 votes

Genres: Classics, European Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Swanns Way is the first and best-known part of Prousts monumental work, Remembrance of Things Past. Often compared to a symphony, this complex masterpiece is ideally suited for audio. Listening lets you appreciate anew the incredible beauty of Prousts language and the uniqueness of his style. The novels narrator, Marcel, finds the true meaning of experience in memories stimulated by some random object or event. He recalls his childhood, and eventually reconstructs the story of Monsieur Swann and his passion for Odette, a beautiful, but socially inferior woman. Marcels waking reverie gives rise to fascinating questions about the meaning of time. Swanns Way, with its long passages of intricate introspection, becomes much more accessible and enjoyable with George Guidalls lucid narration.Includes an exclusive interview with Mary Ann Caws, Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature at CUNY.

Editorial Reviews:

Recorded Books has selected a narrator who makes Proust light-going, if that's imaginable. George Guidall draws us into the banter and gossip of the provincial French bourgeoisie; he makes us feel as if we were at the table with Marcel's family or sharing the parlor with Monsieur Swann's coterie. More impressive still is the ease with which he handles even the most difficult exposition. Try, for instance, Guidall's rendition of "Combray," a complex meditation on Marcel's childhood at his family's country home. What might have been sleep-inducing becomes a haunting, even mesmerizing, experience - the mark of a virtuoso audiobook narrator.

Members Reviews:

Beautiful, BUT

This is the first book of an extraordinary seven part novel. I listened to the samples of all the versions available on audible, and as soon as I heard George Guidalls narration I was hooked. With a narration the least bit pedantic or dry or florid or scholarly this could be quite tiresome. Guidalls light touch and almost childlike tone was perfect for the story. This is less a story than ephemerally connected evocations, exploring the associations between memory and sense and time. The writing is introspective, complex and beautiful.

The only downside that, after completing this first part, I found this narrator had not read the other parts on Audible. The samples by Rowe and Jason did not entice me. I hope Guidall will narrate the other parts.

This version has the best narrator

I fully appreciated this version of the novel for two reasons: I had read the Graphic Novel of the book (comic book) by Stephane Heuet, and I absolutely always love a George Guidall narration. I haven't listened to the other versions of this volume by other narrators, there's no need to since nobody narrates better than Guidall.

For me, this is a rare fictional book in which I would have been served by reading the physical copy since I could have underlined all of the brilliant lines within the text which clearly transcended the story that is ostensibly being told.