J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
An Extraordinary Set Of The First English Proust, Complete In Unrestored Dustwrappers and Slipcase
26. Remembrance Of Things Past PROUST, Marcel
Chatto & Windus / Knopf, 1922-1931. Seven works in eleven volumes, all first English language editions. Each volume in original blue cloth lettered in gilt, in original cream printed dustwrappers, apart from Cities of the Plain which is in its original slipcase, having not been issued in dustwrappers. Cities of the Plain is number 1943 of 2230 sets. Time Regained is one of 100 not for sale copies (from a total edition of 1350) and is inscribed at length by the books’ translator, Sidney Schiff, to the noted French literary critic Ramon Fernandez. A fine set in very good to near fine dustwrappers, spines slightly tanned with light wear or the occasional small chip to the spine ends or corners, but all entirely unrestored. A truly exceptional set and very rare in such a complete state. [42885] £50,000 A superb set of the English translation of Proust’s magnum opus, A La Recherche du Temps Perdu , widely regarded as the twentieth century’s most influential, even definitive, novel. The novel’s fame and influence in England is mainly due to the translation made by Charles Scott Moncrieff, the first volume being issued a few months before Proust’s death in 1922 and continu - ing until Moncrieff’s own death in 1930, by which time he was part way through translating the final volume, which was completed by Syndey Schiff under the pseudonym, Stephen Hudson. The work’s influence on modernism and the development of the novel is hard to overstate: many techniques which were to become a staple of the twentieth century, such as the extensive use of the interior monologue or the stream of consciousness style have their origins in this work. Between approximately 1,000 and 2,500 copies of each of the volumes of the translation were is- sued, making complete sets uncommon and almost inevitably found without dustwrappers. Sets in dustwrappers, particularly unrestored and so well preserved are very rare indeed.
40
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online