The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust (Cambridge Introductions to Literature)
Setting a course away from the reductive image of Proust as the reclusive hypochondriac hidden in his cork-lined room, Watt creates a successful guidebook for new and hesitant readers of the Recherche. In particular, Watt provides a preview of, and a map leading to, the many "pay-offs" one is likely to receive from their investment of time and effort in the three thousand pages of a novel whose first sentence--"Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure" [For a long time I would go to bed early]--is perhaps not the most promising in the history of literature....The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust is organized intuitively and with the intention of easing a first-time reader into the complexities of a decidedly difficult text....a pertinent and useful text."-Hervé G. Picherit, University of Wyoming, H-France Review Vol. 12 (March 2012), No. 36