The Maxims Of Marcel Proust
$60
In stock
Description
Scarce copy of a Columbia Professor’s excerpts from Marcel Proust ‘s In Search Of Lost Time, recast as maxims and categorized by topic.
O’Brien, Justin. Ed. The Maxims of Marcel Proust. Columbia University Press : New York. 1948. First edition.
An unusual repurposing of the words of Marcel Proust, this book by Columbia University Professor Justin O’Brien reframes excerpts from In Search of Lost Time as maxims on various topics. Arranged here by subject matter with the original French placed opposite O’Brien’s English translation, each maxim removes Proust’s words from their surrounding context, placing them apart for contemplation and consideration resulting in philosophical quotes like:
“We hear in retrospect what we have understood.”
“In punishable crimes self-interest often dictates confessions; in unpunishable crimes it is vanity that confesses.”
“Man is the creature who cannot get outside himself, who knows others only in himself, and when he says the contrary he lies.”
8vo, 227pp + 7 index, fleur-de-lis patterned paper boards with title and publisher gilt on cloth spine. Sunning to board edges. Corners bumped. Wear to spine edges. Top bookblock blue, bookblock darkened, minor spotting front edge. Ownership signature in pen front pastedown. Pages clean apart from dye leak from bookblock affecting some index margins and staining from newsprint bookmark pg 148 – 149. Good condition. Original dustjacket, wear to wrap spine edges with some losses and folding at joints, partial tear along top fourth of front joint. Wear with small tear to back wrap bottom edge. Interior flap top edges soiled. Good condition.
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