Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp (New York Review Books Classics)

I read this book when it first came out in French, and just re-read it in Karpeles's English translation. A Proust scholar will find perhaps little that they would consider new in terms of research, and the main interest of the book may be its context. While imprisoned in Gryazovets, a Russian camp near Vologda, located in a bombed-out monastery, Czapski participated in a series of sometimes authorized, sometimes clandestine lectures: inmates would discourse from memory on any topic dear to them, whether literature, sports, geography... Czapski gave a series of talks on the history of painting (and, as we learn from Karpeles's biography of Czapski, "Almost Nothing," even drafted an art historical volume, but the notes were lost, confiscated...). As he worked on his topic, another idea came to haunt him: to present to his fellow prisoners the work of Proust -- whom he saw as a sort of prisoner, locked in his "corked bedroom," in disregard of his health, entirely devoted to his work. Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" brought hope of a time regained into a place so remote and seemingly antithetical to the aristocratic world he describes. Speaking to Polish fellows in arms, Czapski nevertheless gave his lectures in French. His notes, some of which are reproduced and translated (with only a handful of very slight errors) in the plate section, are a visual map to his interpretation of Proust, drafted mainly in Polish, with a sprinkling of French, German, Latin, as required by the origin of the references. The French edition of these talks presents perhaps a more fragile text as it preserves some grammatical errors and omissions made in the surviving transcripts of these lectures. (The journey from the original conception to the published text is in itself fascinating: it's not clear whether Czapski had detailed notes or whether he spoke based on the mental map in the form of visual diagrams recorded in the notebooks; afterwards, he dictated the lectures in abridged form to two inmates who transcribed it on a typewriter -- as Karpeles points out, mystery envelops the circumstances of the creation of this typescript [a typewriter in a gulag?]. Eventually a second typescript was created. Both bear some handwritten corrections made by Czapski, perhaps others. Karpeles's version relies on a comparison between the two versions; whereas the French publication had access to only one typescript.) Perhaps because of publishing costs, the NYRB edition reproduces only a few select pages with the draft diagrams, accompanied by a translation on the facing page. The French version doesn't offer translations of its plates, but includes color photographs of the entire notebook, including the two tattered covers with the title "Tyetrad" [Exercise Book], printed in Cyrillics.Let not the Proust scholar be too disappointed or walk away too early, however. While Czapski may seem to add little to the "scholarship," doesn't encountering Proust in the gulag tell us something about Proust we may have previously overlooked? And plain and "unscholarly" as Czapski's interpretation may appear, it brings in his unique erudition by setting Proust side by side Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Zeromski, Conrad in ways that to a discerning eye might indeed suggest new avenues of exploration!

Makes Proust,s masterpiece even more enjoyable If youve read In search of lost time, read thisIt is great. Or read this first

Fascinating mini-lectures on Proust’smasterpiece given by a Polish officerimprisoned in a Soviet labor camp.The author is insightful, even profound at times when describinghis own reactions to Proust’s scenes,characters, events, and impressions.Who knew that there were a few hundred men who survived the mass slaughter carried out by the Russiansagainst 22,000 Polish officers early inthe war? I certainly did not, nor would I have imagined that prisonerscould gather for lecture series (though short-lived). The author wasan artist who lived well into his nineties in Paris and a book of his paintings is coming out this fall.The human story of endurancenever ceases to amaze me!Laura McVey

I didn't learn much of anything new about Proust. As far as the lectures go, they might have been written or assembled anywhere—Siberia or Sacramento. The Gulag situation is a hype, meant, I suppose, to keep the reader breathlessly asking himself, "How did he remember all that?" And more power to the author that he did, and that what he told his fellow sufferers helped them to survive.

The author of Lost Time was a Polish officer captured by Soviet Troops in the early stages of WW2. Josef Czapski was fortunate to survive WW2- many of his fellow Pole officers were executed by the Soviets, who were determined to eradicate authority figures in Poland.Czapski had lived in France in the 1920s, and knew the world Proust wrote about in his famous work, A la Recherche du temps perdu(In search of lost time). In order to keep mind and soul together during long years of captivity in Soviet Gulags, Czapski and other officers gave lectures in the evenings, keeping their focus on self-education and cultural enrichment amidst grim circumstances. Czapski's mind map, if that's what you call it, of the famous book, also survived imprisonment and is a fascinating source of study."Lost Time" is a short read-if you are a fan of Proust then you will appreciate the brevity, but also savour the detail that comes from a man who obviously adored the esteemed author, and channelled this in his own particular homage.

Brings further light into Proust's monumental contribution that observes with precise views on humanity.

Beautiful little book.

The book reveals much more about the lecturer than Proust. Perhaps my expectations were misplaced.

Jozef Czapski..a giant of a man..a painter and writer...the man who discovered the murders of Katyn....his command of Proust and his humanity is tremendous...

What a book, what a man, what an author ! Lectures on Proust in a Soviet concentration camp isn’t exactly what one expects, is it? Yet here they are, as beautiful, as profound as Proust himself, given on cold Russian evenings to Czapskis co-prisoners. Without a single page of Proust for reference, Czapski revived the novel purely from memory. This is what Czapski himself – a rare survivor of what is known as the Katyn massacre – later wrote in his diaries about the lectures:“The idea of rebuilding morale through evening lectures was first developed atStarobielsk: We tried to take up a kind of intellectual rigor that would help us to overcome our despondency and anguish, to attempt to keep our brains from rusting with inactivity. (…)I recall with gratitude that around forty of my companions gathered for my Frenchlectures. They came into that chamber at twilight, dressed in fufaika (quilted cottonjackets worn by Soviet prisoners) and wet shoes. I can still see them packed togetherunderneath portraits of Marx, Engels and Lenin, worn out after having worked outdoors in temperatures dropping as low as minus 45 degrees, listening intently to lectures on themes very far removed from the situation where we currently found ourselves. I thought then with emotion about Proust, in his overheated, cork-lined room. He would certainly have been surprised, and maybe even moved, to learn that some Polish prisoners, following a whole day spent in the snow and the freezing cold, would be listening with keen interest, twenty years after he died, to the story of the Duchesse de Guermantes, the death of Bergotte, and anything else I could bring myself to recall from this world of precious psychological revelation and literary beauty.”Million thanks to Czapski, million thanks to Eric Karpeles who translated his Proust lectures into English, million thanks to New York Review Books for having published this exceptional work.

Enjoyed this short introduction to Proust and his philosophy immensely. Highly recommend reading this and other works by the same author.

Je m'intéresse à l'oeuvre de M. Proust et j'ai été fascinée d'apprendre que l'auteur a donné ces conférences dans des conditions pour le moins difficiles et sans support.

great