The Shorter Proust: An abridged edition of Remembrance Of Things Past

'A la Recherche du Temps Perdu' by Marcel Proust is a magnificent and towering achievement of French literature, published in English translation in twelve volumes between 1922 and 1931, and totalling nearly one and a half million words.It is difficult for many readers to find the time and motivation needed to keep going through to the end as Proust has a rich and sometimes discursive style.However, a powerful structure underlies the whole work which is not revealed till the last chapter.This selection, which is less than a quarter of the original, includes all the crucial characters, places and themes needed to understand this and omits everything else.It is not intended to improve the original novels by editing, as many wonderful passages and descriptions have been left out.The style of the book in its vocabulary and sentence structure is unaltered.Nothing is paraphrased or condensed. The text reads as a continuous lively narrative with much of Proust's wit and humour and follows the