Book Review: ‘In Search of Lost Time: Mahler after Proust’ and James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ by Nicolas Mahler

Published : Mar 09, 2023 10:40 IST “Swann in Love”, the first section of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, not only sets out the varied themes of the magnum opus but can also serve as a stand-alone novel. In Search of Lost Time: Mahler after Proust Nicholas Mahler; translated by Alexander Booth Seagull Books Pages: 174 Price: Rs.699 In Nicolas Mahler’s graphic adaptation of Proust’s masterpiece, the narrator sits down before the piano and plays that sonata. “As I could only love what the sonata had brought to me little by little… … I never possessed it completely: in this it resembled life.” Yet, there is a difference: “But, then, such great masterpieces are less disappointing than life… … as they do not give us the best they have to offer right off the bat.” In a mere two pages, with whimsical images and scribbles, Mahler captures both the heart of Proust’s masterpiece and the core of readers’ continued devotion to it. Taking advantage of the format, Mahler also plays out variations well, such as six panels on one page to show Marcel’s love interest Albertine going through different stages of life “While the graphic iterations of these two masterpieces that top the 20th century charts have the same irreverent attitude, each is irreverent in its own way. Well, Proust’s masterpiece is a one-of-a-kind literary delight that also works equally well as an answer to that perennial question, “How to live”.