Description
| Product ID: | 9781509812356 |
| Product Form: | Hardback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | Gate of Lilacs |
| Subtitle: | A Verse Commentary on Proust |
| Authors: | Author: Clive James |
| Page Count: | 112 |
| Subjects: | Poetry by individual poets, Poetry by individual poets |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating Filled with Clive James's typical wit, warmth, erudition and enthusiasm, this is a brilliant and original tribute to one of his great literary loves, Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. <p><b>Blending the critical essay with poetry, <i>Gate of Lilacs</i> is a collection of verse written by Clive James in response to – and profoundly inspired by – the work of Marcel Proust.<br><br>'James picks out the characters, the motifs and the moments that set his memory ablaze, just as Marcel was able to conjure such visions from a tisane-infused madeleine' – <i>Literary Review</i></b><br><br>Over a period of fifteen years Clive James learned French by almost no other method than reading <i>À la recherche du temps perdu </i>– commonly translated as <i>In Search of Lost Time</i>, or <i>Remembrance of Things Past</i>. Then he spent half a century trying to get up to speed with Proust's great novel in two different languages. <i>Gate of Lilacs</i> is the unique product of James's love of and engagement with Proust's masterpiece. <br><br>With<i> À la recherche du temps perdu</i>, Proust, in James's words, 'followed his creative instinct all the way until his breath gave out', and now James has done the same. In <i>Gate of Lilacs</i>, James, a brilliant critical essayist and poet, has blended the two forms into one.<br><br><i>I had always thought the critical essay and the poem were closely related forms . . . If I wanted to talk about Proust's poetry beyond the basic level of talking about his language – if I wanted to talk about the poetry of his thought – then the best way to do it might be to write a poem.</i><br><br><b>In the end, if <i>À la recherche du temps perdu</i> is a book devoted almost entirely to its author's gratitude for life, for love, and for art, this much smaller book is devoted to its author's gratitude for Proust.<br><br>Clive James </b>(1939–2019) was a broadcaster, critic, poet, memoirist and novelist. His acclaimed poetry includes the collection <i>Sentenced to Life</i> and a translation of Dante's <i>The Divine Comedy</i>, both <i>Sunday Times</i> bestsellers. His passion for and knowledge of poetry are distilled in his book of criticism on the subject, <i>Poetry Notebook</i>, and, written in the last year of his life, his personal annotated anthology of favourite poems, <i>The Fire Of Joy</i>. <br><br><b>Praise for Clive James:<br><br>'He will be seen, I think, as one of the most important and influential writers of our time' – Bryan Appleyard, <i>Sunday Times</i><br><br>'Wise, witty, terrifying, unflinching and extraordinarily alive' – A.S. Byatt, critic and author of <i>Possession: A Romance</i><br><br>'Clive James is a true poet' – Peter Porter, <i>London Review of Books</i></b></p> |
| Imprint Name: | Picador |
| Publisher Name: | Pan Macmillan |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2016-04-21 |
