---
product_id: 99675661
title: "Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp (New York Review Books Classics)"
brand: "nyrb classics"
price: "€ 12.21"
currency: EUR
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 13
category: "Digital Ebook Purchas"
url: https://www.desertcart.ie/products/99675661-lost-time-lectures-on-proust-in-a-soviet-prison-camp
store_origin: IE
region: Ireland
---

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

**Brand:** nyrb classics
**Price:** € 12.21
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

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- **What is this?** Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp (New York Review Books Classics) by nyrb classics
- **How much does it cost?** € 12.21 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Proust in Gryazovets
  

*by A***E on Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2018*

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!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The  Best
  

*by J***N on Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2019*

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

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    I would have liked to know this man.
  

*by K***Y on Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2019*

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

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*Last updated: 2026-02-21*