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你有没有过接受一个大型阅读项目，需要一个朋友陪你一起完成？

Have you ever taken on a big reading project and needed a friend to get you through it?

我们就是这种感觉。

That's how we felt.

我是汉娜·韦弗，哥伦比亚大学英语与比较文学系助理教授。

I'm Hannah Weaver, assistant professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University.

我是艾玛·克劳森，剑桥大学三一学院法语系助理教授。

And I'm Emma Claussen, Trinity assistant professor of French at Trinity College Cambridge.

我们两人共同主持播客《普鲁斯特好奇》，该播客与《公共书籍》合作推出。

And together, we're the hosts of Proust Curious, a podcast in partnership with Public Books.

《普鲁斯特好奇》是一个迷你播客系列，在其中我们，

Proust Curious is a podcast miniseries in which we,

两位既是朋友又是文学学者的人，

two friends who also happen to be literature scholars,

挑战有时被视为终极阅读项目的著作。

take on what is sometimes posed as the ultimate reading project.

马塞尔·普鲁斯特的《追忆似水年华》，英文译名为《寻找失去的时间》。

Marcel Proust's A la Recherche du temps perdu translated as In Search of Lost Time.

这是法语乃至任何语言中最著名的小说之一，这部七卷本作品描绘了一个人从童年到成年的生命历程，跨越了成千上万页，勾勒出一个完整的世界。

One of the best known novels in French or perhaps in any language, this seven volume account of a man's life from childhood to maturity evokes a whole world over thousands And thousands.

页码。

Of pages.

阅读普鲁斯特，我们了解了二十世纪之交的法国以及当时巴黎社会的阶级分化。

Reading Proust, we learn about France at the turn of the twentieth century and class stratifications of Parisian society at the time.

我们从一位极具自我反思的叙述者视角，了解了凡德西克家族的政治与文化，以及战前时期的情况。

We learn about the politics and culture of the Van de Siek and the prewar period from the perspective of an intensely self reflective narrator Mhmm.

这位叙述者的生命叙事交织着幽默的社会评论，以及对艺术、性、爱情、悲伤和生命本身的深刻洞察。

Whose life narrative is interwoven with comic social commentary and deeply engaging reflections on art, sexuality, love, grief, and life itself.

这部作品启发了众多后世作家，并成为无数批评研究的对象。

This work has inspired many subsequent writers and been the object of countless critical studies.

正因为这些原因，以及更多其他因素，马塞尔·普鲁斯特的文化地标既令人着迷，也不得不承认，令人望而生畏。

For these reasons and many more, Marcel Proust's cultural touchstone is a source of enduring fascination and let's face it, intimidation.

但为什么它会让人感到如此畏惧呢？

But why is it so intimidating?

嗯，这部作品以难读著称。

Well, this is famously tough sledding.

不仅因为这七卷中的每一卷都特别长，虽然确实如此。

It's not just that each of the seven volumes is so long, though they are.

而且每个句子都非常长且复杂，有时甚至贯穿整页。

It's also that the individual sentences are very long and complex, sometimes lasting entire pages.

是的。

Yeah.

此外，书中还包含一些深奥的哲学思辨和略显奇特的意象。

And there is a certain amount of arcane philosophizing and somewhat bizarre imagery.

《追忆似水年华》还与精英主义相关联，因为它主要描绘了文化与社会精英，本身也被视为西方传统中高雅文化的巅峰。

The Recherche is also associated with elitism since it mostly represents a cultural and social elite and it has been treated itself as a pinnacle of high culture in the western tradition.

但我们真正感兴趣的，并不是那种供人崇拜或作为自我提升工具的普鲁斯特。

But we're not really interested in the Proust that's there to be venerated or read as a form of self improvement.

我们阅读这本书，是因为我们认为它有趣、引人入胜，值得我们去探索。

We're reading this because we think it's fun, interesting, and worth being curious about.

我们是文学教授，但都不是普鲁斯特的专家。

We're literature professors, but neither of us is a Proust specialist.

所以，这是我们尝试在自身专业能力的极限范围内接受这一挑战，并从中获得乐趣。

So this is our attempt to take on this challenge at the outer limits of our expertise and have fun with it.

我们运用自己的批判性阅读和细读技巧来分析文本，而不深入普鲁斯特批评的庞大学术传统。

We bring our critical and close reading skills to bear on the text without delving into the considerable academic tradition of Proust criticism.

你可以说，我们读这本书是为了让你不必读，但我们希望，你听完之后，可能会想回头去阅读这部文学现象的全部或部分内容。

You could say that we're reading it so that you don't have to, but we hope that once you've listened, might want to go back to it or read all or part of this literary phenomenon.

所以

So

无论你大学时是否上过普鲁斯特的课，无论你是否觉得这是本讨厌的书，无论你一直打算读却没时间，还是你已经读过并深深喜爱，我们都想与你分享我们对普鲁斯特的好奇，并激发你同样的兴趣。

whether you did or didn't take that Proust class in college, if it's a hate read for you, if you've always been meaning to get around to Proust, or if you've already read it and loved it, we wanted to share our curiosity about Proust with you and pique yours in return.

《普鲁斯特好奇》将于9月16日登陆你的订阅频道。

Proust Curious is coming to your feed on September 16.

本节目由迈克尔·戈德史密斯制作，并与公共书籍网站合作推出，该网站是一个关于思想、艺术与学术的在线杂志。

It's produced by Michael Goldsmith and in partnership with publicbooks, an online magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship.

下周请继续收听，我们将一同寻找逝去的时光，重温普鲁斯特笔下的记忆。

Join us next week as we search for lost time and remember things Proust.