Listening to Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, (Maybe) the Longest Audio Book Ever Made

in Audio Books, Literature | July 9th, 2013 3 Comments

I’m impressed by the under­tak­ing. Neville Jason and Nax­os Audio Books have com­plet­ed an unabridged audio ver­sion of Proust’s epic, sev­en-part nov­el, Remem­brance of Things Past. Proust pub­lished the first vol­ume, Swan­n’s Way, one hun­dred years ago, in 1913, and com­plet­ed the last vol­ume, Time Regained, four­teen years lat­er, in 1927. By that time, Proust had a mas­ter­piece on his hands — a very long mas­ter­piece. The clas­sic (avail­able in our col­lec­tion of Free eBooks) spans some 3,000 pages and con­tains more than 1.5 mil­lion words. Until now, Remem­brance of Things Past has nev­er been avail­able in an unabridged audio for­mat, per­haps because it would amount to the longest audio book ever made (or some­thing approach­ing that). But Neville Jason has pulled it off, pro­duc­ing a 151-hour record­ing that’s now avail­able on Audible.com. Below, we’ve pro­vid­ed sev­en free audio excerpts (one from each vol­ume), and if you care to sign up for Audi­ble’s 30-Day Free Tri­al, you can down­load any one vol­ume for free. NB: Audi­ble is an Amazon.com sub­sidiary, and we’re a mem­ber of their affil­i­ate pro­gram. If Proust isn’t your cup of tea, you can find many oth­er great works in our col­lec­tion of 630 Free Audio Books.

Swan­n’s Way 

With­in a Bud­ding Grove

The Guer­mantes Way 

Sodom and Gomor­rah

The Cap­tive 

The Fugi­tive 

Time Regained

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Watch Mon­ty Python’s “Sum­ma­rize Proust Com­pe­ti­tion” on the 100th Anniver­sary of Swann’s Way

Arthur Conan Doyle Fills Out the Ques­tion­naire Made Famous By Mar­cel Proust (1899)


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Comments (3)
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  • William says:
    September 11, 2013 at 12:10 pm

    I think the record­ing of Duran­t’s Sto­ry of Civ­i­liza­tion might con­tend as a longer audio­book; any­way, it’s great to see a com­plete audio­book of Proust’s opus, since I’ve always want­ed to read / hear it. I don’t like the nar­ra­tor much though; I won­der if I will be able to get used to it.… I wish Guidall fin­ished the series instead of falling out after the first vol­ume :(

    Reply
  • Leon Ashbrook says:
    November 13, 2016 at 9:47 pm

    Why are these record­ings now under copy­right restric­tion. I pur­chased the first 4 vol­ume from Audible.com, before, sud­den­ly, the copy­right restric­tion was applied, and I was unable to pur­chase the final 3 vol­umes even though they were in my want list. Is there no way in which an Amer­i­can can pur­chase these record­ings. Thanks.

    Reply
  • Darren says:
    March 5, 2017 at 9:32 pm

    I real­ly want­ed the box-set but could not get it, liv­ing in Cana­da. How­ev­er, I went to Ama­zon and pur­chased the 7 vol­umes sep­a­rate­ly, all totalling $401CDN with ship­ping includ­ed. Why pay much more for the box, that you prob­a­bly can­not buy any­way? :)

    Reply

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