Mount Proust

Mount Proust, as seen on a midwestern Saturday afternoon. I'm climbing In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower and have made it to the top of the P of Proust.

Why do the last two books look different? I'm glad you asked. Because of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which keeps work out of the public domain for an extra 20 years after its maker's death (i.e., for 95 years, not 75), the new Penguin translations of the final three volumes of In Search of Lost Time — The Prisoner, The Fugitive, and Finding Time Again — have not yet been published in the United States. Aaron Matz explains:

Since Proust died in 1922, only those four volumes first published during his lifetime had passed into the American public domain by the time the Bono Act became law. It will therefore be at least 2018 before readers in the United States can find the final three installments of the new translation . . . in their local bookstores.

There is some good news: the final three volumes are available in the States, at least for now, from Amazon, in two British Penguin paperbacks (which can be found here and here). My copies took about a month to arrive, and I don't think I've ever been happier to have books in my hands. If I were interested in reading Proust in the Penguin edition, I'd order these now.

Link » In Pursuit of Proust, Aaron Matz on the last three volumes of In Search of Lost Time (from Slate)