Marcel Proust was a great French writer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Like Balzac, he occupies an extremely important position in the history of French and even world literature.Especially since 1987, several influential French publishing houses have competed to republish Proust's masterpieces; various academic activities to comment on and study Proust's creative achievements have also been held in France and many European and American countries. developed widely.The reappearance of this upsurge fully demonstrates the value and influence of Proust's great work.

In a unique art form, it shows new ideas and new skills in literary creation.The novel uses the method of reminiscence, with the help of the subconscious mind that transcends the concept of time and space, to reproduce the past years from time to time, expressing the infinite nostalgia for the old people and the past, and the indelible melancholy.Proust's writing technique not only broke through the traditional mode of novel writing at that time, but also had a profound impact on the emergence of various new novel genres in the future. For such a great writer, there is still no Chinese translation of this great work that is of great significance to this writer. This phenomenon, no matter from which point of view, is obviously abnormal.It is precisely out of reverence for Proust's major literary achievements, and in order to further develop Sino-French cultural exchanges and fill a huge gap in the field of translation and publication of foreign literature in my country as soon as possible, we decided to organize the translation and publication of this great work.

Foreign literature researchers all know that Proust's great work, with its profound meaning and peculiar words, often makes people incomprehensible and amazing, so it is conceivable that translation is very difficult.In order to faithfully and perfectly introduce such an important work to our readers, it is very important to ensure the quality of the translation.For this reason, we have made a lot of efforts in the process of selecting translators.The translators of the various volumes that have been implemented now are selected after repeated consultations. As for the translation of each volume, it is natural for translators and readers to comment after reading, but we can happily tell readers that each of them The attitudes of all the translators in translating this book are very rigorous and serious. It can be said that they have tried their best. For this, we express our heartfelt thanks.In order to keep the translation style and style of the whole book as unified as possible, before the translation, we formulated "Several Requirements for Proofreading and Translation Work", printed and distributed the summary of each volume, the list of translations of names and place names, and the annotations of each volume; Afterwards, translators were organized to exchange experience many times, and some translations were circulated and commented on each other.These measures are obviously beneficial to improving the quality of translation.

Regarding the translated title of this book, we have organized a special discussion among translators and widely solicited opinions. Basically, it can be summarized into two translation methods: one is literal translation as "Seeking the Lost Time"; the other is free translation.In view of the fact that the latter translation has been used more often in newspapers and periodicals, in accordance with the principle of "convention", we will adopt this translation method for the time being.We look forward to criticism and corrections from readers. January 1989