Chasing Lost Time: The Life of C.K. Scott Moncrieff; Soldier, Spy, and Translator

Moncrieff (1889–1930), the celebrated Scottish translator who gave Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past its famous (and controversial) English title, led an exciting, even improbable life, as this informative biography from Findlay (his great-great-niece) reveals. Born into a distinguished but not particularly wealthy family, Moncrieff began writing poetry and fiction while in school and had no fixed career plans when he entered the Great War as a British Army officer. The sensitive Moncrieff somehow survived three grim years of active service before being invalided out with a grievous wound in his left leg. His admiration for the verse of fellow war poet Wilfred Owen (with whom he was in love) led Moncrieff to conclude that, by comparison, his poetry was too inferior to continue. He turned to translating, which led him to produce the first English translation of A la recherche du temps perdu, published in 1922. Viewing Moncrieff in the context of his turbulent times, Findlay writes with great insight into her subject’s inner life, especially his homosexuality. (On Moncrieff’s work spying for the War Office while translating Pirandello in Fascist Italy, Findlay writes, “Charles had already got accustomed to living parallel lives; secrecy came naturally to him.”) Readers should find Moncrieff as intriguing as the books he translated. [em]Agent: Peter Straus, RCW. (Mar.) [/em]