Lydia Davis

The exacting modern standard. Lydia Davis, a master of the sentence in her own right, tracks Flaubert’s syntax, rhythm, and word choice more closely than any earlier English version, refusing to prettify what he kept plain. The result can feel austere, and a few readers find it cool where they want warmth, but that coolness is the point: this is the closest English has come to Flaubert’s controlled surface. Her introduction on the ordeal of translating him is superb. The one to read if you care how the prose is actually built.

The exact, modern Swann’s Way. Lydia Davis follows Proust’s French sentence by sentence, preserving the shape and length of those vast periods while keeping the English clear and contemporary, and she restores the plainer, truer title. It is more faithful to what Proust actually wrote than Scott-Moncrieff, and less decorated, which some readers love and others miss. Her notes and translator’s preface are first-rate. This is the volume to read if you want Proust’s architecture rendered precisely, with none of the Edwardian gloss laid over the original.