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Literary Research/Recherche littéraire 20.39-40 (2003): 407-408 George Pistorius, Marcel Proust und Deutschland. Eine internationale Bibliographie. Foreword by Reiner Speck. 2nd edition. Heidelberg: Winter/"Studia Romanica," vol. 109, 2002; 424 pp.; ISBN: 3825310744; LC call no.: Z8714.P57; €68.00 In general, reading and writing reviews about bibliographies are regarded as a rather tedious and boring task. Yet, this does not hold true for the second edition of George Pistorius' bibliography Marcel Proust und Deutschland. Contrary to the usual matter-of-fact description, it seems, when browsing through Pistorius' book, difficult to abstain from enthusiastic eulogies. Certainly, this volume offers much more than the usual standard bibliography: it bears witness of the author's life long dedication not only to Marcel Proust, but to French and German literatures in general. As Reiner Speck remarks in his foreword, Pistorius wrote a book which is simultaneously a reader (Lesebuch), and a means to literary research, because he does not simply provide a list of the various texts on and translations of Marcel Proust within the German speaking world. The title list is divided chronologically and according to subject matter such as "Prousts Ästhetik und Romankunst," or "Philosophie und Weltanschauung," etc. In addition, the author gives a brief summary of each title (even of reviews and essays). The result is an extensive overview of Marcel Proust's impact on German literature and culture: "Der Bibliograph [end page 407] zieht eine vorläufige Bilanz der Werk- und Wirkungsgeschichte eines literarischen Oeuvre, für das es — was die anderen, oft in gleichem Atemzug genannten Autoren betrifft — noch nichts Vergleichbares gibt" (1). A closer look enables the reader to follow up discussions about different aspects of Proust's writing, as for instance the polemic about the first German translation by Rudolf Schottlaender (41). The great number of cross-references leads to adjacent subjects and invites further reading; and the elaborate indices (of author, reviews, titles, etc.) come as a good assistance to any curious and zealous reader. The reference period covers the years 1922 up to 1999. While the first edition from 1981 contained 357 titles, the new one documents 1782. A pedantic reviewer (who would that be?) might tag the book's title for misinforming the reader: that it is too restrictive, because it suggests a focus on something like the image of Germany in Proust's oeuvre or the French author's relations to Germany, and that it does not cover the broad thematic range starting from the German translations of the primary texts up to the translations of English and French secondary texts about Proust. Furthermore, we find authors as Ingeborg Bachmann and Thomas Bernhard under the heading "Deutsche Dichter und Schriftsteller in ihren Beziehungen zu Proust." Enough about pedantic reviewers: George Pistorius' book will be an indispensable means for research and I am quite sure that it will be difficult to find a Proustian, or a committed librarian for that matter, who would resist this volume's riches.
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