Theodor Adorno thought Germans should see in Proust a kindred soul because of his long sentences. Jürgen Ritte describes the trajectory of Proust in 20th century Germany, from the moment Rilke read him in 1914 (on Gide's recommendation), to the translation in German by a 24 year-old translator of Chateaubriand (it was bad - "as if you were trying to arrange Debussy for the harmonica"), then, after that publisher folded, to Walter Benjamin's translation that was forbidden by the Nazi regime, and finally to Herman Hesse who pushed for its publication after the war.
The book is a catalog of an exposition currently in Cologne that displays the correspondence of Proust. Ritte wanted to show the manuscripts and "make them talk at the same time." He wanted to include context, and for this he would try to have a letter juxtaposed with one from the correspondent. Unfortunately, Proust had the habit of destroying the letters he received, making the juxtaposition a challenge. We have the letters that Gide wrote to him, because Gide kept copies (it was part of his job at the publisher), but most of the others are gone.
The show is worth listening to if only to hear the first lines of A la recherche read in German by Ritte.
