Vividly translated by Lydia Davis, Letters to His Neighbor puts on spectacular display Proust's genius for illuminating pain. Already suffering from the noise of Paris, despite his cork-lined walls, Proust was not ready for the fresh hell of his neighbor- directly overhead-marrying a divorcée with a young son. Written chiefly to Mme Williams, the new neighbor, these ever-polite Letters (always accompanied by compliments and often by flowers, a pheasant, or a book) are frequently hilarious, Proust couches his frustration in gracious eloquence, and in Davis's hands the digressive brilliance of his sentences shines. "Don't speak of annoying neighbors, but of neighbors so charming (an association of words contradictory in principle since Montesquiou claims that most horrible of all are 1: neighbors and 2: the smell of post offices) that they leave the constant tantalizing regret that one cannot take advantage of their neighborliness." Richly illustrated with facsimile Letters and photographs and concluding with a generous, fascinating, and meticulously researched afterword by the translator (complete with a map of his apartment). Letters to His Neighbor is catnip for lovers of Proust.