Translator Júlia Jancsó Receives French Order for Translating Proust’s Masterpiece

Translator Júlia Jancsó with Jonathan Lacôte, Ambassador of the French Republic to Hungary

Hungarian literary translator Júlia Jancsó has been honored with the Officer’s Cross of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her monumental translation of Marcel Proust’s magnum opus. She succeeded in translating the legendary seven-volume novel cycle into Hungarian in its entirety and in a single volume for the first time in nearly a century.

The ceremonial presentation of the order took place on Monday in Budapest. Jonathan Lacôte, the Ambassador of the French Republic to Hungary, presented Júlia Jancsó with the Officer’s Cross of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters). As the Atlantisz Könyvsziget bookstore announced on its social media page, the honor recognizes one of the most ambitious translation feats in contemporary Hungarian literature.

Behind the award lies a lifelong endeavor.

For thirty years, Júlia Jancsó devoted herself to translating Proust’s monumental novel series In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu).

The original work, written between 1909 and 1922—the second volume of which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1919—is regarded as the touchstone of all translation art due to its intricate sentence structures, its profound psychological reflections, and its subtle exploration of time and memory.

In the Hungarian-speaking world, the work has had a fragmented history of reception:

• In the 1930s, literary scholar Albert Gyergyai took the first steps and translated the first three volumes.
• Starting in 1996, Júlia Jancsó took over the project and initially completed volumes four through seven, which had been missing until then.
• She subsequently translated the first three volumes entirely anew (published in 2017, 2021, and 2024).

With the publication of the third volume in 2024 by Atlantisz Publishing, Proust’s complete works are now available in a comprehensive, linguistically consistent Hungarian edition.

By conferring this order, France is sending a clear signal of its appreciation for Hungarian cultural life. Júlia Jancsó is already the third outstanding literary figure from the country to be honored this year by the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres:

• In March, the writer László Krasznahorkai was awarded the highest rank of the order, that of Commander (Commandeur).
• In October, the poet, storyteller, and translator Krisztina Tóth followed with her appointment as Knight (Chevalier).

The appointment of Júlia Jancsó as an Officer rounds out this series of honors and recognizes decades of work as a cultural mediator, which has made one of the most important milestones in world literature accessible to Hungarian readers in a new, linguistically brilliant translation.

Via MTI; Featured photo: Francia Nagykövetség/Facebook

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