Dave’s Comments (group member since May 24, 2014)

Dave’s comments from the Reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 2014 group.

If anyone knows it will be Marcelita. Perhaps she will post a link to a uTube video.

Marcelita wrote: "Dave wrote: "Have you read "Proust's Narrative Techniques" ..."

I "ordered" it last week from our New York Public Library.
They have one copy, stored offsite, but it is now "IN TRANSIT."
Not sur..."

I ordered "Proust and Signs" also. The collectors edition is beautiful. I share your hope that a library will be able to purchase it or that it will be donated to a library on purchase.

Hee, hee, it will be interesting to see whether you get you get your copy from the library's "offsite" before I get my copy shipped from Australia.

Marcelita wrote: "Dave wrote: "Marcelita wrote: "Dave wrote: "Glad I could offer some help.

Wish that book by the Polish Officer who taught Proust in Prisoner of War camp would be translated. That is so moving!"

Yes, I got that from reading back up this topic page. You had posted that review and one other in early July. It would also make a great movie, Adrian Brody looks just like Czapski.

Marcelita wrote: "Dave wrote: "Glad I could offer some help.

Just noted that you just found Hindus' book Marcelita. A sure signed that my mineshaft into the mountain of Proust commentary is getting pretty deep whe..."

I purchased a couple of books from that section that I don't have that were reasonably priced. Thanks!
Wish that book by the Polish Officer who taught Proust in Prisoner of War camp would be translated. That is so moving!

As an aside in reference to my "My guess is that it is a species of Cattelya Orchid" I find the scene where Swann is trying to help Odette pin the orchid he gave her in a carriage to be the steamiest scene in the entire work!

Another great link, thanks Marcelita.

I bought my Hindus copy in May 1972 when a student at UT Austin (I put date in books back then. Undoubtedly when I first purchased my first paperback copies of Proust's volumes. Paperback published by Noonday Press, it has a soft grey cover and spine with white lettering and a slash of purple from upper right to center.
Below, center right it has a large flower drawn in red with a thin stalk coming up from bottom of cover. My guess is that it is a species of Cattelya Orchid although no info is provided on cover art. The book is available used on Amazon if you would like a better copy.

At the same time I purchased a small hardbound boxed volume by Proust entitled "On Reading". First published in 1905 in a magazine, it was expanded and became the Preface of Proust's translation of Sesames and Lilies.

Cooool! I've never been to Amazon.com.br before. Now I can buy books with Reals. I like the way they give you a complementary umbrella drink when you log in and have a live band playing Samba while you browse. Already I have found Bullfinch's Mythologies which I don't yet own in Portugese. And O Pequeno Príncipe [Português] Antoine Saint-Exupéry (Autor) is a must for any respectable personal library. Thanks Renato!

Yes, the two Cambridge books, Alexander, Shattuck, Moss and Landy all on Kindle.

Hindus has a larger book "Proust's Vision" that is reasonably priced used but has no description on Amazon. As Jonathan noted he wrote about Celine and others.

Glad I could offer some help.

Just noted that you just found Hindus' book Marcelita. A sure signed that my mineshaft into the mountain of Proust commentary is getting pretty deep when I shine my light on a nugget you have not read! lol

No one has noted to follow up on Howard Moss' book I finished first. Moss was poetry editor of the New Yorker for like 50 years. His book is an easy read of two or three hours and wonderfully captures the singular marvel of Proust's accomplishment. He give satisfaction to what you have achieved in reading ISOLT and points the way to what to look for as you begin a reread. I highly recommend his book.

Landy has some differences of opinions with Descombes, so I was familiar with him.

Mon Dieu Marcelita! Another $40 used book I must own! I'm leaving boxes of books from my library on the doorsteps of Public Libraries like kittens to make shelf space for my new Proust "friends". I've got books by Maurois and Spaulding on the way along along with Barker's bio recommended by Hindus. I may soon be reduced to living under a highway overpass and eating restaurant refuse while surrounded by my Proust books - but they will be mine, ALL mine!

As always, wonderful suggestions Marcelita. On this recommendation I ordered the Hayman biography.

Like Marcelita, I was more interested in the connections and layers.

Before I began rereading I read Howard Moss' book "The Magic Lantern of Marcel Proust", then selections in Shattuck's book that Marcelita recommends, and reviewed Patrick Alexander's "Marcel Proust's Search of Lost Time."

Since beginning to reread, I've continued background reading. A few books that stand out in my mind that have been particularly meaningful or useful to my current interests:

"The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust"

"The Cambridge Companion to Proust" (collection of essays on different subjects by big named scholars - Carter does the bio essay for instance. Together, these two Cambridge references are pretty much the "total intro package" and both available electronically) (Bowie's Postlude on Proust and the Art of Brevity is a favorite)

"Proust Among the Stars" by Bowie (Also on Marcelita's list)

"Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust" by Joshua Landy (probably the single most interesting book I've read on Proust. Asserts that Proust book presents a unified philosophy closely related to Nietzsche)

"A Reader's Guide to Marcel Proust" by Milton Hindus (written in the early 60's), I just discovered I owned this book. It is the most detailed analysis of the text (sometimes page by page) that I have come across. It is available used online. I plan to keep this book beside me as I reread and consult it frequently.

"Proust's Narrative Techniques" by B C Rodgers (hard to find and expensive, but based on TOC alone looks very interesting). Not yet recieved.

Renato wrote: "I still can't really separate the narrator from Proust, I find myself liking the narrator once again... "

You are more generous than I Renato, It took me most of the next volume to get back to a detached view of the Narrator. And I was well into the last volume before my feelings turned positive again.

Jonathan wrote: "Dave wrote: "Ha, I'm culling my library and I discover I have owned George Painter's bio of Proust since 1978, a small hardback boxed book entitled "On Reading" by Proust (first published as a maga..."

I've owned ISOLT since I was in college (did a lot of outside reading) in the early seventies. I've started reading SW a number of times over the years but never got past page 20. I always wrote my name and the date when I bought books. So the other two I mentioned were bought in 1972, undoubtedly when I first bought Proust's book. It seems so hard to imagine intellectual life pre-Internet - having to go to the library and look up info if you wanted to know something. On the other hand its hard to imagine life in the Internet age when the entire hunan experience and sum of knowledge is online and people in general are dumber than ever. I'm a cynic if you had not guessed.

Jonathan wrote: "Dave wrote: "No one has commented on the "Lorena Bobbitt" option - too shocking, or too obscure a reference to a small news item in the US 15 or so years ago?"

Ha! Ha! Yes, I got the Bobbitt refer..."

It made an impression on me how truly wealthy he was. Aunt Leonie had left her money to him and it was a large sum. And it frustrated me that he would consider yachts and Rolls Royces but not the piece of mind of having her followed 24/7 by professional detectives or of having her "escorted" by security guards "for her own safety". But that just reinforced what we discussed above, psychologically he really doesn't want to know.

Ha, I'm culling my library and I discover I have owned George Painter's bio of Proust since 1978, a small hardback boxed book entitled "On Reading" by Proust (first published as a magazine article in 1905, then expanded as the Preface to his translation of Ruskin's "Sesames and Lilies"), and a book entitled "A Reader's Guide to Marcel Proust" by Milton Hindus. This latter book is the most detailed analysis of the text I have yet seen. I turned to the last portion of commentary on "The Captive" and noted, among other things, the author's assertion that in "The Captive" Proust begins to focus increasingly on art in various ways -particularly in mini-essays on aesthetics and the philosophical implications of art. This has been an ongoing theme but the frequency begins to increase here through the end.

I didn't notice that, but it is an interesting observation.

No one has commented on the "Lorena Bobbitt" option - too shocking, or too obscure a reference to a small news item in the US 15 or so years ago?

Renato wrote: "As for Albertine not being a captive, I'm at odds about it. I do agree with Jonathan's observation that it seems the narrator didn't have as much power over her as he'd like to believe. But even so, she still stayed. She still lied. She still went out of her away to please him - even if she was to get something out of it (money? culture?)."

Oh I completely agree with both of you. The idea that she was his Prisoner was a complete delusion on his part. She was using him as Morel used Charlus. We never know her motivations, but a straightforward explanation seems enough for me. She was poor, lived in the provinces, liked to "party", may have been a Lesbian. Lets see, in her shoes would I choose to stay out in the sticks or come live with a gullible multimillionaire in Gay Paree? Eventually he becomes clingy and erratic - so I'm out of here.