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.

Renato wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "Did you find it refreshing to actually get to see things from Albertine's POV as well as me?"

Yes, look at what Proust is doing to us: we're overanalyzing people's words and actio..."

I think that is precisely the point Renato. I've mentioned before Proust's emphasis that we can never truly know another person. I never believed Albertine nor did I ever believe anything anybody told the Narrator about Albertine. She is just a big blank.

Jonathan wrote: "It was good to see that many of the narrator's fears were unfounded...though they're both expert liars... "

Plenty more fears where those came from....

That Proustian double-bluff lead me astray in a major way in the next volume.

Apparantly those that came to his apartment to view the body and learned this spread the word of his fanatical dedication to his art.

Oh, I finished "Proust at the Majestic". I was touched that the night he died Celeste was helping him at his bedside edit the scene of Bergotte's death.
I read the book specifically for the account of Proust's funeral. I was fascinated by the route of the funeral cortege - the casket on a bier pulled by black horses. He lived south of the Arch de Triumph (near where Odette's house was in the novel?). After the service in a small nearby church it came north and turned West onto the Champs Elysee and traversed the entire city from East to West to get to Pere Lacaise. It moved so slowly that some mourners stopped to eat and the caught up. The book relates the different places and events in the book where it passed. Good book, I recommend it.

I don't remember that it is specifically revealed. I think I assumed it was because of concern that his society friends would assume she was a "kept woman" and disdain her as they did Odette. Remember, his mother did not approve of her "moving in" and Francois certainly doesn't approve. Yet he apparently asks her to stay in her room when friends come over. I suspect this is an instance when he thinks he is keeping a secret but everyone knows.

Remember, this whole volume occurs over 3 days in February (1909?). I think I figured out that Albertine only lived there a few months. During this volume mother is in Combray nursing a sick aunt, father is not referred to (my memory is that father more or less disappears from the novel in the last volumes) and mother too, with one significant exception.

I'd like to see a study of Proust's portrayal of family in the novel and its implications on the narrator. First time I read I was miffed that the narrator was so weird but that no psychological basis had established this weirdness. When I reread the "Combray" section of Swann's Way I was amazed at how clearly the narrator's interaction with his family pointed the way to the strange adult he would become.

The narrator's thoughts are laid out for the reader. But I can't help but feel that Proust is trying to show the inner turmoil of the Narrator that borders on madness - something not well understood in Proust's time. With this in mind, although the Narrator "gives explanations for decisions" I'm skeptical that they are rational or logical.

You still have a week's reading in this volume, right Renato? Patience, the Narrator changes his mind three times a page in this section.

I've ordered books from Amazon UK before. I believe the Kindle books are available on the UK site. I've managed to bury myself in Proust related books so I'm good for now.

Thanks for the lead on the Fall blog Jonathan. Unfortunately, as he mentions, I can't get the Kindle versions of the last three volumes in the US. I went to Amazon UK and found the Penguin editions, but no Kindle version, just a little green box in top right saying Kindle version was not available for my country from Amazon UK. A pox on Walt Disney and Sonny Bono! What is the street address of Windsor Palace so I can change my account settings and give a local address?

Jonathan wrote: "I liked the little bits of self-analysis by the narrator, such as his lack of vanity inherited from his grandmother, his lack of self-importance and resentment, his slowness to anger, his lack of j..."

I liked the quote Jonathan, but find the Narrator's self-analysis to be wanting. I acknowledge his grandmother lacked vanity (the only flawless character). Perhaps Proust was going for irony in the Narrator's glowing self analysis. I find him to be the opposite of what he self describes in at least half the characteristics. The remainder he will prove opposite of before this volume ends.

Perhaps too much metaphorical self-gratification hanging out with the "little clan." ;)

That is the beginning of an interior monologue that runs for several pages without paragraphing.

It occurs right after: "“It hurts me a thousand times more,” replied Albertine."

"Already for some little time I had felt that I could no longer hold back the tears that came welling up in my eyes. And these tears did not spring from at all the same sort of misery which I had felt long ago when I said to Gilberte: “It is better that we should not see one another again; life is dividing us.”"

How spoiled I am, the damned iPad took more than TWO minutes to find that by searching the entire MKE Edition!

Let me see if I can find it Renato.

I do try Renato, but I usually only come off as goofy :)

Hmmm, I'm thinking of something else.....nevermind.

To be mysterious again, who it is is only incidental to the purpose of the disclosure.

You caught my attention Renato when, listing your triangles, you ended with Narrator-Gilberte-Some Guy. I believe your uncertainty on this point will be resolved at the end of "The Fugitive."

Well thunderation! Carter's bio is now available on Kindle here too! I'll buy it at some point, being electronically searchable it will be quite useful. Interesting about the name change on the other book between UK and US. Too many movie theaters named Majestic over here I suppose, Yanks would think it was about going to the movies and pass, or on opening it, flee. Putting Proust in the title at least gives the possibility of sales to the "little band" of Proust aficionados in the US.