Jonathan’s Comments (group member since Oct 24, 2013)

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

After the narrator's talk with Andrée he reasons that because Andrée admits she likes women but isn't attracted to Albertine sexually and didn't have carnal relations with her, therefore Albertine couldn't have had carnal relations with any other woman. Is he subscribing to the theory that a lesbian would want to have sex with every other woman and therefore if, in this case Albertine, doesn't want to have sex with one woman she therefore didn't want to have sex with any women? He seems to be assuaged though.

What's this? Our narrator, Marcel, looks like Andrée with a moustache!

If I had not long since ceased to shave my upper lip and had had only a faint shadow of a moustache, this resemblance would have been almost complete.

Dave wrote: "Oh, I meant to mention, I read the Modern Library Edition yesterday. I still can't say I have much preference for translation (other than "no translation" is best) but I do like Penguin best for th..."

I think after trying both I prefer the MKE translation overall BUT occasionally the Penguin does just read better and the notes, synopsis etc. are a lot better; this is why I finally decided on reading the MKE but using a library Penguin copy for the notes etc. Also sometimes, if I re-read bits I just read the Penguin version for a bit of variety.

Oh, I'd forgotten about the Moss book. Yes, maybe that would be a good one to read first.

I must admit I'm quite keen to re-read the Combray section again once I've finished the whole book as I'm sure I've read that this section is supposed to contain all the characters and topics of the whole book. I'm just not sure if I'll commit to a complete re-read of the whole 7 volumes - at least not in 2015.

What Proustian plans do others have for next year? Mine, at the moment, are to read some small books that I've got hanging around (Night at the Majestic, Proust's Library) and to start on the Carter bio maybe in January/February. If everyone's up for reading Combray early in the year I'm willing to go along with it, though I'd prefer to leave it until after the bio. Nothing's set in stone though so I'm open for changes/compromise.

I found it odd that they said no-one sympathises with Albertine - well one person disagreed.

Dave wrote: "It was an interesting program. And it touched on some points we have discussed her. But it does contain spoilers. I found it encouraging to my obsessive reading and follow-up that I found myself di..."

Yes, I was pleased that we'd covered some of the issues they were discussing. I was glad they mentioned the temporary confusion that the reader feels when reading ISOLT - at least they'd experienced it as well and it's not just us!

I think someone on the programme mentioned that ISOLT was just as much about forgetting as remembering, which was something I hadn't really considered.

Marcelita wrote: "The latest BBC Radio 3 program on Proust, in English:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lpxj2"

Thanks Marcelita, I've just listened to it. It's interesting to hear of of others' experiences of their voyage through ISOLT.

Re: Flaubert, I really want to read Bouvard and Pecuchet which looks amazingly modern...I've got a copy here, I just need to find the time.

Re: Balzac, you may like the site.

Why not also read Zola? One of my faves. :-)

Sunny in Wonderland wrote: "Me too!"

He! He! e.g. 'I'm sorry I fucked it up, it was just the concatenation of circumstances.'

He then goes on to say:

Ah! if some accident had happened to her, my life, instead of being poisoned for ever by this incessant jealousy, would at once regain, if not happiness, at least a state of calm through the suppression of suffering.

Once again, he's wishing pain on others so that his own suffering can be assuaged....though we know it isn't in this case, because he's still racked with jealousy even when she is dead.

Oh, I was just looking at the beginning of this week's section which continues with St-Loup's report back to Marcel which displeases him, he then ponders:

...was it not better for me to go down in person, now that I had discovered Saint-Loup's hitherto unsuspected duplicity? Might he not, for all I knew, have organised a plot to separate me from Albertine?

I think the narrator's paranoia is infiltrating my mind.

Sadly, I've read nothing by John Fowles though I've 'nearly' started the Magus before :-) I was going to read some John Cowper Powys this year but will have to postpone that until next year as well. There's a copy of his 'Glastonbury Romance' in my local library that beckons me every time I enter it. Henry Miller used to rave about JC Powys all the time.

Renato wrote: "I also thought about Aimé answering what he knew the narrator wanted to hear... and good point about him not going to visit her grave! I'm still not sure she's dead, but I think it's too paranoid o..."

We start to doubt everything don't we? I did think to myself: Given that St-Loup acted strangely when he saw the picture of Albertine and given that he went to see Mme Bontemps on his own, is it possible that St-Loup & Mme Bontemps, possibly with Albertine's connivance, have colluded to stop the narrator's infatuation with Albertine? The solution: tell him she's dead. There's a problem when she reappears though :-)

I found it odd that there was no mention of a funeral etc.

Renato wrote: "I want to re-read the entire ISOLT, but it won't take me the whole year. I also wanted to read One Thousand and One Nights... but it's not that big either... ..."

I've only read the 1970s Penguin version of '1001 Nights'. Penguin recently issued a three volume set that looks like it runs to about 2,600 pages. I'd love to read it.

Dave wrote: "Meanwhile, is this French author that won the Nobel Prize this year been translated in the UK or Brazil? Almost nothing here yet."

There are a few available, mostly US versions I think - I'll have to read something by him soon.

I haven't read 'Dance to the Music of Time'; in fact I only heard of it after I'd started Proust this year. I'm not sure whether to tackle something like that after Proust but I'm sure it won't be long before I start another big reading project after I finish ISOLT as I seem to like having a 'biggie' on the go - for years I've been meaning to read Casanova's memoirs so I'm thinking about it...

Have you any big reading projects on the horizon?

Dave wrote: "Thanks for the info, I'll keep you posted. Journey to the End of Night has been in my library and on my read list as long as Proust."

Great! Céline is definitely one of my favourite authors. You can't go wrong starting with 'Journey' but his distinctive style doesn't really appear until his subsequent novels.

Dave wrote: "Dave wrote: "Do you think the info provided by Saint Loup, Aime (about both letters) and the various letters from Albertine and her Aunt? Irregardless of what the Narrator thinks at this point, I'm..."

I'm sorry Dave, I didn't have time to reply yesterday as it was getting late here in the UK. I found the letters between the narrator and Albertine the weirdest as they were just playing games with each other. The letters from Aimé seemed to suggest that he used the opportunity to have a bit of a spree at the narrator's expense. But I didn't have any other suspicions.

I'm just going to re-read some of the letters and see what I think now that I've progressed a bit further in the novel.

Dave wrote: "Based on your reference to Celine Jonathan, I bought "Rigadoon". I should have looked closer, it is volume three of a trilogy. Have you read the trilogy? Are his books difficult to read? "

He's not a 'difficult' writer as such, certainly not like Joyce for example, but his style is quite off-putting to some readers. The usual route is probably to read his first book, Journey to the End of the Night first, then Death on the Installment Plan, which covers his childhood in Paris at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, and then if you still like his writing to tackle the post-war trilogy, Castle to Castle, North and Rigadoon - the trilogy is superb but as with most of his post-war stuff he takes a while to release all the bile in him before he calms down - you'll see what I mean if you try it.

I don't think you'd have too much trouble launching straight into the trilogy - just remember that the first 70 pages of 'Castle to Castle' is not representative of the rest of the trilogy.

Alternatively you may try Normance which I only read quite recently and thought might make a good starter for a Céline novice - see my review if you're interested. I'd be interested to know how you get on with him.