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.

Once again, the narrator's dreams and imagination surpass disappointing reality:

Alas, as soon as she stood before me, the fair dairymaid with the streaky locks, stripped of all the desires and imaginings that had been aroused in me, was reduced to her mere self. The quivering cloud of my suppositions no longer enveloped her in a dizzying haze.

I think the only things that he is not disappointed by are those that take him by surprise, such as sighting the aeroplane; is it because he can then see something real without any preconceptions?

I find it odd, since I've been reading ISOLT, that Proust (via the narrator) is disappointed in nearly everything and everyone when it doesn't live up to his ideal and that he, like Swann, only finds people and places interesting if they can find a comparison in art.

What are we to make of the narrator's revelation that 'I was not perhaps her lover in the full sense of the word...'? Is it all kissing and cuddling and groping her when she's asleep? Given that one minute he's exulting over her and then the next he's bored by her, it's difficult to understand fully what he means. Intriguing.

Renato wrote: "Speaking of Albertine, I still wish so much we could hear her side of the story. She's such a difficult character for me to understand..."

I think not knowing anything about her adds to the narrator's paranoia - we also can't be sure whether the narrator is being astute or just paranoid.

Having said that, I think the book Albertine by Jacqueline Rose will be interesting once we've finished ISOLT.

In connection with his attempts to discover what Albertine gets up to, the narrator states: 'We waste precious time on absurd clues and pass by the truth without suspecting it.' Is that also directed at us, the readers, do you think?

Renato wrote: "The highlight for me this week though was how it focused on the sense of hearing, when before it seemed that vision was the most important sense for him. Once more, it feels he's the captive here....."

I didn't really think of that Renato, but you may have something there; there's also the telephone call to Andreé and the effects of saying 'Albertine' or Swann saying 'Odette': '...and I had thought how potent, when all was said, was a Christian name which, in the eyes of the whole world including Odette herself, had on Swann's lips alone this possessive sense.'

Intriguing Dave. You're making the case for a re-read more enticing.

I know you've read a lot of supplementary material since finishing ISOLT; did they comment on these 'Easter eggs'?

Dave wrote: "Amen to that. Although now that I remember times past, I remember passing a woman in rush hour traffic once who was holding a book on top of the steering wheel in rush hour traffic. And the traffic..."

I hope she wasn't reading Crash! I occasionally see people reading whilst walking...I find that really impressive.

Dave wrote: "Britain has such great public transportation! I'm envious of being able to read on the way to work. All I was ever able to do was cuss other drivers."

It's actually quite nice reading on the bus in the morning...the morning is my favourite time for reading anyway...it wakes me up. It's not so good when there are noisy passengers though; there should be a 'reading section' on all public transport, where all idle chatter, leaky headphones and endless noises from electrical gadgets are banned! Or else!!...maybe a cork-lined bus?

Dave wrote: "I seem to have reached a certain level of accomplishment in reading Proust in that I can now successfully multitask watching TV with my wife while reading Proust. So far my wife is being gracious w..."

That's impressive Dave: simultaneously watching TV and reading Proust! Last week I actually read some Proust on the bus going to and from work which was quite impressive (for me). I usually read anyway but up until now I'd left Proust to the weekend or when I was at home.

What did your wife say when you mentioned that you were re-reading ISOLT? Did she groan? :-)

Renato wrote: "It was really beautiful, Marcelita.

I remember vaguely that I read somewhere that this volume was the last one he was able to revise. Do you know if he completed its revision?"

The Penguin introduction to The Prisoner has this info:

All editions of it are based on three typescripts held in the Bibliothèque Nationale (now Bibliothèque de France) in Paris: the first quarter of the first typescript had been corrected by Proust before his death and further clean copies made, but it had not yet been given the bon à tirer (ready to print).

It goes on to say that Jacques Rivière and Marcel's brother Robert Proust corrected the text in order to get a publishable text. There have been subsequent editions with added supplementary material since then.

I'm looking forward to reading the Carter bio and discovering loads of info.

I'm sure I read somewhere that most of The Captive was more or less in its raw state but I'm sure Marcelita can set us straight.

Renato wrote: "I wonder if he'll get creepier and actually tie her down or something so the title will be literal...."

I thought the part where he was watching Albertine sleep was quite beautiful until I started to think how creepy and jealous the narrator is and then I started to think that his ideal woman might be one that's drugged and/or unconscious!

Did you notice that after the sleeping episode there is then a paragraph that starts 'Sometimes it afforded me a pleasure that was less pure.'?

We also get this quote:

For the possession of what we love is an even greater joy than love itself.

Renato wrote: "It feels so good to start a new volume! The week I spent without reading Proust - as busy as I was - felt a little weird.

In thinking of that, I realized that Proust has been with me in four diffe..."

Proust as a travelling companion? Who would've thought it?

I hope the new place is pleasant.

Dave wrote: "I can't say I was surprised when I came to the Narrator's name. And I didn't really have an opinion. It..."

I knew the narrator's name before I started reading ISOLT anyway, so it wasn't a surprise what it was. I wonder if Proust would have removed it if he'd lived to edit it as he did the other volumes.

Dave wrote: "I got the three days from one of the reference books, I don't remember which one. I had identified that 60% of the volume (in the middle) occurred on one day by marking passages that indicate a shift in time. Since I have cheap ebooks they have no page numbers, but I calculated the l.."

I like the idea of this volume being over a short period. Already the style seems quite modern - the previous volumes came across as quite old-fashioned, more nineteenth-century. I think others may disagree though.

Is The Fugitive over a short period also?

And when Albertine wakes the narrator feels that he possesses her even more...and she reveals his name!

I feel that it was a mistake of Proust's to name the narrator. We'd coped for four volumes without a named narrator so it doesn't seem necessary at this point. Albertine could just say 'My darling' or 'My love' with the same effect.

I found it extremely odd, given his intense jealousies, that he didn't read the letters that were, supposedly, in her kimono when she was asleep. Do we believe him?

Dave wrote: "The passage you quote is beautiful. It is interesting to observe that he can seem quite loving and unthreatened toward her when she is asleep in his presence. I think that may presage later developments..."

I suppose that when she's asleep she is no longer a threat as he, being the conscious one, is in total control. Would this be his ideal woman? A sleeping beauty.

The volume starts where S&G ended: with the narrator alternately claiming he loves Albertine and then saying that he doesn't. On the minus side her presence 'was an assuagement of suffering rather than a joy'. Well, it's not totally negative about her; but how about this - 'I wondered whether marriage with Albertine might not spoil my life...' because it would be 'depriving me for ever of the joys of solitude.'

On the plus side we do get this great quote:

Her blue, almond-shaped eyes - now even more elongated - had altered in appearance; they were indeed of the same colour, but seemed to have passed into a liquid state. So much so that, when she closed them, it was as though a pair of curtains had been drawn to shut out a view of the sea.

And we do get the beautiful passage near the end of this week's read where the narrator watches Albertine sleeping. Well, I found it beautiful. Do you find it beautiful or creepy? Given the narrator's obsessiveness it could be creepy.

Dave has mentioned that The Captive takes place over three days and I noticed that the synopsis in the Penguin version notes when each day starts - the Vintage synopsis doesn't. In the Penguin version day two starts on p.70; as the reading schedule took us to p.65 it seemed more sensible to carry on to the end of day one as it seemed to me a more natural stopping point. In my Vintage version day two starts on p.100 (the same as the Modern Library pagination I believe) with the sentence 'I had promised Albertine that, if I did not go out with her, I would settle down to work.'

BTW day three starts on p.102 (Penguin) or p.146 in the Vintage & Modern Library versions starting with 'The morning after the evening when Albertine had told me...'

So I guess the bulk of the book must take place on day three...