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.

Dave wrote: "Be sure to let us know who the fill-in-the-blank name on Renato's quote is in the Penguin edition - my vote is for Albertine ;-) "

No, it's not Albertine Dave. :-) Curiously it's Cottard in both the Penguin translation and the Vintage (MKE) edition.

Renato wrote: "In this week's read, it got a little bit confusing for me due to the notes regarding the 1927 and 1989 editions. Some passages were added, some were removed. And apparently all are in my edition. I..."

Yes, I noticed in my reading of this last volume differences between my Vintage (MKE) version and the Penguin version. I've decided to keep to the Penguin edition for this one as it seems more complete - I'll probably now try to avoid making comparisons between the two. Sometimes too much info in footnotes etc. can actually be distracting; it's useful when you want to go back and investigate though. Your Portuguese editions seem to be comprehensive Renato.

There's no turning back now!

I'm going to try to catch up this weekend as I've been concentrating on other reading...I know, Mme Verdurin wouldn't allow such traitorous behaviour!

Interesting points Dwayne. The narrator also likes watching Albertine awake. I'm not sure if he's enjoying her innocence or it's when he feels he can catch her off guard...maybe a bit of both?

Sounds like I'm going to have fun when I get on to this week's reading. :-) BTW I'm switching to the Penguin version for the last volume.

Thanks for the confirmation regarding Juliette. I was surprised there wasn't a note in the book.

Dave wrote: "I bought a 3 volume set from Abe's books translated by M & K in 1981. My God, the three volumes weigh in at 8.4lbs! Each volume is as thick as an unabridged dictionary..."

Phew! Heavy maaan! I first became aware of Proust by seeing these ****ing huge books at my local library - they were the old 3-volume Penguin version. I was intrigued, but they used to scare the crap out of me!

Also, the cover of the Penguin edition has a detail from a painting by René Xavier Prinet called The Balcony. I hadn't heard of the artist but he looks like a good choice as some of his other paintings are set in Cabourg (aka Balbec) - see this blog for pics by Prinet.

I'm reading the MKE version but I've got a physical Penguin copy to hand and I've noticed that occasionally there are extra sentences in the Penguin version. Now, in one of the other volumes I thought that there were extra sentences but instead they were just in a different position in the book. I realise that this volume has undergone a lot of revisions since it was first published so I guess we shouldn't be too surprised.

I usually avoid reading introductions to books before I've finished them as they often contain spoilers but I've skimmed through the introduction to the Penguin version trying to avoid the bits where he comments on the narrative and concentrate on the parts about the different editions.

In this introduction Ian Patterson mentions that the first edition was put together by Robert Proust and Jean Paulhan in 1927 but he says that it was 'not entirely an accurate presentation of what Proust had written.' Clarac and Ferré published a revised text in 1954 in which they moved back the start point of the book by seven pages - n.b. this explains the difference between the Penguin & MKE versions. He explains that the 1988 Pléiade version restored the original start point as well as many corrections, insertions etc.

The English translation history is even more confusing. Moncrieff died before he could translate it and so Sydney Schiff translated it. In the U.S. it was translated by Frederick A Blossom. In 1970 Andreas Mayor translated it based on the 1954 Pléiade edition which was updated by Kilmartin and then Enright in 1992 - this is my Vintage version. Patterson also mentions that Mayor 'also did quite a lot of unacknowledged editing of his own, transposing the order of sentences or omitting words or phrases, occasionally sentences. Enright did not correct all these.'

Oh dear! I'm caught in the dilemma again: MKE or Penguin? I'm tempted to jump back to Penguin for this last volume....

I was glad that Proust revealed some more info about Sanilon (he sent a letter to Marcel regarding his article) as I thought that was going to be left hanging. For some reason the mysterious nature of Sanilon was bugging me.

I was curious as to why Proust mentions Octave as 'I'm a wash-out'?

And who is Juliette? Marcel says: 'I saw a lot of Andrée at this time. We did not know what to say to each other, and once there came into my mind that name, Juliette, which had risen from the depths of Albertine's memory like a mysterious flower.' Was she one of the band of girls?

Marcelita wrote: "Another present? Au contraire...some would considered this a distracting drug. ;)

Because Proust read voraciously, he reminds me of a intellectual-hoarder...filling his novel with unknown referenc..."

Thanks for the links Marcelita, they'll keep me busy.

Good old Melvyn Bragg. He's a bit of a national institution.

Dave wrote: "Good point. I was struck by Marcel's ability to just "let it go" when he go no answer."

He keeps claiming that he doesn't think about Albertine but then he's obviously thinking of her when he asks Gilberte about her. Also, in the section describing his walk through wartime Paris he says:

Ah! if Albertine had been alive, how delightful it would have been, on the evenings when I had dined out, to arrange to meet her out of doors, under the arcades!

He then says 'But alas, I was alone...'

This was my favourite part of this week's reading.

MMR. wrote: "Also, I really enjoyed Proust's descriptions of Paris during the hours after 9:30 when the lights were all suddenly turned out. Some lovely and poignant passages...."

I loved this little section as well, MMR. It reminded me of a similar passage in The Guermantes Way when Marcel visited St-Loup in Doncières. He goes for a winter's nighttime walk around the nearly deserted town, looking up at the 'amphibious' inhabitants of the houses.

When Marcel is talking to Gilberte about Albertine, at first he seems convinced that she doesn't know about their relationship; he talks vaguely of a girl whom he couldn't decide to marry. A little later he does wonder to himself whether Gilberte knows more than he thinks she does. I love all this evasion as it's so real to life. When we're reading it we want the characters to be open and discuss everything so we can find out everything...but that just doesn't happen in real life.

Dave wrote: "A couple of small details that I didn't notice the first time: Saint Loup used Cocaine "excessively" at Tansonville (next to last page this week).

"Although Saint Loup and I did not attend the Lyc..."

I know, I was amazed with this little bit of info about the excessive use of cocaine. I wonder if it was actually illegal at the time...after all it was used in Coca-Cola originally.

I just checked online and found that it was made illegal in the U.S. in 1922.

Dave wrote: "Another aspect of the book I have been thinking about is how little chronological time is portrayed in the action. 100 page dinner parties, receptions, etc. but then very brief moments are portraye..."

But within these short, intense periods he does flit back and forth in time, filling in bits of detail here and there. Even in The Captive I think there were bits where he was remembering past events, especially at the Verdurins'.

I don't worry too much about trying to pin the narrative down to any specific date, but it's impossible to remain totally aloof from it; admittedly there are clues although I suspect I don't pick up on most of them.

Dave wrote: "Marcel mentions that going to Tansonville is a nuisance because he is keeping a girl in Paris. After musing on this for a paragraph he says "And before I could go to Tansonville I had to make her p..."

I noticed the mention of his new woman in Paris and thought 'well Marcel's up to his old tricks again'. It leads to this quote which I thought was revealing:

For even if one love has passed into oblivion, it may determine the form of the love that is to follow it.

That's another good point Dave about the similarities between Marcel's and Swann's life. I wonder who the friend is? And can Marcel really trust him?

I feel that the narrator is once again very calm. During the episode with Albertine he was paranoid and overwrought but now he seems to be back to his relatively calm, meditative state.

Dave wrote: "Your comments have me back snooping around the end of The Fugitive Jonathan. Can you quote a couple of sentences about Odettte depending on Gilberte please so I can find it. ..."

It's near the end of the book (p930 of my 936 page MKE version). It's where the narrator is explaining that Odette didn't like the match between Gilberte & St-Loup initially but she and St-Loup connived to get money out of Gilberte. The section starts 'There was another person, who changed her tune, namely Mme Swann...'

I find it a little odd that Odette seems to have no money whatsoever and that she relies on money from Gilberte. I would have expected her to have got her hands on some of Swann's and Forcheville's funds. She came across in the earlier volumes as pretty good at extracting money from men, but then maybe she was equally good at spending it.

I decided to re-read chapter 4 before embarking on Time Regained, especially as it follows on quite seamlessly. It's fascinating that the narrator thinks that Saint-Loup's homosexualisation originated when St-Loup noticed that Morel looked like Rachel...even though the narrator doesn't notice the similarity.