From the Bookshelf of Reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 2014…

La Prisonnière

Marcel Proust

Start date: August 31, 2014

Finish date: October 11, 2014

Discussion: The Captive & The Fugitive

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The Captive & The Fugitive

Week ending 11/15: The Fugitive, finish
By Renato · 45 posts · 26 views

last updated Dec 17, 2014 08:15AM

Week ending 10/04: The Captive, to page 462 / location 444610
By Renato · 80 posts · 19 views

last updated Dec 15, 2014 09:04AM

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May 06, 2014 Stephen Baker rated it liked it

This one took me months, almost as long as the previous four combined. I'm thinking that I do better with Proust in cold weather, where I don't mind sitting inside and reading in the afternoon. In any case, it was a claustrophobic read, much of it taking place in the narrator's Paris apartment, where he was keeping his lover (of sorts), Albertine, a captive. The reason for this captivity, absurd as it sounds coming from Proust, was to keep Albertine from having sex with other women. He loves Alb This one took me months, almost as long as the previous four combined. I'm thinking that I do better with Proust in cold weather, where I don't mind sitting inside and reading in the afternoon. In any case, it was a claustrophobic read, much of it taking place in the narrator's Paris apartment, where he was keeping his lover (of sorts), Albertine, a captive. The reason for this captivity, absurd as it sounds coming from Proust, was to keep Albertine from having sex with other women. He loves Albertine more as a possession, even a pet, than a person. This gets tiresome. What love he does feel for Albertine is fueled mostly by jealousy.

In many ways, thia relationship mimics Swann's love for Odette (in the first volume), and St Loup's for Rachel (in the third). They all involve rich men with much poorer women who are either prostitutes or lesbians, or both. And all the men suffer from very similar bouts of jealousy. It makes you wonder how much of the Swann in Love story is "true," since the narrator is writing it following his own jealousy-poisoned relationship with Albertine.

Of course it's a bit silly to speculate about what's true and what's not in a book of fiction. But if you think about it, every work of fiction has a live connection to the author, whose life is real. So you have the narrator, who like Proust is an author, and he is mining his own life, which has strong parallels to Proust's own, to write his big book, which is Proust's. So the question for me is this: Was Proust's view of love so dominated by jealousy that he couldn't envision any other, and thus had to bestow upon his poor characters the same miserable experience? Or is he showing us that his narrator has the same jealousy bug, which prevents him from understanding the other characters in his life, raising important questions about the narrator's credibility?

I don't know. But I'm five volumes into this work, and there is not one romantic relationship that I find deep, real and convincing. Part of the problem might be that Proust, as a closeted gay man, was turning his male lovers into fictional women. (He admitted this either to Anatole France or Andre Gide, I can't remember which.) So there's something askew from the start. Even so, it would seem to me that a writer of his skills could transpose the deep love of a gay relationship into a straight one, if he had knowledge of that type of love. I doubt he did, which is sad.

The best part of the book is a musical party at the Verdurin's house, in which Baron de Charlus falls from the top of the world to the very bottom. ...more

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Feb 09, 2016 Sammy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Life is too short, and Proust is too long. - Anatole France (attributed, likely apocryphal)

With La Prisonnière (The Captive or The Prisoner), Proust's literary epic takes an unfortunate behind-the-scenes turn. The author had died in 1922, before he could finish the editing and revision of the last three volumes. It is one of those great literary tragedies, that we can never truly reconstruct the climaxes of his work, even if a century of scholarly pursuit has at least got us closer to understand ...more

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Jun 19, 2014 Dave rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: french-literature, literary-books

Proust is an acquired taste. If you've already read the first four volumes of "In Search of Lost Time" before starting this fifth volume you've a) acquired a taste for Proust; b) been assigned Proust in a class; c) are a masochist. If c, take heart, volume 5 has a strong theme of masochism in the storyline. Ironically, masochists may abandon Proust in this volume because they may begin to feel unwanted pleasure in relating to the narrator.
As for me, I've acquired a taste for Proust. Specifically Proust is an acquired taste. If you've already read the first four volumes of "In Search of Lost Time" before starting this fifth volume you've a) acquired a taste for Proust; b) been assigned Proust in a class; c) are a masochist. If c, take heart, volume 5 has a strong theme of masochism in the storyline. Ironically, masochists may abandon Proust in this volume because they may begin to feel unwanted pleasure in relating to the narrator.
As for me, I've acquired a taste for Proust. Specifically Proust "clicked" for me at the end of the third volume. Most everything you've come to love or hate in previous volumes is here again - lots of interior monologue (Proust's strong suite in my opinion), lengthy social scenes, references and allusions to art, music and literature, witty and banal repartee. What is different in this volume? For almost the entire volume this is a "winter" book, with almost all narrated action taking place indoors. 60% of the volume occurs on one day (Proust's Bloomsday?) in February 1906 (based on my close-reading of text). The social scene in this volume ends in high drama, the most dramatic scene in the first five volumes. There is a lengthy "heated argument" in this volume that is something new. By the end of this volume I was really struggling with my dislike of the narrator. I can't remember ever reading a book where I grew to think of the narrator as so unlikable - smart, but unlikable.
Proust requires patience and work. I've been reading steadily nearly daily at one hour intervals since March (now June 29). I give myself every advantage. I read the Scott Montcrieff translation (matches audiobook) ebooks while listening to the Naxos Audiobooks narrated by Neville Jason (also excellent). I highlight to keep track of time/place, characters, key plot-points and interesting quotes. After many false starts earlier in life, these methods have made Proust finally accessible to me at the age of 63. As this is a first reading for me, I consult no guidebooks or "notes" as a matter of personal preference.
Why do I rate it 5 stars? I find no issue with the cheap ebook versions I am using, the Moncrieff translation, or the Audiobook. As for the content, its a recognized masterpiece of world literature, that is good enough for me.
Who do I recommend it to? Those who read literature, students of literature, and masochists. ...more

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