From the Bookshelf of The Year of Reading Proust…

Sodom and Gomorrah (In Search of Lost Time, #4)

Marcel Proust,

C.K. Scott Moncrieff (Translator)

Start date: July 1, 2013

Finish date: September 1, 2013

Discussion: Sodom and Gomorrah, vol. 4

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 9 topics — 1,218 comments total

Sodom and Gomorrah, vol. 4

Through Sunday, 1 Sept.: Sodom and Gomorrah
By Jason · 95 posts · 122 views

last updated Sep 07, 2013 06:29PM

Through Sunday, 25 Aug.: Sodom and Gomorrah
By Jason · 135 posts · 99 views

last updated Sep 01, 2013 07:34AM

What Members Thought

Jan 08, 2013 Alanood Burhaima rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Probably the most HILARIOUS volume (YET)!

But also very sad with the most beautiful passages and more social commentaries which keep the pages turning.
I guess my favorite chapters are chapter 1, which includes the grandmother scene (The intermittences of the heart) and chapter 4.
This time, I decided to compare translations midway through reading this volume and came to the conclusion that the modern library edition is better than the one I'm currently reading (Penguin classics) so I'll have to s Probably the most HILARIOUS volume (YET)!

But also very sad with the most beautiful passages and more social commentaries which keep the pages turning.
I guess my favorite chapters are chapter 1, which includes the grandmother scene (The intermittences of the heart) and chapter 4.
This time, I decided to compare translations midway through reading this volume and came to the conclusion that the modern library edition is better than the one I'm currently reading (Penguin classics) so I'll have to switch to the modern library translation even though I really hate to have my set incomplete.

Here is a couple of funny passage:

"Certain things about this liftboy were extremely irritating: whatever I might have said to him, he would break in with a phrase, "I'll say!' or 'Imagine!', which seemed to signify either that my remark was so self-evident that anyone at all might have thought of it, or else to transfer its merits on to himself as if it were he who had drawn my attention to it. 'I'll say!' and 'Imagine!', exclaimed with the utmost vigor, came to his lips every two minutes, for things that would never have entered his head, which so irritated me that I at once began saying the opposite, to show him he understood not the first thing. But to my second assertion, incompatible though it was with the first, he would still answer: 'I'll say!' or 'Imagine!', as if these words were inevitable.'"

This is Mme. Verdurin describing to the narrator how it feels like to visit the Cambremers at Feterne:

'"Oh, by the way, if you like rats, go there at once, you will get as many as you want. and they will keep you there as long as you are prepared to stay. Why, you'll die of hunger. I'm sure, when I go there, I shall have my dinner before I start. (LOL!) The more the merrier, you must come here first and escort me. We shall have high tea, and supper when we get back. Do you like apple tarts? Yes, very well then, our chef makes the best in the world. You see, I was quite right when I told you that you were meant to live here. There is more room in the house than people think. I don't speak of it, so as not to let myself in for bores." ...more

Like · see review