Through Sunday, 18 Aug.: Sodom and Gomorrah

[Jocelyne]

Kalliope wrote: "Jocelyne wrote: "
..."

If you want them in French, this is the edition I have:

Lettres choisies"

Yes, I definitely would prefer them in French. Merci, Kalliope.

[Elizabeth]

Jocelyne: there is a good paperback Penguin edition; I have just searched my bookshelves in vain for it...I saw it just the other day...at least I found my copy of Saint-Simon, which I've been looking for for 3 weeks. And it was where I'd looked a hundred times before. So if that Penguin edition turns up I'll let you know. In the meantime, I have a hardback called Madame de Sévigné : A Life and Letters translated by Frances Mossiker, which is excellent. It has a lot of commentary and illustrations. Darn Penguin edition. I know I saw it last week.
Oh, I found another one: a somewhat older hardback edition: it's called Selected Letters of Madame de Sévigné translated & edited by H.T Barnwell, published by Dutton & Co as part of its Everyman library. I think I'd recommend the Mossiker.
On an unrelated but Proustian note, I just made a huge score in my online take-no-prisoners scrabble game with one of my sisters-in-law with the word "toque." Hah!

[Kalliope]

Elizabeth wrote: "Jocelyne: there is a good paperback Penguin edition; I have just searched my bookshelves in vain for it...I saw it just the other day...at least I found my copy of Saint-Simon, which I've been loo..."

Elizabeth, seeing the interest you have in the period, I recommend this book: The King's Way

[Jocelyne]

Kalliope wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Jocelyne: there is a good paperback Penguin edition; I have just searched my bookshelves in vain for it...I saw it just the other day...at least I found my copy of Saint-Simon, w..."

I loved L'Allée du Roi. It is so funny, because just yesterday I noticed it on my bookshelf and thought I should re-read it.

@Elizabeth, thank you and congrats on the word toque.
By the way, do you know that 'toqué' can mean nutty?

[Kalliope]

Jocelyne wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Jocelyne: there is a good paperback Penguin edition; I have just searched my bookshelves in vain for it...I saw it just the other day...at least I found my copy ..."

I also want to reread L'Allée du Roi. I love the seventeenth century.

By the way, another jewel for the 17th century.. The film Vatel.. I think I mentioned this before because Proust mentions Vatel...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190861/

[ReemK10 (Paper Pills)]

Elizabeth wrote: "Trying it in two separate parts, I am. Reem: I think the article you quoted is dead on about Proust's attitude to love. It seems that he regarded himself as essentially unlovable. Was it guilt? W..."

Elizabeth that is a good point, I've always sensed that Proust does feel himself unlovable as well. It may have had to do with his desperation at wanting those kisses from his mother and not being confident of getting them from her or not.

For those who want to read Madame de Sevigne's letters:

http://archive.org/details/selections...

Welcome to unregistered! The wider brim of Albertine's hat is more becoming.

[Marcelita]

Unregistered* wrote: "thank you, Fionnuala

"
Unregistered, your timing is superb! I can see, in my mind's eye, Madame Verdurin's jaw and Albertine's hat and veil in Philippe Jullian's illustration.

Philippe Jullian...another world remembered, with Natalie Barney.
http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuillet...
http://strangeflowers.files.wordpress...

[Elizabeth]

Oh, I remember Natalie Barney from Colette...it in My Apprenticeships ? She calls her something else, and describes her dark apartment where Colette, tired of the shut shades, plopped a lantern down beside her dinner plate, and poor Natalie fled the room in tears.

[Elizabeth]

A bit of sly humor in this week's reading. And I would say at this point, it is Proust himself who is talking, as it were. Saint-Loup calls the Faithful "a small sect" and says he doesn't like those kind of groups, though some types do, and says: "You're one, my uncle Charlus is one." Heehee.
Sorry for the undignified giggle, but it seems as tho that is what Proust wanted to evoke...

[Kalliope]

Elizabeth wrote: "Oh, I remember Natalie Barney from Colette...it in My Apprenticeships ? She calls her something else, and describes her dark apartment where Colette, tired of the shut shades, plopped a lantern dow..."

Now that Elizabeth mentions Colette... this I took inside the Palais Royal court and gardens. Time to revisit Colette....

[Elizabeth]

I think often of her comment, "The children in the garden[of the Palais Royale] are not as noisy this year," when I can no longer hear my kitchen timer go off if I am more than two rooms away...

[Kalliope]

Elizabeth wrote: "I think often of her comment, "The children in the garden[of the Palais Royale] are not as noisy this year," when I can no longer hear my kitchen timer go off if I am more than two rooms away..."

That is a great quote. They should have added it to the plaque...!!

[Ce Ce]

Elizabeth wrote: "A bit of sly humor in this week's reading. And I would say at this point, it is Proust himself who is talking, as it were. Saint-Loup calls the Faithful "a small sect" and says he doesn't like those kind of groups, though some types do, and says: "You're one, my uncle Charlus is one." Heehee.
Sorry for the undignified giggle, but it seems as tho that is what Proust wanted to evoke."

Elizabeth, this is more of what I was referring to last week...faithful as in religious, sect or salon attendees...and perhaps interchangeable.

Do you know where this was stated in this section? I didn't catch it.

[Ce Ce]

I agree this week's section is darker...or maybe more urgent. In line with the theme of precious time, life's work and mortality...this passage was so quietly exquisitely eloquent...an epiphany of truth

"Swann, before his death, might have answered the question, he who had been a connoisseur of phantoms. Of phantoms pursued, forgotten, sought anew, sometimes for a single meeting, in order to establish contact with an unreal life which at once faded away, these Balbec roads were full. When I reflected that their trees - pear-trees, apple-trees, tamarisks - would outlive me, I seemed to be receiving from them a silent counsel to set myself to work at last, before the hour of eternal rest had yet struck." ML p 560

[Elizabeth]

Cece: it was right before the end of the reading, about a page or so--or less.

[Ce Ce]

Elizabeth wrote: "Cece: it was right before the end of the reading, about a page or so--or less."

hmmmm...I'm searching...but I haven't discovered it. I will post if I do!

[Ce Ce]

ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "At one point he gives us Mme Verdurin: " I was always bored to death of him." in which he adds: "(Translation: He went to the La Tremoilles and Guermantes and knew that I didn't.")" (MKE 504)

I was surprised to find this translation bit between parenthesis on the page in the middle of Mme Verdurin's uninterrrupted conversation.

Basically, it had me thinking of Proust thinking about what to put down on the page."

I, too, was startled and contemplated where that came from...wondering if it was a glimpse at Proust's thoughts informing the writing of the novel.

This afternoon I visited the "Impressionists on the Water" exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. After the exhibit we were wondering through some rooms...meandered through Rodin's sculpture court and turned a corner and came upon a workroom open for public view. In it two conservators are working on the restoration and conservation of an entire room...the Salon Dore from the Hotel de la Tremoille.

http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/legion...

[Ce Ce]

More info about the Salon Doré from the Hôtel de la Tremoille...

1781
Original Location: Hôtel de la Trémoille, Paris

Originally installed in the hôtel de la Trémoille, rue Saint-Dominique (formerly the hôtels de Neuchatel, de Bethune and de Chatillon) in 1781. It was designed for Jean-Bretagne-Godfroy, duc de la Trémoille et de Thouars (1737–1792) and his second wife, Marie-Maximilienne, princesse de Salm-Kirbourg, whose family lived in the hôtel de Salm (now the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur), which was the model for the Legion of Honor museum.

Edited...Proust certainly drew on an aristocratic name in the Tremoilles.

Members of the House of La Trémoille, were part of an old French family which derives its name from a village (the modern La Trimouille) in the department of Vienne.

The family has been known since the middle of the 11th century, and since the 14th century its members have been conspicuous in French history. To this family belonged the lines of the counts of Joigny, the marquises of Royan and counts of Olonne, and the marquises and dukes of Noirmoutier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_o...

Jean-Bretagne-Godfroy, duc de la Trémoille et de Thouars, belonged to the House of La Tremoille...for whom the Salon Dore was designed.

[Ce Ce]

Elizabeth, thank you for sacrificing a finger nail in your efforts to share Sapho's poetry. I love this fragment...and the knowledge that "There is a semi-apocryphal story that many fragments of her poems were found several thousand years after her death, having been torn up and used for mummy wrappings."

[ReemK10 (Paper Pills)]

Ce Ce wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "At one point he gives us Mme Verdurin: " I was always bored to death of him." in which he adds: "(Translation: He went to the La Tremoilles and Guermantes and knew tha..."

Ce Ce, thanks for sharing this link with us. The room is breathtaking! Also interesting the idea that rooms were sold. This room reminded me of a photo I posted before that was to set the stage for our lounge and our dressing up with the wigs. How wonderful is it that the Salon Dore is being rebuilt to be enjoyed by so many?! The timeline was fascinating. lol@ Mr. Rheem. I wonder if Otto Kahn is related to Proustitute.

Truly enjoyed exploring your link!!!

[Ce Ce]

ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Ce Ce, thanks for sharing this link with us. The room is breathtaking! Also interesting the idea that rooms were sold. This room reminded me of a photo I posted before that was to set the stage for our lounge and our dressing up with the wigs. How wonderful is it that the Salon Dore is being rebuilt to be enjoyed by so many?! The timeline was fascinating. lol@ Mr. Rheem. "

Poor Mr. Rheem may have been ripe for the plucking. A home called "La Dolphine" in Burlingame, CA? M & Mme Verdurin California style perhaps.

Ah, we humans are fickle with our foibles! ;-)

[Kalliope]

Ce Ce wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Ce Ce, thanks for sharing this link with us. The room is breathtaking! Also interesting the idea that rooms were sold. This room reminded me of a photo I posted before..."

CeCe,

Thank you for the link to the Salon Doré... I was also, like Reem, fascinated by the history line.... The Verdurins moving all the way to the West...Lol...