Reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 2014 discussion
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Sunny
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Dec 30, 2013 02:26PM
Oh, you're right. But, I just don't think I want to read TWO really long stories at the same time. (I typically read a few shorter, contemporary books while also reading a long, classic book. But, I'm hopeful that I when I finish it, I can jump in and catch up with the group for this one. I'm definitely intrigued!
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I am in the middle of reading Camus' works, not sure if I can continue that with something like Proust. I think it may also be about not wanting to be in the middle of multiple thought processes.
Hi everyone. Very happy to join this group. What a good way to make it through a formidable book. I too am making my way through 1001 books to read, which is how I found this group.I really haven't been exposed to Proust before. I bought a copy of the book on iTunes and I've ordered the Paintings in Proust book, so I'm ready to begin.
Hello to all of you fellow Proust readers, I will read the book with you this year, but as French is my mother tongue, I will do it in the original language, ( I'll make some unwanted mistakes in my English comments, sorry about that). Any body else who would like to join me with À la recherche du temps perdu?
Good Proust year to all of you!
Audrey wrote: "Hello to all of you fellow Proust readers, I will read the book with you this year, but as French is my mother tongue, I will do it in the original language, ( I'll make some unwanted mistakes in..."
Cool! Lucky you. French was my first language, but immigration to Australia changed that. And I'm now lucky to read through a couple of sentences in French before feeling exhausted.
Cheers
Joni
Sorry about that Alia, I'm new to goodreads and didn't notice the folder system. So, to stay on topic in this folder: I've read the novel before, Swann's Way more than once. My favorite volume is "In a budding grove". I first read Swann's Way on my mom's computer, having downloaded the Gutenberg Project version. Many years later my retinas still burn from exposure to her old 15'' CRT. After that I read bits and pieces in various translations until I got the Moncrieff & Kilmartin version. Now I'm here to reread while testing your patience with stupid questions.
Hello everyone! I'm Mariane, from Brazil and I've been wishing to read Proust for quite a while now. Swann's Way has been lying on my bedside since last year but I haven't had the courage to actually start reading it. I was thrilled to find this group and believe the discussions and the act of sharing the reading with someone else will encourage me. I'll be reading a portuguese edition and try to catch up with you guys. Sorry if I make some mistakes in my english (I'm a little rusty!)
Hi everyone. I am excited and nervous to be joining this group. I am newish to Goodreads and this is my first reading group experience. I hope I will be able to keep up with the schedule as I definitely don't have as much personal reading time as I would like.Having said that I am really looking forward to not only the reading of but also the discussion of Proust's work. I have read 1 1/2 volumes prior to this (many years ago) but am in need of a rereading. It is one book that I REALLY want to complete - so here goes, let the reading begin.
What a joy to read about everyone's experiences, methods and intentions here!I'm Dwayne in San Francisco, CA (anyone else here?) and am starting to read Proust for the second time after, like many others, having set the book aside for two years after making it through just 70 or so pages.
I recently finished my undergrad degree in marketing (though I'm 37) and thought that now would be the perfect time to start the path Proust set down for us.
And what is that thing that has been said?..... "Middle age is when one comes to the realization that he'll never read Proust..."
I didn't want that to be me!
I'm reading an old Random House Lifetime Library two-volume edition, one volume of which is a discarded book from the Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, CA. The history of the second volume is different but unknown -- picked it up from a used book store to accompany the first volume.
I started again over the holidays at my family's house back in Virginia and am absolutely in love with it. Those first 70 pages, the ones that put me to sleep two years ago, lit me up with intense feelings and up-welling experiences ... and absolute admiration for Proust and his work. Those seemingly interminable sentences that confused the heck out of me before made perfect sense, with a slow patient reading, and provided insight into the human condition like I'd never experienced from an author before.
Basically, I'm obsessed. Glad to know others are reading it as well and I look forward to sharing with all of you!
Hello to everyone. I've enjoyed reading your introductions.Although I first learned of Proust in college, I became enamored of the idea of reading In Search of Lost Time in its entirety after my best friend related that she had done so on a road trip. She and her three brothers were traveling across the U.S, and they entertained one another in the car by reading Proust aloud - every volume!
That was more than a few years ago, and I've tried several times to read Swann's way. The first four or five times I would fall asleep after about 30 pages. But that was okay. I loved the story of the little boy wanting his mother's good night kiss. Such a restful bedtime story for me! When I read past that, maybe another 40 pages, I delighted in his recounting of so many experiences and sensations. I did not finish the book however, so now I'm going to try again. I'm starting about three weeks in, but I think I can catch up. Using a book from the library for now, but I'm hoping to get better editions before too long.
I'm excited about this adventure and having people to share the adventure along the way.
Mod
I think it's a good idea reading Proust over a year as it allows us 'breathing room' between sections. I've got a bit of a love/hate relationship with the long, convoluted sentences - but I'm coping!
Hi everyone.
I know I'm coming in a bit late. Fortunately, I had already planned on attempting to read the entire Search this year, so I've already begun reading and am not behind where you all are at!
Anyway, I thought it would be nice to read alongside others, as well as be held accountable to finish (I understand The Captive & The Fugitive can be a bit of a drag).
I look forward to sharing this experience with all of you.
I know I'm coming in a bit late. Fortunately, I had already planned on attempting to read the entire Search this year, so I've already begun reading and am not behind where you all are at!
Anyway, I thought it would be nice to read alongside others, as well as be held accountable to finish (I understand The Captive & The Fugitive can be a bit of a drag).
I look forward to sharing this experience with all of you.
Hi Everyone! I am very late here, but not too late! I've read the first volume 'Swann's Way' when I was in my early 20s and absolutely loved it. Never did get around to reading the other volumes, though. I think these books are really books that benefit from discussion, so I am so glad that this group has started up.I guess I will spend the next week catching up and then join in once I have gotten to where everyone else is.
cheers!
I started re-reading Search this January using the new Lydia Davis translation of Swann. I have been referring to literary criticism as I read but not being satisfied with that I looked on Goodreads for a group and found you. My first reading of Search was really only an attempt. When I lived (very briefly) in Paris years ago I sat outside the Deux Magots struggling with the French. This was not a success.
Since then I've read it in the Moncrieff/Kilmartin version and I've re-read Swann's Way a number of times. Recently I watched Temps Retrouve, the movie, and realized it was time to go back again.
I'm looking forward to learning a good deal from the folks in this group.
Cue the trumpets! I have finally finished War & Peace. And NOW, I will start my Proust journey with this fine crew. Pardon me, while I play catch up! :)
And, as you start your Proust journey,Sunny, I will start mine into "War and Peace" which, to my great shame, I have never read. Enjoy "Swann's Way!"
I recently finished 'Swann's Way' and decided that I needed to "cleanse my palate" and read something else. After a few days I found myself rereading sections of 'Swann's Way' and diving into 'Within a Budding Grove'. I'm sure I will fall behind the reading schedule, as slow and steady seems to be the best way for me to enjoy Proust, but I'm excited to join in the conversation and discover what others have to say about the novel. I'm finding that as I move into volume 2 I feel more at ease with the rhythm and structure of Proust's writing.
I couldn't find a member reviews section. We really should have one. I am behind schedule here, but here is my review of Swann's Way: Proust as Meditation
Hello all! I've been flirting with the thought of finally picking up Swann's Way for some time now. Today, I vacillated quite a bit, finally taking the plunge thanks to a wonderful review by Riku. I'm aware that I'm very behind; I'll do my best to catch up, but I'm just glad to have the opportunity to exchange ideas on this platform!
Amrit wrote: "Hello all! I've been flirting with the thought of finally picking up Swann's Way for some time now. Today, I vacillated quite a bit, finally taking the plunge thanks to a wonderful review by Riku. ..."Glad that I did my good deed for the week! :) We both have a lot of catching up to do here! But don't let that dictate the speed.. best to let Proust set the pace. There are times to speed up and times to crawl in this one.
Mod
Hi, Renato! Welcome to the group. I'm sure you'll have no trouble catching up. :)
Hi everyone, I'm Steve. Just joined the group. I'm a writer, I live in Montclair, NJ. Blog is TheNumerati.netI started reading Proust in the mid-90s. I found individual paragraphs and sentences startlingly great, but dozed between them. I found the writing (Moncrief) tangled, and I couldn't imagine reading the whole book. I stopped at the end of the first Combray section.
In '98, I moved to Paris for four years. I worked hard on French and read a lot of the 19th century writers (Maupassant, Flaubert, Stendahl) but stayed away from Proust, figuring it was too difficult and too long. Last fall we went to France and traveled with our son, who was studying over there. So for a week I enjoyed French. And I wondered if that would be the story of my French for the rest of my life: A week every year or two to order meals, ask directions, and get into an occasional chat. Then it occurred to me that if I sat down and read Proust, I could live in French. It would be like a junior year abroad, circa 1904.
So I downloaded the whole Recherche in ebook just before Thanksgiving, and took off. What I found to my delight was that Proust flows beautifully in French. He's no harder than Flaubert, and easier than Celine (less slang). It works. And I especially like reading it on a machine. This way I can expand the words and have them flow across the screen like a stream. With books, by contrast, I tend to look at eternal paragraphs covering two pages, and groan.
I'm pretty far ahead of you, about halfway through vol. 4, Sodome & G. I'll avoid spoilers, but I will say that I was surprised this morning to find myself, after months away from them, back with the "petit clan" of the Verdurins. So much catching up to do with them!
Stephen wrote: "Then it occurred to me that if I sat down and read Proust, I could live in French."I envy your reading it it French. I've been reading a number of classics the past few years, but, sadly, I only read English, so many of the books I've read have been translations.
Stephen wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm Steve. Just joined the group. I'm a writer, I live in Montclair, NJ. Blog is TheNumerati.netI started reading Proust in the mid-90s. I found individual paragraphs and sentences st..."
Welcome to the group!
Strangely so, I first read La recherche in French (that's my mother tongue) and later did a few incursions in Moncrieff's translation finding, in my case, the translated text to be somewhat more limpid. But perhaps was it because of the initial clearing of brushwood in French.
I think clearing that brushwood would have a lot to do with it. But I'm enjoying the French in a conscious way that I never do with my native English. I'm getting kicks out of bits of grammar and vocabulary that would seem utterly banal to you. I find myself celebrating knowing it, enjoying finding that "parlasse" about a page and a half after some indication that a past subjunctive was on its way. I also celebrate his grammatical virtuosity, which may in fact be little more than being fluent. Perhaps it seems natural to you, the way Updike might to me. But I am constantly congratulating him for always remembering to put -aient on the third person plural, and remembering to put all vowels in the right order! These thrills are foreign to the native.
Stephen wrote: "I think clearing that brushwood would have a lot to do with it. But I'm enjoying the French in a conscious way that I never do with my native English. I'm getting kicks out of bits of grammar and v..."Yes, that's amusing! You probably feel the same wonderment that is mine when I read Spanish and see the subjunctive so beautifully conjugated...
Proust's writing, even for a French native speaker, is anything but banal. He sometimes teeters on the verge of proper syntax. I forget who accused him of that, perhaps Gide? And thank God for the past subjunctive to be on its way out: it took me a moment to figure at what "parlasse meant exactly, (some unorthodox way of speaking? some overdrawn discourse?).
I always say that to speak or write French correctly you do have to be a bit of a virtuoso, you cannot possibly start a sentence on the wrong footing, catch yourself up and correct the sentence as you go along. It seems to me that English is more forgiving in that sense, but it might be because I am less conscious of my mistakes in English than in French.
I always wanted to use the past subjunctive in French, because it's so common and necessary in Spanish. When I studied in Madrid many years ago, I took an entire university course on the subjunctive. So I'm happy to see Proust using it.
The latest Proust-related news in New York City is the opening, on September 27th, of a grand bookstore named...ALBERTINE. It will be located in the French Consulate on 5th Avenue, near the Metropolitan Museum.
http://frenchculture.org/books/news/a...
Antonin Baudry, the Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy, is a committed Proustian. He read, in bed, during French Culture's "Nomadic Reading" of Swann's Way in 2013.
http://frenchculture.org/books/events...
List of the readers:
http://frenchculture.org/Proustian-No...
And..here is a video of Antonin discussing Proust.
"In conjunction with the French Embassy's centennial celebration of the publication of Proust's Swann's Way, Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy, Antonin Baudry spoke to CUNY TV about the enduring relevance of Proust. He argues that the author is not only important to the history of literature, but also psychoanalysis and philosophy. Proust's work is still relevant today, Baudry argues, because it is universal, "it describes all the internal mechanisms we discover in ourselves." And, of course, it is also fun." FC site
http://frenchculture.org/books/interv...
Proustian Sarah McNally, owner of McNally-Jackson Books, helped select the books.
As Sarah is a member of our reading group, we will all be there to gather more books for our sagging bookshelves. ;)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/fas...
Mod
Renato wrote: "What a great name for a bookstore! I'm going to NYC next year and I'll stop by :-)"When you visit NYC, we must meet. Promise?
Silvia L, from Buenos Aires is here now, visiting NYC for the first time. She has been on the Proust pilgrimages to Combray and Paris and will come for dinner this weekend and share her tales!
I met her online…all Proustians seem like my extended cousins. ;)
Mod
Reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 2014
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