{January} A Question of Upbringing

[Renato]

Glad you'll be joining us, Jonathan!

[Dawn]

Hi Jonathan - this is very light reading and enjoyable ! I do not think you will feel behind at all . I almost went ahead and read the next month's reading before I realized . I had to stop myself to allow things to absorb and discuss and enjoy . I am consulting the outside recommended reading too . The picture album is lovely and the handbook is nice to refresh your memory about characters and real time vs time in the book . I also have Powell's memoirs to consult when curiosity takes my mind away !

Such a great idea this Dance ~ Dawn

[Jonathan]

Thanks everyone. I hope to start soon; I've been reading Bleak House for most of January and I didn't want to interrupt my reading of that book.

I suppose the schedule just looks a bit much because I'm trying to fit it in amongst all the other books I'm trying to read (the same as everyone else, eh?). But I read Proust in a year and managed to read other books so I should be ok.

[Sunny]

Jonathan wrote: "Thanks everyone. I hope to start soon; I've been reading Bleak House for most of January and I didn't want to interrupt my reading of that book.

I suppose the schedule just looks a bit much becau..."

Jonathan, you'll have no problems. The books are comparatively short, and are easy-breezy reading. Proust was the mountain against which we will forever compare our book piles. LOL!

[Jonathan]

Travelling Sunny wrote: "Proust was the mountain against which we will forever compare our book piles. LOL! "

Thanks Sunny. It will be nice getting into another big read. Last year was mostly spent reading short stories and novellas. I wonder whether it's good or not comparing this book with Proust...I think I'm going to try to avoid making comparisons between the two, at least until the end....I don't get the feeling that they're similar works, apart from the length. It will be interesting finding out though.

[Sunny]

So far - and this is only one book in - the only similarity that I can find is the concept of following a person (or in this case, persons) as they grow and change through Time, with a capital T.

[Algernon (Darth Anyan)]

While looking through my notes from the first volume, I was curiously struck by a stanza that is discussed by teh boys in the field with Le Bas, something about the relationship between the sacred and the prophane, between the sheltered life of ideas and the need to live in the real world.

"And then we turn unwilling feet
And seek the world - so must it be -
We may not linger in the heat
Where breaks the blue Sicilian sea!"

I would like to find out more about the original poem and its context.

[Kalliope]

Algernon wrote: "While looking through my notes from the first volume, I was curiously struck by a stanza that is discussed by teh boys in the field with Le Bas, something about the relationship between the sacred ..."

I found that it comes from From Andrew Lang (1844-1912). From his Ballade to Theocritus, in Winter.

To be found in: The Selected Works of Andrew Lang

[Algernon (Darth Anyan)]

thank you!
that was quick ...

[Renato]

Jonathan wrote: "I wonder whether it's good or not comparing this book with Proust...I think I'm going to try to avoid making comparisons between the two, at least until the end....I don't get the feeling that they're similar works, apart from the length. It will be interesting finding out though."

I've seen a lot of similarities... I just can't help it, haha! But it seems to stand on its own as well.

[Darwin8u]

Renato wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "I wonder whether it's good or not comparing this book with Proust...I think I'm going to try to avoid making comparisons between the two, at least until the end....I don't get the ..."

I think of it as having Proust's structure, but Fitzgerald or Waugh's writing. Proust was way more stream of conscious, meditative, etc.. Fitzgerald's prose has a more layered, light, & crisp naturalism.

[Nigeyb]

I have never got very far with Proust but absolutely loved this series. People do often make the comparison though so there must be some similarities.

[Jonathan]

Ok, so I've finished Ch3 and it's really coming alive with the trip in France as I love all these characters. But the reappearance of Widmerpool was interesting. I liked the description of him, especially the 'exotic drabness' part:

Widmerpool had tidied himself up a little since leaving school, though there was still a kind of exotic drabness about his appearance that seemed to mark him out from the rest of mankind.

And the 'older' Jenkins-as-narrator mentions the difficulty of deciding what to with one's life - I still don't know what to do when I 'grow up' so I can identify with this:

This ideal conception―that one should have an aim in life―had, indeed, only too often occurred to me as an unsolved problem; but I was still far from deciding what form my endeavours should ultimately take.

[Kirsten]

I really enjoyed Book 1. It reminds me of many a Masterpiece Theater I've seen. The writing style is interesting. Thanks to all the people posting pictures. (I'm actually quite jealous as I have a h*** of a time posting pics on Goodreads).

The questions and discussion here is very good. (Do we have professors and students of English literature?) Very interested in book #2.