Week ending 04/26: Within a Budding Grove, finish

[Sunny]

I have finished volume two. Whew! I'm planning to take a break from Proust before I get started on the third volume, but to be honest - I'm just DYING to know at what point volume three picks up the story. Immediately after the summer holiday? Years later in his life? Hmmm...

[Jonathan]

I've just finished now as well. I thought it ended with a bit of a whimper really, though I've rushed my reading a bit near the end....I'm not a naturally fast reader I guess.

[Renato]

Just finished. Once again, really enjoyed an analogy: the last one, about Francoise opening the curtains.

[Jonathan]

Renato wrote: "Just finished. Once again, really enjoyed an analogy: the last one, about Francoise opening the curtains."

I sometimes tire of Proust's analogies but that one's a good one.

Sometimes he makes a point that's reasonably clear and then uses an analogy that makes the original point unclear. Mind you they're usually inventive and often funny.

[Jonathan]

I was glad to see the return of the hawthorns in this week's reading.

I shall probably have to re-read this week's and last week's as I read most of it lying on my back on the floor with back-ache! ouch! What a lovely Easter...I probably missed a lot of stuff.

[Renato]

Jonathan wrote: "Sometimes he makes a point that's reasonably clear and then uses an analogy that makes the original point unclear. Mind you they're usually inventive and often funny. "
Haha that is really true. Sometimes I have a hard time trying to associate an analogy to his original point.

And ouch about your Easter! Sorry about that. Hope your back-ache is gone though. :)

[Jonathan]

Although the narrator admits that Andrée's hands are finer than Albertine's, Albertine's hands are fleshier and more sensual. The narrator also has a thing for pink cheeks; I'm with him over hands but not cheeks.

[Jonathan]

We get another one of Proust's comic scenes when the narrator is rushing along to see Albertine in her room at the hotel. He's imagining what delights are in store for him; he casually barges Françoise out of the way; he's excited by those pink cheeks; goes in straight for a kiss - uh oh! Albertine's having none of this and rings the bell. Thwarted!

[Jonathan]

In the last few pages two quotes appealed to me:

Then the concerts came to an end, the weather turned bad and my girls left Balbec, not all at once, as the swallows leave, but within the same week.

Altogether, I had derived little benefit from being in Balbec, for which reason I was all the more determined to come back one day. I felt I had spent too short a time there.

[Renato]

So, has everybody finished? :)