2017: Our Year of Reading Proust discussion
Proust Prep: Ancillary Reading, Guides, Audio, etc.
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Swann's Way is - mostly - a fairly conventional novel, if you discard the initial Overture which very artfully conceals this fact for first time readers.I'd argue that Proust does not just "drop" Swann. First, he paints a different picture of him in V2. A man very different than the talented, sophisticated art collector and critic of the first book. Most of the major characters Proust describes are " different people" over time, or as time passes. (This initial confusion about the Overture is due primarily to the fact that the reader is expecting a narrator, but this short piece has many narrators, many different "Marcels" that share the story.
So, the character of Swann is not dropped, but shown again, as a very different man, from a different perspective. And the reason we have Swann is to set the stage for Marcel, who is, in a sense, another Swann. Obsessed, in love, with an unsuitable woman.
So while I agree with the "stick to it, it's worth i"t advice, I have a hard time with the "just skip stuff" until something becomes interesting.
I'd read everything, but just not worry if you feel lost or don't know what is going on. You know, like IRL, where you don't always know exactly what is going on, especially if you've just met some new people and don't quite know who these people really are.
One last point I'd make. You need to spend time with the book. Much better to have 5 one hour sessions reading it that 20 or 30 ten or fifteen minute reading blocks. Proust is not Lydia Davis or Raymond Carver. Large bites are better than small bites, especially in the first two books.
Dawn wrote: "Dear Elizabeth ~ I do admit I started off very ambitious about this reading journey! I did not think I was going to make it through his childhood for a bit until Swann entered ! I do have to admit ..."Reading: Frederick Douglass says of his slave mistress' refusing to (continue) to teach him to read, that she wished "to keep me shut up in mental darkness." What a phrase...mental darkness...how many people stumble around in it!
Keep reading, Dawn; heed my previous advice about skipping, as it were, when you get bogged down. Remember: there will be no test! Re quiz...certainly a thought...but after 20 years of teaching HS, I'm allergic to making out tests...
P.S. You know how Douglass learned to read? Sent out into Baltimore on various errands, he met other little boys his age, who were white. He remarks that, his owner family being quite well off, he had better food than they did. So he traded his lunches for reading lessons.
Can't wait to see what are your favorite bits...
http://theclassicsreader.tumblr.com/p...Click on this post here for a lovely thought from a quote from Proust's Letters collection I found to add to my Tumblr Blog . I find a wealth of lovely tidbits here and there from such lovely minds everywhere !
I am still reading but I find I pick a day a week to spend especially on Proust ! I enjoy him and I think he is is like a fine wine that you must slowly sip and enjoy every sensation .
Most times I am a speed reader but some books you want to take it all in slowly . I have noticed the trend of the serial novels are coming back recently too!
I have seen some I want to start right away !
Hope you all are well ... Dawn
Revisiting this group almost one year later to see if anyone finished? Is there talk of another group? I would like to give myself another chance!
Lori wrote: "Revisiting this group almost one year later to see if anyone finished? Is there talk of another group? I would like to give myself another chance!"Lori, I want to do it in 2018. I read Swann's way a couple of years ago and loved it; would like to commit to a group read if there is interest out there!
Kristen wrote: "Lori wrote: "Revisiting this group almost one year later to see if anyone finished? Is there talk of another group? I would like to give myself another chance!"Lori, I want to do it in 2018. I re..."
I would love to join you!
I am TOTALLY interested. I have read Proust all my life, nearly (I was ten when I picked up "Sodom and Gomorrah") and have read through ISOLT more times than I can count. Yes, the last group kind of petered out, it seems.
I'm glad to hear from everyone! I wish I had a secret potion that would keep me going this year. Work got too intense last year and I couldn't keep up. I'm hopeful that this year will grant me more time to do the reading. How about others?
Interested if there are members to read with
If you reside in the Los Angeles area, you can join in-person the Proust Readers Support Group Meetup in its fifth cycle (Oct 2017-1Q 2019) through ISOLT: www.Meetup.com/Proust. We are using Carter's Annotation of volumes 1 and 2. In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 2. If you are remote, able and willing, you can Skype/FaceTime into our Meetup sessions alternate Sundays at 10 AM PST. Join and ask the organizers. Happy Reading in 2018.
Alas. I am nowhere near LA and I have no idea how to skype. The thought was nice, though.
For those of us interested in a 2018 read on Goodreads - Lori, Paula, Elizabeth, Dan and maybe David - can we update this group for 2018, or should we form a new group? Other thoughts and ideas?
Oxford World Classics is publishing in January 2018 a new translation of the Swann in Love portion of Swann's Way. Is there interest in comparing this partial translation [by Brian Nelson] to Moncrieff, Kilmartin, Enright, Davis and Carter?
Mod
Group here is fine but there needs to be some one to try and organize the show. But having a 2018 group might help in gaining new members. Or that might be a 2018 group already forming. With only 4 or 5 members it might be tough to keep things going.
Dan wrote: "Group here is fine but there needs to be some one to try and organize the show. But having a 2018 group might help in gaining new members. Or that might be a 2018 group already forming. With only 4..."I thought I had posted to say I will try to set up for 2018, but it seems the post didn't go through. I am game to do this.
My main question would be if others in the group felt the schedule was too ambitious. I for one might consider reading the novels over two years. I got behind so quickly I couldn't believe it! I would go with the group consensus but my vote would be to slow things down a little.
I think I would also like to do it in one year.
Okay, I created a new page. Still have some organizing to do but I wanted to have it up and running for 1.1.18! Please join! Thanks and happy new year! https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
2017: Our Year of Reading Proust
Books mentioned in this topic
Swann in Love (other topics)In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (other topics)
Monsieur Proust (other topics)
Monsieur Proust (other topics)
Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to 'In Search of Lost Time' (other topics)
I'm definitely not skipping through any passages. Personally, the language's difficulty is really what intrigues me and keeps me reading! On that point, I've never read Proust in English (as a francophone that would be moral "heresy" right?) and thus I cannot compare the descriptive language and the philosophical reflections so prominent in his writing, filled with lachrymose overtones, almost like the bastard son from the teachings of a depressed philosopher and the scriptures of an obsessive French writer who employs many commas, fragments, and dashes to evoke emotions and illustrations in the writer's mind, which in turn ruins the eloquence of the reader's mental voice, and thus makes it incredibly difficult to keep track of the sentence's main statement, to those in the English translation.
See what I did there?