The Writings of Proust

Thursday, July 3, 2008

End of an Era


Finally, I have finished Swann's Way. Although the ending was difficult reading, it was good. I started my reading with a class at the Harvard Extention School thirty five years ago. It has been a long worthwhile read of difficult but superb French. Here's a great cover for a short history. You write it, I'll read it.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

From Pâques to Noël .


Today, Easter Sunday, I realized that the volume, Swann's Way, begins in Combray with Easter and ends with Noms De Pays around Christmas-New Years. This reflects the Symbolist attitude which would be contrarian. Included would be a photo I took of the children before their egg hunt. This morning I went over the passage mentioned in the last post which can be found on page 401 of Gallimard's edition.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Crutial Summation of Swann's Way

Last night I passed into probably the most important sentence of Du Côté de Chez Swann and I plan on diagramming it for this blog. This morning I copied it (all 182 words) into my blue spiral notebook. Right now I'm at the desk with my morning coffee and a breather, though, and will have to fully wake up before continuing my work.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Interesting passages.


Proust has brought me into an interesting passage where his protagonist explains his imagined letter from Gilberte and the former gift of an excerpt of his imagined author, Bergotte, from Gilberte. This concerned the motivation of Racine in writing his classical tragedies. I've read a number of these, but, unfortunately, don't remember much about them except that they are incredibly precise and beautiful examples of iambic pentameter. Included is a photograph of my current bedstead. Some nights, like last, I only go over one of his sentences, one that I've already read, and then drop off to sleep. However, slowly, ever so slowly, I am approaching the end of Du Côté de Chez Swann

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Nearing the end of Swann's Way.


Well, the volume of Du Côté de Chez Swann still sits on my bedside table, but I have been making progress on it. With less than twenty pages left, I can state that I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's a fascinating book, and I don't mind pouring over it. I sometimes wake in the middle of the night and read it in accordance to the way Proust developed the story in the first few pages of Combray. Currently I'm going through the passages that cover the encounters with Gilbert when Swann has taken her to play with the protagonist. This occures after he has dragged his nanny up and down the Champs-Élysées looking for her. She has told the protagonist that she won't be able to play with him for a while, but if he shows up at the Jardin des Champs-Elysées, early the next day she may be able to be there. He is now fretting about her lack of expression of love for him and seemingly disregard for it while walking with the nanny through the streets on the way to the park. I would love to have a picture of children playing barres, the game that Gilberte and the protagonist played, but I have not found one. I've walked through the Jardin des Champs-Elysées a few times, too. Never did I notice such a game being played, either. We'll have to settle for a modern photo of the Tuilleries in the summer. All of the activity described by Proust there, though, occured in the winter.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Slow Reading


With so few pages left in Du Côté de Chez Swann, I should be dedicating more time to finishing it. Unfortunately, this has often been my trouble with older books. Nevertheless, Noms de Pays has definitely been enjoyable reading. It has developed well. The ending should be surprising if not entertaining. Gilbert has been introduced as a character. I didn't expect it to happen so soon in the Researches. Proust is a great writer with a rich vocabulary and quite elaborate sentence structure. This doesn't surprise me, though, as his reputation definitely prepared me for the reading. Nevertheless, it is very hard reading in the French. What has struck me amongst other things would be how easily his style can be seen as stream of consciousness and Freudian. Although a contemporary of Proust, Freud only met him once in passing along with Stravinsky and Picasso at a dinner at the Ritz in May of 1922 shortly before his death in November of the same year. However, he must have been cognizant of his writings.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Another look at the Aubepins



Here's another photo of the Hawthornes behind the Christmas Tree Shop in Falmouth, Ma. They are the larger trees behind the foreground bushes. After cutting the vines, I found that I had some rather noticeable scratches on my arms due to the very large and sharp thorns on them. No wonder that they have been left to the wild!!!