Renée's Proustometer

I appreciated the Roger Shattuck paper for a glimpse of clarity for someone like me, new to Proust. Amazing that he once thought he may--purely as an excercise? write totally without chapters, paragraph breaks and sentence puctuation--just one giant sentence. I doubt I could have gotten through that! Anyway, I will use the paper to refer to as we go along. NOW, as for Renée on caffeine: YES, your Proustometer was waaaaaaay off the charts!

Summarizing Proust

Proustians:  Thank you for coming tonight and making the evening quite special for me. After leaving you, I was so excited, I went to AIA, where there was a perfectly outstanding sunset in mauve reflected on the unmoving ocean, while the great white moon broke through the rain-soaked clouds to cast its shimmering light across the water and up the beach right onto my feet.  I put this sunset moment at the end of all other sunset moments I've had and photographed and, as I often do, judged it the best ever. 

Because I'd fallen asleep before the group, I'd had some caffeine assistance to perk up; I see now that it kicked in just when I needed to lay out the direction your reading could go. Sorry I was so one-track.... more than a little like Monty Python's hilarious Summarize Proust Competition!

I just set up http://readproust.blogspot.com/ == a/k/a "Reading Proust for Fun." You all got invitations to both post and comment. You could use it to save thoughts / sentences / ideas for discussion.  Or if you hate it, I'll close it down.

One thing I meant to mention.... the French title... A la recherche du temps perdu  literally translates into In Search of Lost Time (ISOLT), which was finally used in the Enright translation in 1998. Scott-Moncrieff chose Remembrance of Things Past (RTP), which is not exactly the same idea at all, but is a phrase taken from a sonnet by Shakespeare.  He also named all the other books using Shakespearean phrases, which Proust hated. The latest translations restore the original titles.

Combray (vol I) Pages for September 2009

Synopsis 1 SWANN’S WAY
Part 1 COMBRAY

(Enright paging; yours may differ)

Week 1
Awakenings (1). Bedrooms of the past, at Combray (4), at Tan­sonville (6), at Balbec (8; cf. II 333). Habit (8).  Bedtime at Combray (cf. 57). The magic lantern; Geneviève de Brabant (9).

Week 2
Family evenings (11). The little closet smelling of orris-root (14; cf. 222). The good-night kiss (15; cf. 29, 35-58). Visits from Swann (16); his father (17); his unsuspected social life (18). “Our social personality is a creation of other people’s thoughts” (23).

Week 3
Mme de Villeparisis’s house in Paris; “the tailor and his daughter” (25). Aunts Céline and Flora (27). Françoise’s code (38). Swann and I (40; cf. 419). My upbringing: “principles” of my grandmother (cf. 12, 13) and my mother; arbitrary behavior of my father (48).

Week 4
My grandmother’s presents; her ideas about books {i.e., “My dear,” she had said to Mamma, “I could not allow myself to give the child anything that was not well written.”} (52). A reading of Georges Sand (55).  Resurrection of Combray through involuntary memory. The madeleine dipped in a cup of tea (60).

Marcel Proust Reading Group at Barnes & Noble in Fort Lauderdale, FL Combray (vol I)

Goal:  Read at home 10 pages per week, English or French, any translation

<< the original 1922 Moncrieff, 

 Enright's 1998 Modern Library version ^^

<< the brand-new 2004 Lydia Davis

the 1982 Kilmartin revision [silver] >>

of Swann's Way by Marcel Proust, first book in the grand masterpiece IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME (a/k/a REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST).  

Online texts are also available:  let me know & I'll send you links.

GROUP: Once a week, 30 minutes, every Thursday, 6:15 pm - 6:45 pm, explore, explicate, examine those 10 pages.  Any & all variables can be modified after we've met a few times.  FIRST MEETING:  SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

BRAVO!  So far 5 fearless readers have volunteered to join me! You rock! 

NOTE:  Swann's Way often has 3 sections: 

COMBRAY (sets the stage for everything to come, including the most famous cookie ever at about p. 45);

SWANN IN LOVE (an obsessive love affair between two main characters;

PLACE NAMES: THE NAME (an evocation of memory via the names of places)

We'll start with the Overture/Combray, the most famous part.  
HINT: It's easy to sleep through this book. I advise you to sit up in your chair & avoid bedtimes. Try reading aloud; there's a melody.

Editions of Swann's Way; Re-Reading Proust; Translating

Carter's 2013 update of Moncrieff

 

1982 Kilmartin revision [silver]

original 1922 Moncrieff,

Enright 1998 Modern Library 

2004 Lydia Davis translation

Swann's Way usually has 3 sections:

•  Overture/COMBRAY (sets the stage for everything to come, including the most famous cookie ever);     
• SWANN IN LOVE (an obsessive love affair between two main characters;     
• PLACE NAMES: THE NAME (an evocation of memory via the names of places) 

HINT: It's easy to sleep through this book. I advise you to sit up in your chair & avoid bedtimes. Try reading aloud; there's a melody. 

Kirk McElhearn on re-reading Proust

The Paris Review: I Have Gone to Bed Early. Translating Proust. George Plimpton interviews Richard Howard about the opening sentence. (1989)