Click above or press Play. Some dramatization, some conversation, some explication. All wonderful. One hour long.
1.06.2017
Video : Marcel Proust (Ten Great Writers Part 5)
Click above or press Play. Some dramatization, some conversation, some explication. All wonderful. One hour long.
1.01.2017
11.23.2016
Muhlstein Video (1 hour): Proust's Muse
The French Embassy live-streamed Anka Muhlstein and Dr. Valerie Steele, Nov. 22, 2016. Here is the recording.
11.22.2016
The Captive V pp 231-60
p 233 | ... Rue de Berri and Rue Washington are in the same neighborhood, the 8th arrondissement of Paris,
p 233 | Lemuel Gulliver is the fictional protagonist and narrator of Gulliver's Travels, a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726.
p 235 | Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past.
p 237 | ... old French silver... This is only from 1882.
p 240 | Anaxagoras (c. 500—428 B.C.E.): Anaxagoras of Clazomenae was an important Presocratic natural philosopher and scientist who lived and taught in Athens for approximately 30 years.
p 240 | .... the Apostles at Pentecost...The Christian feast day of Pentecost is 7 weeks after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles.
p 243 | amyl = amyl nitrite, a vasodilator, may have been used to treat / prevent chest pain (angina).
p 249 | Claude-Philibert Barthelot, comte de Rambuteau (1781–1869), Préfet of the former Départment of the Seine, caused pissoirs to be installed on Paris streets. See also pissotière.
p 255 | Neurasthenia.... more than just neurotic?
p 257 | Le Pêcheur d'Islande (An Iceland Fisherman, 1886 novel by Pierre Loti); Tartarin de Tarascon (Tartarin of Tarascon, 1872 novel by Alphonse Daudet)
p 26o | Eyeglasses in 19th century France
11.15.2016
The Captive V pp 210-30
p 217 | Gabriel Davioud, (French architect, 1823–81), Trocadero, Jardin des Champs-Élysées.
p 218 | Charterhouse of Pavia = Carthusian monastery of Pavia (Italy)
p 218 | Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431-1506), Italian painter.
p 218 | Passy is an area of Paris, in the 16th arrondissement, on the Right Bank, traditionally home to many of the city's wealthiest residents.
p 219 | The Bois de Boulogne is a large public park on the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. It was created between 1852 and 1858 during the reign of the Emperor Louis Napoleon.
p 229-30 | Ferdinand Barbedienne (French artist, 1810-92). Bronze worker, reproduced ancient and modern sculptures in bronze.
 |
| Pavia |
p 218 | Charterhouse of Pavia = Carthusian monastery of Pavia (Italy)
p 218 | Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431-1506), Italian painter.
p 218 | Passy is an area of Paris, in the 16th arrondissement, on the Right Bank, traditionally home to many of the city's wealthiest residents.
 |
| Passy & the Seine |
 |
| Bois de Boulogne |
p 229-30 | Ferdinand Barbedienne (French artist, 1810-92). Bronze worker, reproduced ancient and modern sculptures in bronze.
10.30.2016
The Captive V pp 169-210
p 176 | Gregory the Great . . . Palestrina: Gregory the Great, Pope from 590 to 604, is supposed to have set the rules for Gregorian chant. A 16th-century Pope, Gregory XIII, had Palestrina adapt the old chants to the new liturgy of Pius V. (Clark)
p 180 | Charles de Sévigné, son of Madame de Sévigné.
p 185 | Les Fourberies de Nérine, a comedy in verse by by Théodore de Banville
p 195 | Danaides . . . Ixion: From Greek legend, they were condemned to never-ending tasks. The Danaides (the 50 daughters of Danaus) murdered their husbands and were condemned to spend eternity pouring water into a bottomless vessel. Ixion was attached by Zeus to a burning wheel which turned eternally in the Underworld.
p 196 | Trois Quartiers shop in Paris.
p 203 | midinette : Parisian seamstress or salesgirl in a clothes shop (French, from midi [noon] + dinette [light meal], since the girls had time for no more than a snack at midday). © Collins English Dictionary,, 12th ed, 2014
p 205 | Lamoureux concert = an orchestral concert society which once gave weekly concerts by its own orchestra, founded in Paris by Charles Lamoureux in 1881.
p 205 | The Longjumeau Postilion: An 1836 comic opera by Adolphe Adam. In 1915, the critic Frederic Masson wrote that this work compared to Wagner's Die Meistersinger.
p 207 | Human Comedy (title of Balzac's collected novels); The Legend of the Centuries (a collection of narrative poems by Victor Hugo); The Bible of Humanity (imaginative attempt at a synthesis of human history by Jules Michelet)
p 210 | 120 hp Mystère : a make of aircraft.
p 210 | L 'Education sentimentale: in Flaubert's novel of that name, the woman the hero loves sees in his house a portrait of a former mistress of his, whom she had known. She says, "I've seen that woman somewhere," but he replies, "Impossible, it's an old Italian painting."
p 196 | Trois Quartiers shop in Paris.
p 203 | midinette : Parisian seamstress or salesgirl in a clothes shop (French, from midi [noon] + dinette [light meal], since the girls had time for no more than a snack at midday). © Collins English Dictionary,, 12th ed, 2014
p 205 | Lamoureux concert = an orchestral concert society which once gave weekly concerts by its own orchestra, founded in Paris by Charles Lamoureux in 1881.
p 205 | The Longjumeau Postilion: An 1836 comic opera by Adolphe Adam. In 1915, the critic Frederic Masson wrote that this work compared to Wagner's Die Meistersinger.
p 207 | Human Comedy (title of Balzac's collected novels); The Legend of the Centuries (a collection of narrative poems by Victor Hugo); The Bible of Humanity (imaginative attempt at a synthesis of human history by Jules Michelet)
p 210 | 120 hp Mystère : a make of aircraft.
p 210 | L 'Education sentimentale: in Flaubert's novel of that name, the woman the hero loves sees in his house a portrait of a former mistress of his, whom she had known. She says, "I've seen that woman somewhere," but he replies, "Impossible, it's an old Italian painting."
The Captive V pp 156-168
p 161 | Prunier Restaurant in Paris specialized in seafood.
p 161 | Here's mackerel! (Il arrive le maquereau) = a pun because maquereau is French slang for a pimp, hence his thought wanders to the chauffeur.
p 161 | Cos lettuce=Romaine
p 162 | Praeceptis salutaribus moniti et divina institutione formati audemus dicere : "Instructed by Thy saving precepts, and following Thy divine institution, we are bold to say..." This is the opening to the Lord's Prayer in the Mass liturgy.
p 162 | Suave mari magno="How pleasant when on a great sea..." (Lucretius). These opening lines of Book II of Lucretius' poem De rerum naturae observe how pleasant it is, when we are on dry land, to watch another man battling to stay afloat in a stormy sea. Though the poet was commending not schadenfreude but philosophical detachment, the phrase is used proverbially to allude to someone who takes pleasure in the suffering of others. Proust, however, seems here to be using it literally and not figuratively. (Clark)
p 163 | Chasselas = White wine grape
p 163 | Rebattet, 12, rue du Faubourg- Saint-Honore. A very
fashionable pastry shop.
p 164 | "... ices not hawked in the street..." : small ices, to be eaten immediately, were certainly sold in the street before 1900: there is a 19th century photo of an ice-cream man with his cart by Eugene Atget. But what the characters are discussing here are sizeable, elaborate iced desserts sold in expensive shops. Scroll down on this page to see an example.
Eugene Atget p 165 | Monte Rosa is a huge ice-covered mountain in the Alps.
p 167 | Scheherazade is the fictional narrator of the Arabian Nights, a book which Proust loved both as a child and as an adult. She made up a new tale for 1001 nights to avoid being killed by the king.
p 168 | "...consecration-cross of his wheel = the steering-wheel of some cars at this time was cruciform, with no outer ring. Others were stylized, with a circle enclosing a cross.p 168 ff: The Palace at Versailles; Grand Trianon at Versailles;
Petit Trianon at Versailles
Hôtel des Réservoirs at Versailles
Vatel
10.28.2016
The Captive V pp 147-156
p 147-49 | "Boris Godunov . . . Pelléas": Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov was
first performed in Paris in 1908, Debussy's Pelléas et Melisande in
1902, but Proust first heard them in 1911-13, when he was first working
on The Captive. The novelty of these music-dramas was that they did not
observe the old operatic distinction between recitative and aria, but
were through-composed (songs composed without repetitions, i.e., using different music for each verse), their essential dialogue delivered with only
small variations of pitch. (Clark)
In Pelléas et Mélisande, instead of a librettist adapting the original play for him, Debussy chose to set the text directly, since Maeterlinck's play was in prose rather than verse. This contributes to the most famous feature of the opera: the almost complete absence of arias or set pieces... Instead, Debussy set the text one note to a syllable in a "continuous, fluid 'cantilena', somewhere between chant and recitative". (Wikipedia)
p 148 | Jean-Phillipe Rameau: these words appear in Phillipe Quinault's libretto Armide, set to music first by Lully in 1686 and then by Gluck in 1777 (not in an opera by Rameau, as Proust seems to have thought). (Clark)
p 149 | "...Arkel . . . Golaud ... the King of Allemande...": characters in Pelléas et Melisande. (Clark)
p 149 | Per omnia saecula saeculorum = for ever and ever, through all ages of ages, world without end; Requiescat in pace = May he/she rest in peace. Both phrases conclude prayers for the dead, both usually intoned with the last syllable falling a minor third, and followed by "Amen." (Clark)
p 149 | Cerement= Usually plural: a waxy cloth used for wrapping the dead, or any burial garments (Hamlet, act 1, sc 4)
p 150 | Costermonger: a person who sells goods, especially fruit and vegetables, from a handcart in the street.
p 150 | Antiphonary=one of 3 liturgical books used for the Divine Office (the others being the breviary & the choir psalter). The antiphonary contains, among other elements, antiphons, which are short sentences sung or recited before or after a psalm or canticle. Antiphonaries are fairly large so they are easily read by all members of a choir. Trivium= the lower division of the 7 liberal arts: grammar, logic, and rhetoric (input, process, and output). Subjects of the trivium are the foundation for the quadrivium, the upper division of the medieval education in the liberal arts, which comprised arithmetic (number), geometry (number in space), music (number in time), and astronomy (number in space and time). Educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the 7 liberal arts of classical antiquity.
Tinker = (especially in former times) a person who travels from place to place mending metal utensils as a way of making a living.
p 152 | "What insolent mortal comes to meet his doom?" "Was it for you this stern decree was made?" "In you alone, a certain grace I see/That always charms and never wearies me." (Lines from Esther by Racine). (Clark)
p 155 | Hippolyte Taine (1828–93): critic and historian, who had a profound effect on French literature. George Eliot, pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans (1819-80): English Victorian novelist who developed the method of psychological analysis characteristic of modern fiction.
p 156 | Mnemotechnia: a goddess not only of memory (time past) but of method (technia): she offers a way of remembering and recording the passage of time. (Ellen Eve Frank, Literary Architecture)
In Pelléas et Mélisande, instead of a librettist adapting the original play for him, Debussy chose to set the text directly, since Maeterlinck's play was in prose rather than verse. This contributes to the most famous feature of the opera: the almost complete absence of arias or set pieces... Instead, Debussy set the text one note to a syllable in a "continuous, fluid 'cantilena', somewhere between chant and recitative". (Wikipedia)
p 148 | Jean-Phillipe Rameau: these words appear in Phillipe Quinault's libretto Armide, set to music first by Lully in 1686 and then by Gluck in 1777 (not in an opera by Rameau, as Proust seems to have thought). (Clark)
p 149 | "...Arkel . . . Golaud ... the King of Allemande...": characters in Pelléas et Melisande. (Clark)
p 149 | Per omnia saecula saeculorum = for ever and ever, through all ages of ages, world without end; Requiescat in pace = May he/she rest in peace. Both phrases conclude prayers for the dead, both usually intoned with the last syllable falling a minor third, and followed by "Amen." (Clark)
p 149 | Cerement= Usually plural: a waxy cloth used for wrapping the dead, or any burial garments (Hamlet, act 1, sc 4)
p 150 | Costermonger: a person who sells goods, especially fruit and vegetables, from a handcart in the street.
p 150 | Antiphonary=one of 3 liturgical books used for the Divine Office (the others being the breviary & the choir psalter). The antiphonary contains, among other elements, antiphons, which are short sentences sung or recited before or after a psalm or canticle. Antiphonaries are fairly large so they are easily read by all members of a choir. Trivium= the lower division of the 7 liberal arts: grammar, logic, and rhetoric (input, process, and output). Subjects of the trivium are the foundation for the quadrivium, the upper division of the medieval education in the liberal arts, which comprised arithmetic (number), geometry (number in space), music (number in time), and astronomy (number in space and time). Educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the 7 liberal arts of classical antiquity.
 |
| Basque beret |
p 152 | "What insolent mortal comes to meet his doom?" "Was it for you this stern decree was made?" "In you alone, a certain grace I see/That always charms and never wearies me." (Lines from Esther by Racine). (Clark)
p 155 | Hippolyte Taine (1828–93): critic and historian, who had a profound effect on French literature. George Eliot, pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans (1819-80): English Victorian novelist who developed the method of psychological analysis characteristic of modern fiction.
p 156 | Mnemotechnia: a goddess not only of memory (time past) but of method (technia): she offers a way of remembering and recording the passage of time. (Ellen Eve Frank, Literary Architecture)
8.28.2016
The Captive V pp 133-147
 |
| The old Palais du Trocadéro |
p 135 | Empfindung = sensation, feeling, emotion; empfindelei = sentimentality.
p 135 | "...plants which bifurcate..." :
 |
| Photo: Parisian Fields |
p 146 | "... iron shutters.... lowered..."
p 147 | Booksellers' door of Rouen Cathedral... (Escalier de la Librairie)
 |
| http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloudsoup/3441624647/ |
8.27.2016
The Captive V pp 109-132
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| p 124 | François Boucher, "The Letter"; |
 |
| Honoré Fragonard "The Harpsichord" |
p 124 | History of the Telephone ; Telephone exchanges; Switchboard operators
p 127 | "... angel musicians mounting to the throne of God..." maybe something like....
 |
St John Altarpiece by Memling |
 |
| detail of Mary, Queen of Heaven by Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy |
p 127 | black satin dress
p 130 | Le Bon Marché (tr. "the good market" or "the good deal") is a department store in Paris. Founded in 1852 by Aristide Boucicaut, it was the first modern department store.
 |
| Le Bon Marché |
 |
| Trois-Quartiers |
p 131 | rest cures for neurotics...
p 132 | aerodrome; early aviation 
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