The Year of Reading Proust discussion

Post your favorite Proust quote here.

All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.

"[My grandmother] was so humble of heart and so gentle that her tenderness for others and her disregard for herself and her own troubles blended in a smile which, unlike those seen on the majority of human faces, bore no trace of irony save for herself, while for all of us kisses seemed to spring from her eyes, which could not look upon those she loved without seeming to bestow upon them passionate caresses."

I hope to be like that one day.

Moonbutterfly wrote: ""I find the Celtic belief very reasonable, that the souls of those we have lost are held captive in some inferior creature, in an animals, in a plant, in some inanimate object, effectively lost to ..."

Yes, a favorite of mine also! Here is the ML translation, p. 59.

"I feel that there is much to be said for the Celtic belief that the souls of those whom we have lost are held captive in some inferior being, in an animal, in a plant, in some inanimate object, and thus effectively lost to us until the day (which to many never comes) when we happen to pass by the tree or to obtain a possession of the object which forms their prison. Then they start and tremble, they call us by our name, and as soon as we have recognized them the spell is broken. Delivered by us, they have overcome death and return to share our life."

"When a man is asleep, he has in a circle round him the chain of the hours, the sequence of the years, the order of the heavenly bodies. Instinctively he consults them when he awakes and in an instant reads off his own position on the earth's surface and the time that has elapsed during his slumbers."

ML translation

"my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book."

Such an elegant and simple explanation of the seven volumes that followed.Swan's Way, Overture, pg 1

"My dear," she had said to Mamma, "I could not bring myself to give the child anything that was not well written,"

----

...guided the sentence that was drawing to an end towards that which was waiting to begin, now hastening, now slackening the pace of the syllables so as to bring them, despite their difference of quantity, into a uniform rhythm, and breathed into this quite ordinary prose a kind of life, continuous and full of feeling.

----

Sweet Sunday afternoons beneath the chestnut-tree in our Combray garden, from which I was careful to eliminate every commonplace incident of my actual life, replacing them by a career of strange adventures and ambitions in a land watered by living streams, you still recall those adventures and ambitions to my mind when I think of you, and you embody and preserve them by virtue of having little by little drawn round and enclosed them (while I went on with my book and the heat of the day declined ) in the gradual crystallisation, slowly altering in form and dappled with a pattern of chestnut-leaves, of your silent, sonorous, fragrant, limpid hours.

"...then it was suddenly revealed to me that my own humble existence and the realms of the true were less widely separated than I had supposed, that at certain points they actually coincided, and in my newfound confidence and joy I had wept upon his printed page as in the arms of a long-lost father."

Jeremy wrote: ""When a man is asleep, he has in a circle round him the chain of the hours, the sequence of the years, the order of the heavenly bodies. Instinctively he consults them when he awakes and in an ins..."

You can hear your favorite passage. It is just a short free sample, but it holds your gem:
https://mobile.audible.com/productDet...

Read by John Rowe.

Shaw wrote: "All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last."

I wish my husband would read Proust as that quote could help him so much, he can be very stubborn about things :)

"Pour lui plaire elle avait un profil trop accusé..." (in reference to Odette)

"Now I could appreciate the merits of a broad, poetical, powerful interpretation, or rather it was to this that those epithets were conventionally applied, but only as we give the names of Mars, Venus, Saturn to planets which have nothing mythological about them. We feel in one world, we think, we give names to things in another; between the two we can establish a certain correspondence, but not bridge the gap."

-The Guermantes Way

"But one evening, when depressed by the thought of that inevitable dark drive together,
he had taken his young seamstress all the way to the Bois,
so as to delay as long as possible the moment of his appearance at the Verdurins',
he arrived at the house so late that Odette, supposing that he did not intend to come, had already left.

Seeing the room bare of her, Swann felt a sudden stab at the heart;
he trembled at the thought of being deprived of a pleasure whose intensity he was able for the first time to gauge, having always, hitherto, had that certainty of finding it whenever he wished which (as in the case of all our pleasures) reduced if it did not altogether blind him to its dimensions." "Swann's Way" (Swann in Love) MP

"... the wisdom invariably shown by people who, not being in love themselves,
feel that a clever man should only be unhappy about a person who is worth his while;
which is rather like being astonished that anyone should condescend to die of cholera at the bidding of so insignificant a creature as the comma bacillus."

Swann's Way, ML p.488

"When we look at the person we love, our inquisitive, anxious, demanding gaze, our expectation of the words that will make us hope for (or despair of) another meeting tomorrow, and, until those words are spoken, our obsession fluctuating between possible joy and sorrow, or imagining both of these together, all this distracts our tremulous attention and prevents it from getting a clear picture of the loved one. Also, it may be that this simultaneous activity of all the senses, striving to discover through the unaided eyes something that is out of their reach, is too mindful of the countless forms, all the savors and movements of the living person, all those things which, in a person with whom we are not in love, we immobilize. But the beloved model keeps moving; and the only snapshots we can take are always out of focus. I could not really say what the features of Gilberteís face were like, except at those heavenly moments when she was there, displaying them to me. All I could remember was her smile."

-In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower

Regarding the Vinteuil's sonata:

...the mode by which he "heard" the universe and projected it far beyond himself. Perhaps it was in this, I said to Albertine, this unknown quality of a unique world which no other composer had ever yet revealed, that the most authentic proof of genius lies, even more than in the content of the work itself. "Even in literature?” Albertine inquired. “Even in literature.” And thinking again of the sameness of Vinteuil’s works, I explained to Albertine that the great men of letters have never created more than a single work, or rather have never done more than refract through various media an identical beauty which they bring into the world. “If it were not so late, my sweet,” I said to her, “I would show you this quality in all the writers whose works you read while I’m asleep, I would show you the same identity as in Vinteuil. These key-phrases, which you are beginning to recognise as I do, my little Albertine, the same in the sonata, in the septet, in the other works, would be, say for instance in Barbey dAurevilly, a hidden reality revealed by a physical sign, the physiological blush...

-In Search of Lost Time, Volume V (The Captive, ML)

“...But it was above all that fragmentation of Albertine into many parts, into many Albertines, that was her sole mode of existence in me. Moments recurred in which she had simply been kind, or intelligent, or serious, or even loving sport above all else. And was it not right, after all, that this fragmentation should soothe me? For if it was not in itself something real, if it arose from the continuously changing shape of the hours in which she had appeared to me, a shape which remained that of my memory as the curve of the projections of my magic lantern depended on the curve of the coloured slides, did it not in its own way represent a truly objective truth, this one, namely that none of us is single, that each of us contains many persons who do not all have the same moral value,...”

-In Search of Lost Time, Volume V (The Fugitive, ML)

“A minority group, driven by guilt and producing it, homosexuals are, according to Proust, outcasts of society only because society casts them out for its own special purposes: the survival of any social group depends on the ability to exclude."

-The Magic Lantern of Marcel Proust

"Habit enables us to cling to the familiar, to the self we think we know with a persistence almost irresistible. An anodyne for the terror of the unknown, it effectively keeps us from knowing, and is fatal in itself. Habit is a fiction the organism requires to dim perception. It screens us from the world, and from the true world of the self. Habit—no matter how intense the suffering it causes—is the last thing the personality will give up. It is arming itself against danger. The weapons may be more painful to use than the pain they seek to deflect. No matter. Habit allows us to live—by which Proust means it allows us to exist while it simultaneously compels us to miss Life."

-The Magic Lantern of Marcel Proust

I noticed that quote too, though I am not sure I understand it or fully agree with it. Unhappiness sometimes, if not often, seems to justify committing immoral acts.

But again, Proust seems to have a very optimistic and indulgent look at humanity. I don't recall where he says that the most common thing is not common sense but human kindness, or something like that.

"... in the case of the solitary, even if his seclusion is absolute and lifelong it is often based on a deranged love of the crowd which so far overrides every other feeling that, unable to win the admiration of his hall-porter, of the passers-by, of the cabman he hails, he prefers not to be seen by them at all, and with that object abandons every activity that would oblige him to go out of doors."

Within a Budding Grove, part 2 (ML p 504)

Rosemary wrote: ""... in the case of the solitary, even if his seclusion is absolute and lifelong it is often based on a deranged love of the crowd which so far overrides every other feeling that, unable to win the..."

Rosemary, your quote "...unable to win the admiration..." took me back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
3. "Belongingness and the Need for Love - Once basic and safety needs are met, human needs become social and involve a need for acceptance and to love and be loved. If these elements are absent, social anxiety and depression can arise."
http://www.consciousaging.com/Transpe...

Shaw wrote: "All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last."

What a beautifully enlightened quote! Can you possibly supply a citation? Thank you.

Cameron wrote: ""[My grandmother] was so humble of heart and so gentle that her tenderness for others and her disregard for herself and her own troubles blended in a smile which, unlike those seen on the majority ..."

So was my grandmother.I hope to be like her.She taught me what inconditional love is.

Phillida wrote: "In Guermantes Way, p. 641 (ML), the narrator describes Oriane's ability to turn a little social mishap into a funny story. He says one has to envy that ability just

"...as one is obliged to be t..."

Very thankful indeed!

"We are attracted by any life which represents for us something unknown and strange, by a last illusion still unshattered."

Hi, all! It's such a pleasure to find a forum of this kind. I'm an enormous fan, as I know all of you are (I even have an ISOLT-themed tattoo)!

I was wondering if you guys could help me locate a quote I've been driving myself crazy trying to find. I'm furious with myself for not marking it when I finished ISOLT a couple of years ago. Upon first corresponding with Albertine in Vol. II, there is a short passage where Marcel describes reading and re-reading her letters, checking to make sure he remembers what she had written correctly. It's so beautiful and touching and I need this quote in my life! Can ANYONE direct this foolish fan to the right place? Many thanks in advance!

-Al

When we get there I will pay particular attention and look for it. If it is urgent, I am afraid, this is not very helpful.

It's very helpful, Jocelyne, thank you! I appreciate the prompt response. It was such an amazing quote, I must locate it.

Al wrote: "Hi, all! It's such a pleasure to find a forum of this kind. I'm an enormous fan, as I know all of you are (I even have an ISOLT-themed tattoo)!

I was wondering if you guys could help me locate a..."

Not sure, maybe... (SPOILER if you read this in detail.)

"Meanwhile, I read her letter again, and was nevertheless disappointed when I saw how little there is of a person in a letter."

Remembrance of Things Past, Volume 2
By Marcel Proust (Montcrieff-Hudson)
Page 818

If not...maybe a vague hint? Before or after?
We are rather adamant about SPOILERS for first time readers...as you will appreciate.

If I find it...will you take a picture of your tattoo? I was thinking about getting one, just in case my body needed some sort of identification in the future. Shhh, you are the only one to whom I have ever mentioned this "idea." My daughter would freak, if she knew.

Thanks for your help, Marcelita! I think it was a bit before the quote you provided (which is also beautiful), though I did read the book a number of years ago now. My apologies for being so vague!

I'd be more than happy to send a picture of the tattoo in question - it's the top third of the church of Saint-Jacques in Combray, inspired by the following quote from Swann's Way:

"...we had in front of us the steeple, which, baked and brown itself like a larger loaf still of 'holy bread,' with flakes and sticky drops on it of sunlight, pricked its sharp point into the blue sky. And in the evening, as I came in from my walk and thought of the approaching moment when I must say good night to my mother and see her no more, the steeple was by contrast so kindly, there at the close of day, that I would imagine it as being laid, like a brown velvet cushion, against--as being thrust into the pallid sky which had yielded beneath its pressure, had sunk slightly so as to make room for it, and had correspondingly risen on either side; while the cries of the birds wheeling to and fro about it seemed to intensify its silence, to elongate its spire still further, and to invest it with some quality beyond the power of words."

I'm unsure as to how to go about uploading photos on here (I don't believe it's possible?) but I can certainly e-mail you one if you'd like.

A.

Just uploaded the tattoo to the "Photos" section. Apologies for the grainy quality, it's a bit sharper when you click on it for a closer view.

A.

Al wrote: "Thanks for your help, Marcelita! I think it was a bit before the quote you provided (which is also beautiful), though I did read the book a number of years ago now. My apologies for being so vagu..."

Al, thinking of all the ISOLT-type tattoos, I would have never thought of the steeple, but now it makes perfect sense. The church "epitomizes" the little town of Combray, but the steeple is "...this single indication of human existence." And you placed it on your left ribcage...near your heart.

I found another quote:
(view spoiler)[
"The Fugitive"

"One thing finally succeeded in making my heartache as acute as it had been in the first instant and (I am bound to admit) no longer was. This was when I re-read a sentence in Albertine's letter. However much we love people, the pain of losing them—when in our isolation we are confronted with it alone, to which our mind to a certain extent gives whatever form it chooses-is in durable and different from that other pain..." It continues, so what you are looking for may be further along in this passage. (hide spoiler)]

Al wrote: "Thanks for your help, Marcelita! I think it was a bit before the quote you provided (which is also beautiful), though I did read the book a number of years ago now. My apologies for being so vagu..."

Al, I think that this is so wonderful! You should copy and paste this post into our Group Lounge so that more people can appreciate it.

The ending of Volume II:

"And for months on end, in this Balbec to which I had so looked forward because I imagined it only as battered by storms and buried in the mist, the weather had been so dazzling and so unchanging that when she [Françoise] came to open the window I could always, without once being wrong, expect to see the same patch of sunlight folded in the corner of the outer wall, of an unalterable color which was less moving as a sign of summer than depressing as the color of a lifeless and factitious enamel. And when Françoise removed the pins from the top of the window-frame, took down the cloths, and drew back the curtains, the summer day which she disclosed seemed as dead, as immemorial, as a sumptuous millenary mummy from which our old servant had done no more than cautiously unwind the linen wrappings before displaying it, embalmed in its vesture of gold."

Erik wrote: "The ending of Volume II:

"And for months on end, in this Balbec to which I had so looked forward because I imagined it only as battered by storms and buried in the mist, the weather had been so da..."

That is one of my favourite passages too - it helped me frame my review of the second part of A l'Ombre des Jeunes Filles en Fleurs.