2018: Our Year of Reading Proust discussion
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Lori
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Jan 03, 2018 07:12AM

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'A lot of people get lost/frustrated the first time through with the beginning of the book, especially the Overture. This section is wonderful and completely understandable if you have already read Search, but puzzling/boring otherwise - seems like forty or fifty pages about a guy in bed. The the bulk of the book, Swan in Love, is a very traditional 3rd person love story. Don't worry, things will make sense soon enough.
Either Proust assumed everyone was going to re-read the book, or just wanted to slow the reader down and very gradually introduce the journey; it shouldn't bother or trouble you if you don't get it, or understand right away. (It is a search, after all). Once you finish the first volume you may say "not my cup of tea" but try not to struggle too much at first, just read the words.'
Reading the first section again -- with the benefit of hindsight after completing the 'search' -- I can certainly confirm the validity of the advice.
I just finished this week's section. Having broken my pledge to myself to read a little each day rather than all of it in one sitting, it took a fair amount of time. When I'm simply reading and not looking at how many pages I have left, I am enjoying each phrase - the beauty, the humor, the observations. It's the larger task in front of me which is daunting! In short, it's a bit of a zen exercise.
How is everyone else doing?
How is everyone else doing?

I heard one quote that said "to read Proust is to reread Proust" so I'm starting to think I may not enjoy this book until the reread. But I shall persevere.


Touching on your problem of the overwhelming sense you get when you look at how many pages there are left (a problem I share when I read long books), I would like to say that this book may be more enjoyable when read as an ebook.
I have found that reading large books of over a thousand pages are better read off my ereader than in physical form, though I like physical books better overall. It has allowed me read large books twofold: psychologically in the sense that starting off with a very thick book can be intimidating in the way that I have found mitigated by a thin ereader, and physically in the sense that it's just easier to hold while reading (which allows for more reading).
Just a thought for those that may be put off by the size of the book.

Louise wrote: "I am reading on an ereader. What I discovered this week, is that Proust is best read aloud (in French at any rate). That helps to slow down my reading. So now I'm reading Proust in French to my dog..."
So funny. I am doing the same exact thing!
So funny. I am doing the same exact thing!

Does anyone have a thought as to which translation/edition is the best? Thanks!

You can read a review: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...

Thanks SO much, Mary Anne!
Carol wrote: "Just found this group which is wonderful because my only New Year’s resolution was to read Proust
Does anyone have a thought as to which translation/edition is the best? Thanks!"
Welcome Carol! So glad you found us! I'm not in the know about translations. I own the Moncrieff (Viking) so that's what I use. I've heard that the Davis version is more reliable. The Moncrieff takes liberties, although some say they like its poetry...
Does anyone have a thought as to which translation/edition is the best? Thanks!"
Welcome Carol! So glad you found us! I'm not in the know about translations. I own the Moncrieff (Viking) so that's what I use. I've heard that the Davis version is more reliable. The Moncrieff takes liberties, although some say they like its poetry...
I fell a little behind this week and just now finished section 4. I've found the Swann sections to be a little more baffling in terms of sentence structure. Granted I'm reading in the French, and I've read the Meseglise/Guermantes ways and Martinville sections more times than the Swann intro, but I find myself having to consult the English translation way more often for syntax than prior. The sentences seem longer and wind themselves around more. Has anyone felt this way? And if so, is this intentional on Proust's part, to change the style a little as we move from Marcel to Swann?



Elizabeth wrote: "To those who are reading in French. In "Mme Swann at Home" [In "Within a Budding Grove"] Odette tells the Narrator that he is Gilberte's best friend: in Moncrieff, she says her "chum, as the Englis..."
if you can tell me the approximate page (i.e. what week of reading) I can look it up for you...
if you can tell me the approximate page (i.e. what week of reading) I can look it up for you...
In this week's section Swann gets upset reading the word marble in the newspaper- Les Filles de Marbre, a play by Theodore Barriere. Does anyone know the origin of the idea that lesbians would be called this?





Excellent, thank you Ben!

Last night I made it through the "Overture" in Swann's Way; apparently I'd read it before with a pen so now it's double marked. Hope to keep up the momentum!

MJD wrote: "For me the extreme level of detail that Proust gives to everything is a double edge sword. In one way, it makes it take forever to read a single scene or even a single thought of a character. In an..."
Yes. It also makes it easier to open the book up and read a few pages virtually anywhere. Which paradoxically makes me not inclined to read the whole book, even when reading through on a continuous and sustained basis offers such a different and amplified experience of the work.
Yes. It also makes it easier to open the book up and read a few pages virtually anywhere. Which paradoxically makes me not inclined to read the whole book, even when reading through on a continuous and sustained basis offers such a different and amplified experience of the work.



" which conjures in my mind, images of a man in a suit and top hat frantically searching for a lost pocket-watch. "
exactly!
the gist lies in that which is between “Remembrance” and “In Search of”, it hides somewhere, you never expect.
the former is so sure that it is all memory; the latter is uncertainty, and one has to make efforts.
Which also reflects the difference between voluntary and involuntary memory, and that is why Proust preferred the later.

I'm about 50 pages from the end of _The Fugitive_, also, and there's just one more volume after that, so I'm already mildly worried about "the desert of after Proust" and the idea of reading a different translation feels comforting.