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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
This comes close to having no limitations on it's potential for interpretations. I think if I revisit it again, and still feel that way, then it will be worthy of the highest possible rating. For now, I will take the conservative approach in praising this because the fanciful prose might be distracting me from the continuity between it's points of fault, which I was convinced at a number of points might objectively exist. Given that it is ended with a great deal of suggestive poignancy and grace, I feel it still manages to be an undoubtedly comprehensively-told story.
It feels a bit like cheating to say I read Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time”, when in fact the audio version from the BBC was much more a stage show or film. I thoroughly enjoyed ISOLT as produced by the BBC. The cast included some of the best acting talent seen on the British stage: James Wilby, Julien Ovenden, and Corin Redgrave to name but a few.
This is Marcel’s story from the nursery to middle age, with all his secret desires and obsessions played out among the aristocratic classes in Paris and the countryside during the Belle Époque up through the First World War. And the multi-dimensional characters that people Marcel’s world from the Baron, with his taste for cruel young men, to the great love Albertine, who both attracts and repels the boy, best friend, Robert, who shows Marcel the sweet and decadent life of the very rich and Gilbette, the child begotten of Charles Swann’s frowned upon marriage to a woman of questionable virtue. A boy/man who longs for mama’s and grandmere’s attention and affection, all the while detesting the weakness in his psyche that makes him perpetually needy.
I think it not at all coincidence that Proust would write of such psychological torments that began in the nursery and continue to haunt a man through his life. For after all it was this same period-the turning of the 19th century to the 20th century when Dr. Freud began publishing his theories of emotional entanglements of offspring and progenitor. Thus, Proust gives us a full psychological picture of not just Marcel but most of those who surround him in his life.
Highly recommend
This is Marcel’s story from the nursery to middle age, with all his secret desires and obsessions played out among the aristocratic classes in Paris and the countryside during the Belle Époque up through the First World War. And the multi-dimensional characters that people Marcel’s world from the Baron, with his taste for cruel young men, to the great love Albertine, who both attracts and repels the boy, best friend, Robert, who shows Marcel the sweet and decadent life of the very rich and Gilbette, the child begotten of Charles Swann’s frowned upon marriage to a woman of questionable virtue. A boy/man who longs for mama’s and grandmere’s attention and affection, all the while detesting the weakness in his psyche that makes him perpetually needy.
I think it not at all coincidence that Proust would write of such psychological torments that began in the nursery and continue to haunt a man through his life. For after all it was this same period-the turning of the 19th century to the 20th century when Dr. Freud began publishing his theories of emotional entanglements of offspring and progenitor. Thus, Proust gives us a full psychological picture of not just Marcel but most of those who surround him in his life.
Highly recommend
I (retroactively) suppose this should be reviewed as a whole. This was an incredible experience. Every boring 150-page party added up to a true observation on the life of the outsider looking in. Whenever you think this is a stuffy Edwardian meditation on manners, something happens that's so modern (homoerotic bondage anyone?) that reminds you why this is a revolutionary novel. This is not for the faint of heart (or those that are easily bored or distracted). Be ready to be enjoyably bored and you'll love it.
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I've been waiting over a decade to begin this masterwork. Already it has challenged me and it takes me an hour or so to fall back into the prose and follow the subtle cognitive strokes Proust through his narrative. A joy. . . .
I imagine it will be on this list for some time: I am reading it slowly through lunch periods during my teaching days. I imagine that when I finish them all, it will be time to retire!
I imagine it will be on this list for some time: I am reading it slowly through lunch periods during my teaching days. I imagine that when I finish them all, it will be time to retire!
I am somehow to my last In Search of Lost Time review. I'm not sure how this has happened, as it doesn't seem like almost a year ago that I was first ordering Swann's Way and reading the first few pages. I was reading about sleep, falling asleep, and reading about mint tea before violent episodes of flu. Now, almost a year later, I have a set of creased, abused, fallen down from bus seats, fallen out of hands onto driveways editions of Proust, some of which with the marked dates of where the readings for each Proust 2013 week ended.
I’ve brought In Search of Lost Time along with me to all sorts of places, and it’s been an adventure when people ask what I’m reading and I say Proust. I was very interesting at parties for a while.
From the churches of Combray and the tea and madeleines to the unrecognizable faces of past friends, the journey the Narrator goes on is an incredible one. He grows up, falls in and out of love, different types of love, and writes almost page long sentences because Proust is an amazing literary mind and his translators have preserved his distinct style.
It was a year long commitment to read In Search of Last Time and this upcoming Sunday when I’m not sitting down with the Proust reading of the week I’m reminiscing about reading times past.
I’ve brought In Search of Lost Time along with me to all sorts of places, and it’s been an adventure when people ask what I’m reading and I say Proust. I was very interesting at parties for a while.
From the churches of Combray and the tea and madeleines to the unrecognizable faces of past friends, the journey the Narrator goes on is an incredible one. He grows up, falls in and out of love, different types of love, and writes almost page long sentences because Proust is an amazing literary mind and his translators have preserved his distinct style.
It was a year long commitment to read In Search of Last Time and this upcoming Sunday when I’m not sitting down with the Proust reading of the week I’m reminiscing about reading times past.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The impetus for reading Proust, again, but with an aim toward completion, came from reading an interview with the Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson. She says:
I met Eve Sedgwick in 1998 by taking a year-long course reading the entirety of Remembrance of Things Past. That basically changed my life. She wasn’t wrong when she said that you need to pay attention when Proust gets that “wise” tone; he will teach you great things. You don’t need a shrink if you have Proust. I feel rather biblical about the Recherche. Eve said he’ll make you smarter, and in fact he (and she) made me smarter. Over the next 4 years at CUNY, I took everything Eve taught.
I met Eve Sedgwick in 1998 by taking a year-long course reading the entirety of Remembrance of Things Past. That basically changed my life. She wasn’t wrong when she said that you need to pay attention when Proust gets that “wise” tone; he will teach you great things. You don’t need a shrink if you have Proust. I feel rather biblical about the Recherche. Eve said he’ll make you smarter, and in fact he (and she) made me smarter. Over the next 4 years at CUNY, I took everything Eve taught.
Completing this behemoth of books is perhaps the single greatest feat of my life! It took well above six months of slow paced reading -and mind you, this is a books that is meant to read slow- to complete all the six volumes. While a majority of discussions surrounding Proust is revolved around the single paragraph describing how he falls asleep and the description of the madeline episode- these occur in the first book itself! I haven't gone through the other reviews , but I can assure you , this books makes for a perfect vacation read. Read and be enriched.