Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ça m'a pris deux années pour finir ce livre et je pense pas pouvoir dire des choses intelligentes la déssus qui n'ont pas encore été dites.
C'est sûrement bien trop compliqué, rempli de réferences à une culture et société que je ne connais pas du tout et qui me dépassent alors, pour finalement, pour le moment, pas raconter une histoire trop complexe.
Mais quand même, les descriptions de la nature, du monde et des personnes, les "observations de la nature humaine" sont très riches et aussi j'ai vraiment envie de savoir comment continue l'histoire - même si je vais probablement lire les autres tomes dans une traduction allemande pour avancer un peu plus rapidement.
C'est sûrement bien trop compliqué, rempli de réferences à une culture et société que je ne connais pas du tout et qui me dépassent alors, pour finalement, pour le moment, pas raconter une histoire trop complexe.
Mais quand même, les descriptions de la nature, du monde et des personnes, les "observations de la nature humaine" sont très riches et aussi j'ai vraiment envie de savoir comment continue l'histoire - même si je vais probablement lire les autres tomes dans une traduction allemande pour avancer un peu plus rapidement.
Sometimes you really wan't to like a book, but it's not always successful no matter how hard you try. Maybe with this one I tried too hard, because I had certain expectations. There's not really a plot in here, but this is a kind of a collection of memories and of characters who more or less show up in them. The lack of a plot wasn't a problem, especially when Proust could probably be able to describe taking a dump beautifully, but in the end this was too easy to put down and too hard to pick up again. I did understand, that like recollections are usually sprawling, this was meant to imitate that. In practice though reading was way too heavy. Although at times beautiful scenes and Proust's use of words made me sigh from delight, but mostly it was tough to read his ramblings. Not to say ramblings can't work, just look at Tropic of Cancer (1934). Long sentences are also ok, as long they are understandable, and not the kind you have to read all over again just to figure out what the author is trying to say.
My favourite scene was (in addition to that legendary madeleine scene) when Proust described a childhood reading session in the garden. It was straight from my own childhood. During the summer I used to read in our garden so focused, that I didn't realise the day getting darker. The transitions between different memories were also executed well and naturally, as if the words were flowing from one place into another. As a whole though the novel was in need of editing, because now this is just way too long. I also kind of felt that while there's nothing wrong with Proust's writing talent, he just had some problems in constructing a whole novel. Like he didn't know what he was doing, but was trying feverishly to write all his ideas down. At least I have my limits with stream of consciousness.
I'm going to take a look at the second installment, but if that feels as sticky as this one I'll give up with the whole series. There's far too many books out there for me to torture myself with an uninteresting series. There's still hope, though. At least what I've gathered, this was a sort of introduction to the whole series, so as a whole the story hasn't properly begun yet. Or at least I hope that there will be at least a some kind of glimpse of a point.
Despite my negativity this still deserves three stars, for Proust's writing and for the potential for good stuff later on. So, for the most arrogant Proust fans whose comments I've seen here on Goodreads: stop being pretentious and eloquent jackasses. Not all classics are liked by everyone. To each his own.
My favourite scene was (in addition to that legendary madeleine scene) when Proust described a childhood reading session in the garden. It was straight from my own childhood. During the summer I used to read in our garden so focused, that I didn't realise the day getting darker. The transitions between different memories were also executed well and naturally, as if the words were flowing from one place into another. As a whole though the novel was in need of editing, because now this is just way too long. I also kind of felt that while there's nothing wrong with Proust's writing talent, he just had some problems in constructing a whole novel. Like he didn't know what he was doing, but was trying feverishly to write all his ideas down. At least I have my limits with stream of consciousness.
I'm going to take a look at the second installment, but if that feels as sticky as this one I'll give up with the whole series. There's far too many books out there for me to torture myself with an uninteresting series. There's still hope, though. At least what I've gathered, this was a sort of introduction to the whole series, so as a whole the story hasn't properly begun yet. Or at least I hope that there will be at least a some kind of glimpse of a point.
Despite my negativity this still deserves three stars, for Proust's writing and for the potential for good stuff later on. So, for the most arrogant Proust fans whose comments I've seen here on Goodreads: stop being pretentious and eloquent jackasses. Not all classics are liked by everyone. To each his own.
I know he invented Modernism and everything, but did nobody tell him to "murder his darlings?"
If you want to read about jealousy, he's your man.
If you want to read about jealousy, he's your man.
I like to imagine that anonymous letter that Swann got about 2/3s of the way through Swann in Love was written in the style of the "anonymous" letter Snooki and Jwoww wrote to Sammy about Ron in season 1 of Jersey Shore.
I don't have any other thoughts about this book because I'm dumb.
I don't have any other thoughts about this book because I'm dumb.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
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
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
At long last, I have read Proust! I finished Swann's Way this afternoon occasionally gazing out at the Japanese maple outside my window and reading beautiful descriptions of autumn feeling as if I was in Paris:
...at a place where the trees were still covered in all their green leaves, one alone, small, squat, lopped, obstinate, shook in the wind a homely head of red hair...Here, it thickened the leaves of the chestnut trees like bricks and, like a piece of yellow Persian masonry patterned in blue, crudely cemented them against the sky, there on the contrary detached them from it as they clutched at it with their fingers of gold.( p. 439, Lydia Davis translation)
I was captured by the language much earlier in the book, though, by the musical descriptions (I taught elementary music for 25 years before becoming a librarian) like "...if a piece heard only on the piano appears to us later clothed in the colors of the orchestra...(p. 142, Lydia Davis translation). I really don't know what I was afraid of and why, with my love of Paris and other things French and my fair knowledge of the language, I have never taken on In Search of Lost Time. It was not a simple book with a plot to keep you turning the pages, but neither did I find it difficult to read. I have been reading it in chunks over the course of the last month, but that had more to do with the lack of a "hard to put down" plot than with the books complexity. It isn't a book for everyone. You must enjoy detailed and lengthy descriptions and a long wait for something to really happen and resolve. I plan to continue In Search of Lost Time, but I will be stretching it out among lots of other kinds of reading to get the most out of it for my reading style.
...at a place where the trees were still covered in all their green leaves, one alone, small, squat, lopped, obstinate, shook in the wind a homely head of red hair...Here, it thickened the leaves of the chestnut trees like bricks and, like a piece of yellow Persian masonry patterned in blue, crudely cemented them against the sky, there on the contrary detached them from it as they clutched at it with their fingers of gold.( p. 439, Lydia Davis translation)
I was captured by the language much earlier in the book, though, by the musical descriptions (I taught elementary music for 25 years before becoming a librarian) like "...if a piece heard only on the piano appears to us later clothed in the colors of the orchestra...(p. 142, Lydia Davis translation). I really don't know what I was afraid of and why, with my love of Paris and other things French and my fair knowledge of the language, I have never taken on In Search of Lost Time. It was not a simple book with a plot to keep you turning the pages, but neither did I find it difficult to read. I have been reading it in chunks over the course of the last month, but that had more to do with the lack of a "hard to put down" plot than with the books complexity. It isn't a book for everyone. You must enjoy detailed and lengthy descriptions and a long wait for something to really happen and resolve. I plan to continue In Search of Lost Time, but I will be stretching it out among lots of other kinds of reading to get the most out of it for my reading style.
slow-paced