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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
My first experience with Proust's sentences reminded me of my earlier experiences of Henry James'. Not only are their sentences lengthy with multiple clauses and asides, upon first jumping into them, I sometimes immediately reread them in order to return to their headwaters. And that second reading is always seamless. Unlike in James though, where the psychological insights may seem contrary, even hard to grasp, Proust's arrive with a nod of the head. Like a sculptor is said to bring forth what is already there in his block of unformed marble, Proust has put into words what the sympathetic reader already feels and knows, yet he's rendered it all in fresh, vivid imagery.
Yes, there were a few times I was wearied by the repetitiveness of Swann's obsessiveness; same with a couple of short passages in the narrator's bookends, though each time my weariness was brief and I was soon back in the flowing current. The closing section brought the novel together into one beautiful cohesive whole.
*
My own aside: I googled every work of art mentioned and I know I will never look at a Botticelli female again without seeing her through Proust's eyes.
I'm ready for the next volume.
Yes, there were a few times I was wearied by the repetitiveness of Swann's obsessiveness; same with a couple of short passages in the narrator's bookends, though each time my weariness was brief and I was soon back in the flowing current. The closing section brought the novel together into one beautiful cohesive whole.
*
My own aside: I googled every work of art mentioned and I know I will never look at a Botticelli female again without seeing her through Proust's eyes.
I'm ready for the next volume.
challenging
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
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
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Para o lado de Swann é um experiência literária transcendental. As sensações dos personagens e suas percepções sobre detalhes do seu cotidiano, os sentimentos vistos e revistos, a beleza de cada passagem e o tempo como um elemento central da trama, fazem deste livro um clássico que nos leva a um mundo visto por olhos que enxergam além do banal. Maravilhoso.
Easter 2013.
When I reached the final pages of Du Côté de chez Swann, I knew that I hadn’t finished a book but that I’d simply begun one, that what I’d read were only the first chapters of a much longer work, and that reading through the entire seven volumes of A la Recherche du Temps Perdu would be, to borrow one of Marcel Proust’s favourite images, like travelling on a very long and very beautiful train.
I realised that what I had done so far was simply to wander through the first few carriages of this train where I met with some intriguing passengers and overheard some curious conversations. I admired the different decor in each carriage while recognising the common elements that recurred from one to the next. I encountered some of the passengers more than once as they moved about from one section of the train to another, backwards and forwards as they pleased. I gazed from the windows of each carriage and spotted familiar landmarks, now on the left, now on the right. I noticed that the landscape seemed unchanging at times and yet the passengers sometimes wore different clothing. At other times, it was the scenery that was different while the preoccupations and conversations remained the same.
I found myself wondering if the train were not on some hugely complex orbit around a central point, passing over and back, revolving in both space and time, because, although Proust loved the precision of railway timetables, the chronology of this narrative is very, very mobile. At the beginning, I found this distracting but now I’ve accepted the fact that alongside clock time and calendar time, there is Proust time and that there may be many more meanings to Temps Perdu than the obvious one of ‘lost time’.
I find it significant that many episodes in the early sections of this work occur around Pâques or Easter. When we remember that Easter is not a fixed date in the calendar, that it is a mobile feast, falling on the Sunday following the full moon which itself follows the Spring equinox and which in turn depends on the earth’s orbit around the sun, then the series of Easter times in the narrative become as difficult to pin down on a calendar as the resurrection of memories from a wafer of tisane-soaked cake.
But Proust has such a keen sense of how nature responds in each season that while we rarely know the exact date of any particular episode, we do know exactly where the episode is situated in nature’s calendar. During the many Easters of the narrative, the weather is remarkably consistent even though it may be March in one and April in another. Proust returns frequently to the types of flowers which bloom around Easter, and refers often to the miracle of the renewal of nature. Aubépine or hawthorn is a favourite plant, the thorns of the new growth tinged with pink in a subtle Good Friday analogy. Boules de neige or viburnum are mentioned too for their parallel with Easter weather when snow showers can occur as easily as sunshine. In this way, we are reminded that Easter has more than religious significance, that plants too are influenced by the equinox, that the earth has its own renewal calendar, and that Proust time is cosmic time.
When I reached the final pages of Du Côté de chez Swann, I knew that I hadn’t finished a book but that I’d simply begun one, that what I’d read were only the first chapters of a much longer work, and that reading through the entire seven volumes of A la Recherche du Temps Perdu would be, to borrow one of Marcel Proust’s favourite images, like travelling on a very long and very beautiful train.
I realised that what I had done so far was simply to wander through the first few carriages of this train where I met with some intriguing passengers and overheard some curious conversations. I admired the different decor in each carriage while recognising the common elements that recurred from one to the next. I encountered some of the passengers more than once as they moved about from one section of the train to another, backwards and forwards as they pleased. I gazed from the windows of each carriage and spotted familiar landmarks, now on the left, now on the right. I noticed that the landscape seemed unchanging at times and yet the passengers sometimes wore different clothing. At other times, it was the scenery that was different while the preoccupations and conversations remained the same.
I found myself wondering if the train were not on some hugely complex orbit around a central point, passing over and back, revolving in both space and time, because, although Proust loved the precision of railway timetables, the chronology of this narrative is very, very mobile. At the beginning, I found this distracting but now I’ve accepted the fact that alongside clock time and calendar time, there is Proust time and that there may be many more meanings to Temps Perdu than the obvious one of ‘lost time’.
I find it significant that many episodes in the early sections of this work occur around Pâques or Easter. When we remember that Easter is not a fixed date in the calendar, that it is a mobile feast, falling on the Sunday following the full moon which itself follows the Spring equinox and which in turn depends on the earth’s orbit around the sun, then the series of Easter times in the narrative become as difficult to pin down on a calendar as the resurrection of memories from a wafer of tisane-soaked cake.
But Proust has such a keen sense of how nature responds in each season that while we rarely know the exact date of any particular episode, we do know exactly where the episode is situated in nature’s calendar. During the many Easters of the narrative, the weather is remarkably consistent even though it may be March in one and April in another. Proust returns frequently to the types of flowers which bloom around Easter, and refers often to the miracle of the renewal of nature. Aubépine or hawthorn is a favourite plant, the thorns of the new growth tinged with pink in a subtle Good Friday analogy. Boules de neige or viburnum are mentioned too for their parallel with Easter weather when snow showers can occur as easily as sunshine. In this way, we are reminded that Easter has more than religious significance, that plants too are influenced by the equinox, that the earth has its own renewal calendar, and that Proust time is cosmic time.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The beginning of Proust's masterwork is (to me) about being able to know another person (and by extension any other entity) and what role memory plays in that "knowing". There are several characters, including the narrator himself, who are shown to have very different traits, yet are the same person.
Part I, Combray: Reading it is kind of like being with a friend who tells some really great stories about his/her life, but who has a firm resolve to show you his/her entire slideshow/photo album and exhaustively describe each and every picture. And they're really into flowers. And churches. There are some quite funny stories about the people who inhabited the Narrator's early life, and these happen between long, descriptive passages about Combray and its environs. His family summered there at his Aunt Leonie's, escaping Paris in the meantime.
Part II, Swann in Love: A shift in voice to a third person narrative to relate a tale of M. Charles Swann and his relationship with a Parisian lady. I found this part easier going than Part I but that is not to say it was easy. It takes the theme of knowing another person and focuses into an arena where that question is asked most of all - relationships and dating.
Part III, Place Names - The Name: This section opens with a brief (for Proust) meditation on words and names and how they are shorthand (with one or two included attributes) for the people and places they reference. It then returns to the Narrator, who is back in Paris and has a singular interest of his own.
While I can certainly admire and respect his achievement, liking has been proving a bit more difficult to do. I would suggest that would have more to do with the impatient reader (me) than the text but I am interested to see what Volume II will bring.
Part I, Combray: Reading it is kind of like being with a friend who tells some really great stories about his/her life, but who has a firm resolve to show you his/her entire slideshow/photo album and exhaustively describe each and every picture. And they're really into flowers. And churches. There are some quite funny stories about the people who inhabited the Narrator's early life, and these happen between long, descriptive passages about Combray and its environs. His family summered there at his Aunt Leonie's, escaping Paris in the meantime.
Part II, Swann in Love: A shift in voice to a third person narrative to relate a tale of M. Charles Swann and his relationship with a Parisian lady. I found this part easier going than Part I but that is not to say it was easy. It takes the theme of knowing another person and focuses into an arena where that question is asked most of all - relationships and dating.
Part III, Place Names - The Name: This section opens with a brief (for Proust) meditation on words and names and how they are shorthand (with one or two included attributes) for the people and places they reference. It then returns to the Narrator, who is back in Paris and has a singular interest of his own.
While I can certainly admire and respect his achievement, liking has been proving a bit more difficult to do. I would suggest that would have more to do with the impatient reader (me) than the text but I am interested to see what Volume II will bring.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Never before have I encountered something so deeply beautiful and poetic. I knew Proust was a great writer, a genius to many, but I didn't expect to be so shocked and intrigued by the sincerity and depth of the portrayals of events and characters. He can be a bit of a tedious read with his long-winded and descriptive prose, but definitely worth reading because, no lie, some of the paragraphs are life-changing.