'Longtemps, je me couchais de bonne heure' and all that jazz. C or D?

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Marcel Proust: Sensitive sensualist, stylist and sage? Or a rambly old bore who NEVER GOT TO THE F***ING POINT? At what point did you give up 'A la recherche du temps perdu'? Or has anyone got the the (gulp) end? What about the movies based on his work?

― Will, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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― Will, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i haf not got to the beginning

― mark s, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My friend The G has read the lot and thinks it all fantastic, unfortunately he's in the Baltics so I can't get his view on it for another week. Sounds like a lot of hard work for not a lot to me though.

― chris, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i wrote a poem called the taste of madelines and i think its hella good but no one gets the ref. I read Swanns Way.

― anthony, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

madeleine = french for kipling's slice

― mark s, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And also french for very smelly metro station.

― RickyT, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

30 pages in and i forgot the page the next time i tried to remember.

― Geoff, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Madeleines would be French for Kiplings slice if the latter came in placcy bags rather than their slightly more classy boxes.

― Madchen, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i made it to the end (in english). it took me ages to get into though - the first couple of volumes took about 6 months (i was reading other stuff too) but then i was hooked and rushed through the last 4 in a week. part of the rush was that i wanted to see the film of time regained before it left the cinema, and in fact i ended up seeing it the day after i finished the book. i remember the book being completely ace and well worth the effort, and the film as ok but overlong (i definitely dropped off a few times in the middle).

so classic, i guess, but heavy going for the first thousand pages or so (!).

― toby, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Blimey. I feel thick. Can I hide behind Alex T?

― Sarah, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Toby - I admire you greatly. A friend of mine once suggested it might be a good book to read in middle age, when you had built up a comparable store of memories. But Proust isn't just about memories is it? Its about moments where the self connects to infinity... I read 'Du cote de chez Swann' at university and I'm thinking about taking up the reins again.

― Will, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i = are not bothering = irredeemable pleb, probably. life's too short and i STILL haven't finished Don Quixote!

― katie, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the closest i've come to any proust is a section in the text adventure Jigsaw related to the writing of a la recherche. it's a wonderfully evocative sequence. cork tiled flat, streets of paris, little cakey thing and all.

(the same author has the unreal city in another game with scenery and puzzles based on THAT poem.)

― Alan Trewartha, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i have to say that i can't really imagine getting through it without having a lot of time to spare - i found it took a while to sink back into it each time, so reading chunks of less than about 50 pages in one go wasn't all that rewarding.

what i think doesn't get emphasised enough is that there really is a plot going on too, and quite a gripping one at that. in fact my memory is that it was said gripping plot that kicked in in vol 3 or so and got me through the rest of the book in one go.

i guess last year was my year of reading long books, as i finally got round to infinite jest shortly afterwards. mind you it was also the year that i got two thirds of the way through ulysses and then gave up having looked at the notes and realised that i had understood NOTHING.

― toby, Tuesday, 13 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

I saw that Proust film with Jeremy Irons as Swann. I think Anthony would make an excellent Baron de
Charlus, non?

― erik, Thursday, 9 January 2003 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Si!

(spectacular thread revival, erik -- I salute you.)

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 9 January 2003 19:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Ooh, a thread I missed on one of my favourites. I read it all the way through in about a week and a half after completing my first year of Computer Science at uni, as a sort of reward to myself for sticking it out.

It's odd, what prompted me to read it. Danny Baker, on his short-lived TV show, did some feature about Cultural Experiences You Have Missed, and everyone was talking about never eating a Mcdonalds burger, never using a vending machine and stuff like that, and I had this sharp immediate sad though, I've never read Proust. So I did.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 9 January 2003 20:34 (twenty-three years ago)

engrossing anthony

http://www.staylace.com/films/swanninlove/swann.jpg

― erik, Thursday, 9 January 2003 20:49 (twenty-three years ago)

eep ! seriously, go see the Raoul Ruiz film of Time Regained, it is amazingly good, & has Deneuve, Béart, and Malkovitch playing Charlus.
I'll soon be working my way thru the whole thing en français for a grad seminar.. because, you know, we can't just bring up the damned madeleines all the time.

― daria g, Thursday, 9 January 2003 22:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Hooray for Volker Schlondorff!

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 9 January 2003 22:44 (twenty-three years ago)

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