The Best Proust Birthday Present

This blogger (see link below) has a fab photo of madelines and a glass a wine, never mind the tea.

Hmmm. When I was an undergrad at a Texas school, we always referred to U of T students as "tea sips." This was a huge insult, and in fact when I hear someone ordering a soy latte with no caffeine, the word "tea sip" always comes to mind, as with any wimpy talk, like "I could never drink wine with lunch," eat, butter, bacon, fried food, strong coffee, any number of wimp-outs. Kierkegaard said, "Sin bravely."

Proust was no wimp either, in spite of his poor health. I think of him tramping around St. Loup's barracks, and through town and hiking along the paths of Balbec.

Here is the link to the Birthday Present. Cool blog, too.

http://www.thebunnybungalow.com/2008/07/joyeux-anniversaire-monsieur-proust.html

Grapeshot

They're Still Summarizing Proust

Personally, I haven't ever tried to summarize Proust but I did write an English paper in my senior year which must have done some summarizing--Proust and time, what a topic--at 21 I was obsessed with time, duree (yeah, I know the apostrophe is missing) and all this terribly pretentious literary stuff.

Life was interesting in those days. But back to Proust, whose birthday was yesterday, by the way. Happy Birthday, Marcel, wherever you are.

Here is a link to an interesting post that links to some summaries of Proust on another website. This all started with the Monty Python All England Summarize Proust Contest, which was one of their classics. God, was that program great. Spam, spam, spam, baked beans, egg, tomato and spam. We quote from it all the time.

Link: http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/2008/07/wendell-berry-madam-marie-and-summarize.html

Maybe you should write your own summary.

Odette, no not that one!

Proust Errata

Blogging Proust in his various permutations.

Jacqui’s room: 15 Classics in 15 weeks.
http://jacquirobbins.blogspot.com/2008/07/july-7-book-by-proust.html

What ambition. I am astounded. Can barely get through the newspapers and magazines that come into the house.

Proust for the 3rd Time. This is what I’m doing. Once as an undergrad, 15 years later as a suburban mom (no soccer) and now with grown children. Each age brings something to Proust. Now I’m enjoying his humor, which I totally missed the first two reads. How is this possible?
http://bestofnow.blogspot.com/2008/07/shadowed-agapanthus-proust.html


Seven Degrees of Separation from
http://gayethechainreader.blogspot.com/2008/07/seven-degrees-of-separation-from-proust.html

Type in an author and see who else comes up. Weird names, for sure.
http://www.gnooks.com/

Blogging Proust

Photo is the beach at Biarritz


By now (July 5th) Marcel would be at Balbec with his grandmother, enjoying sun, sea and the girls in flower.

If you have a true Proust voracity, here are two blogs worthy of mention.

Proust and Penelope
http://lettersfromalibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-on-proust.html

Swann’s Way after 35 Years
http://thewritingsofproust.blogspot.com/2008/07/end-of-era.html

Odette

Blogging Proust blogging Proust

Proust and the Self:

An essay about re-reading Proust some years later. I can relate to this, but not quite as literarily. Too long in Foxborough?

http://onlywordstoplaywith.blogspot.com/2008/06/proust-and-self.html

Proust is no Hemingway.

Mais non! Proust is Proust and Papa is Papa. They are as different as say, Proust and Kerouac, who really do have much in common. Hmmmm. This is actually another readable essay by someone who has tried Proust and failed, and is back again to scale the summit. Looks like he may succeed this time. God knows, I tried Moby Dick several times before succeeding, and War and Peace endless times. Then I picked it up and read it from cover to cover. Sometimes the reader is not ready for a work of literature, but this is not failure.

http://literarysummits.com/index.php/2008/06/29/moving-on-to-swanns-way/

Another Food Blog

Haven't been reading Proust, barely reading the daily papers.

Here is a fellow Proust and food blogger. Oh to be in Balbec about now. Bet everyone runs around in white jeans and shorts and tiny tops and not a top hat to be seen.

Are the girls in flower riding their bikes along the esplanade? Is Albertine there? What's on the menu?

http://anotherfoodblog.com/?p=2902

Odette

Blogging Proust: the summer heats up

Proust Bloggers:

Wanting Peace: Proust at Last http://peacebemine.blogspot.com/2008/06/proust-at-last.html

McSweeney’s has a Proust parody that’s très amusant: http://mcsweeneys.net/2008/5/21kumar.html

And Reading Proust has a trenchant comment about Balbec, where we’ve all summered at the seaside with Proust.

http://proustreading.blogspot.com/2008/06/sodom-and-gomarrah-2.html

Moi? I'm still at the reception with the Duchesse de Guermantes. I'm the weirdly dressed one from the wrong century with American French looking around surreptitiously for the booze.

Cheers!

Odette