Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Marcel is not Proust

Another blog with some thoughtful commentary. I finally finished Swann's Way, which ended, shall we say, modestly. Kind of peters out with Swann no longer in love with Odette, or so he thinks. Well, we don't need a big bang-up ending with explosions and emoting .

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10968

I must confess I liked the scenes set at Combray better than Swann's endless mooning about Odette. All he would have needed to do was cut the money off and she would have been back at the speed of light. Which he knew. One wanted to give him a couple of slaps alongside the head. His friends were sending anonymous letters detailing her transgressions. The scenes where he questioned her and she confessed to various misdeeds were good. He was such a bloody fool. Love is blind.

Onward to Albertine and Gilberte, and the very naughty Charlus.

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