Friday, February 15, 2013

A Banner Day for Proust Fans

Today's New York Times (2/15/13) has an article on the just-opening exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, "Marcel Proust and 'Swann's Way'" 100th Anniversary.  Here is the link: Marcel Proust and 'Swann's Way' at the Morgan.

The exhibit lasts until April 23, and I'll arrange to travel from Foxborough to the Big Apple and report back.  One of the problems appears to be that rien  (nothing) is translated into English.  My French is beaucoup rusty to say the least. 

Here is the link to the Times' review:  Proust, For Those With A Memory

In searching for the online review, I found a wonderful bibliography of all the Times articles on Proust, and particularly one that I had once read and forgotten. Today's bonus link:
Proust essay by Edmund White


Months with little Proust news and then voila!  There is bound to be a lot of hoo-ha over the 100th anniversary, and we shall be in the thick of things.

Happy celebrations. 



Monday, February 11, 2013

Finally, another interesting Proust Blog

Jacqueline Rose on Marcel Proust

This Jacqueline Rose blog has some interesting food for thought.  Of the more provocative:  Proust's novel is a "feminist Gothic horror story. "  I don't actually know what this means apropos Proust, but I'll think about it.  The other perhaps revolutionary thought is that "the 'intermittencies of the heart' section of Volume Four: Sodom and Gomorrah is the greatest ever piece of writing on grief."  I am still reading the Sodom and Gomorrah section of Proust, stuck there, is possibly a better description.  Will try to find the passage.  I believe Proust has a big anniversary this year with Swann's Way, but I have to look this up, too.

Here in Foxborough, we just came through the mother of all storms with 27 inches of snow and huge drifts and all public and private transportation shut down for a day.  Lots of citizens still without power in the cold and tonight, rain is predicted to add insult to injury.

The weather was always nice in Proust's Normandy, wasn't it?  I don't even recall too much rain in Combray or Paris, but there must have been some.  It is society that is turbulent, not the weather.  

I'm still reading the work, M. Proust's Library. Alas, there has been reading and writing to do that has nothing to do with Proust as well as writing and rewriting.  I produced a short story that has been submitted to an anthology.  No idea if they'll accept it, but it was a novella that I had to smash down into a short story, never a fun process.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed writing it, although it consumed November, December and January, which is difficult when one has holidays and house guests.  No wonder Proust has been consigned to my nightstand stack of books.

Follow this just discovered link to interviews with people who actually knew Proust. BBC program of Proust topics




Onward,

Before the snow really came down.  Now one cannot see out the window for the drifts.
Odette, the other one