When Proust Met Joyce

NOT like "When Harry Met Sally."  Proust and Joyce met at the Hotel Majestic in Paris in 1922.  They didn't particularly take to each other.  Well, opposites don't always attract.  Wouldn't you have liked to have been a mouse in the woodwork or a fly on the ceiling? The hotel hosted other famous guests.  Ah, Paris!

Read all about it. Where Proust Met Joyce

Proust Complains of Noisy Neighbor

Our friend on 5th Avenue in New York, lives in an apartment where renovations have been proceeding apace next door.  Plaster dust, banging, rattling, drilling and all the noise that accompanies a remodeling have been her constant companion for months.

Imagine if your neighbor is Proust, and he complains to you in heartfelt letters about YOUR noise.  Ye Gods!  what would you do?  Read on.   Found in The New Yorker

The Sympathetic Spy Downstairs

Roger Shattuck Read Proust and Read and Read and Read

10 - 12 times, a prodigious feat, and he wasn't even from Foxborough.  Read about it here.  I am in total awe.

Roger Shattuck Read Proust Many Times

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. 

M. Proust's Library

New Proust book alert!  M. Proust's Library by Anka Muhlstein, Other Press, 141 pages, $19.95 

Joseph Epstein has a long, knowledgeable review of the book in the November 17-18 (2012) Wall Street Journal. 

Epstein mentions, what many of us know, that "no one should read Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' for the first time."  This is a clever way of saying that the second reading is much more meaningful (you know the characters and the scope of the book) and are ready to get the deeper meaning of Proust, the humor, the art, music and yes, the books Proust mentions.  

We would be cultured and well-educated if we read all the classics that Proust read.  I do encourage you to find the review and better yet, to buy this book, as it looks like an excellent addition to anyone's Proust library. 

I am still dipping into Proust from time to time, but other required reading and  life, have conspired to slow this process down.  The long winter, I tell myself, will be perfect for some Proust reading. 

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers.  Off to get the turkey stuffed and into the oven.


Odette

Romancing the Past

Does back to school make you nostalgic?  Proust readers may identify with this columnist's take on nostalgia and the past.

Romancing the Past

New Proust Blogger!

Seems like summer belongs to Beach Books and not to the heavy tomes of Proust, although I am reading away in Cities of the Plain.

Here is a Proust blogger with a lot of great historical information.  Interesting how two out of the three who inspired the Guermantes women did not like Proust.  More Marcel!


Do take a look at this informative blog: 

Who's Who in Proust

Slow Reading of Proust

An almost-not-quite-deserted, peaceful place to read Proust, without distractions, without irritations. Maybe an out-of-the-way island. Good food, sun with a few rainy days, a beach, an umbrella, some interesting walks (to ponder what one has read), outdoor cafes for the sunny days, and indoor cafes for the rain. Mybe a haunting street musician. A few people to make up stories about. No shopping, no television, only an immersion in Proust and his milieu. How quickly could one finish the book?

http://harrietwaag.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-would-read-proust.html

Odette, the other one

Reading Proust on the Train

Reading Proust on the train enabled a young woman to find a literary agent. No wonder I've had no luck in that regard. I read Proust in bed late at night.

I began volume two, but only read a page before drifting off. It will be another long slog until Time Regained, my absolute favorite of all Proust's work.

http://www.27east.com/story_detail.cfm?id=231144&town=Hampton%20Bays&n=Local%20author%20to%20read%20excerpts%20from%20latest%20novel%20at%20Sag%20Harbor%20bookstore

Maybe you should read Proust on the train.

Odeette

New England Reads Proust

An alert reader sent information about a Proust reading group at the Boston Athenaeum (private library) and a group of women in Connecticut have formed their own Proust-reading group. This rocks! Is it a movement?


http://womenreadingproust.blogspot.com/2009/08/mon-dieu-someone-has-read-all-7-volumes.html

I took Volume II off the shelf. It looks mouse-chewed and terribly worn, and I notice there's a price of $2.00 on the inside cover. Obviously from college days. Scott Montcrieff translation and hard cover. Avanti!

The other Odette

Kiss A Cloud

More Proust readers are popping up. Maybe the hawthornes are in bloom. I have to confess that this is the time of year I most often think of Proust's blooming hedges.

http://kissacloud.blogspot.com/2009/04/swanns-way-by-marcel-proust.html

There is a great chain of Proust readers, and when one says adieu to Marcel, another introduces herself. We are all ages and nationalities, and we all love Proust. It's not a religion, exactly, but we all carry the torch.

The other Odette

The Proust Project

If you're going to be in The Big Apple tomorrow, which, alas, I am not, you can (if tickets are available) take in The Proust Project. I would love to be there, but living near Beantown is not condusive to a quick trip to NYC and all that entails, like trains and a place to spend the night and tickets and, well, you know.

I just returned from Germany and finally have laundry under control, food in the house, everything unpacked and sort of put away, in short, just getting life back together and not up for spontaneous jaunt.

But here's the link. It sounds wonderful:

http://broadwayworld.com/article/CSC_Presents_THE_PROUST_PROJECT_Readings_Beginning_323_20090320

The Other Odette