Yet more interesting Proust news. Is there something in the air? Lake Forest College in the tony Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois is hosting a Proust event. If you're in the are next week and feel like partaking of Proust in academia, here is he information: Lake Forest College to Celebrate Proust
Mark October 16th on your calendar.
Grapeshot
Sunday, October 06, 2013
The Sonambulist
After a long dry spell, I've come across a bit of Proust news. The Sonambulist
From the Toronto Globe and Mail:
The final project that husband-and-wife artistic team Deborah Moss and Edward Lam collaborated on before Lam’s death earlier this year will be on display in Toronto this weekend at Nuit Blanche, the annual all-night arts festival.
The Somnambulist is made of large acrylic panels that feature passages from Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, both of which express feelings about the night, with each letter set in Swarovski crystals.
Doesn't this sound intriguing? Hemingway and Proust, a duo that doesn't immediately connote a partnership or indeed any relationship.
Read to the bottom of the article for how the pair chose the authors and what they visitors would react.
The all -night festival Nuit Blanche is held in many cities across the globe.
From the Toronto Globe and Mail:
The final project that husband-and-wife artistic team Deborah Moss and Edward Lam collaborated on before Lam’s death earlier this year will be on display in Toronto this weekend at Nuit Blanche, the annual all-night arts festival.
The Somnambulist is made of large acrylic panels that feature passages from Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, both of which express feelings about the night, with each letter set in Swarovski crystals.
Doesn't this sound intriguing? Hemingway and Proust, a duo that doesn't immediately connote a partnership or indeed any relationship.
Read to the bottom of the article for how the pair chose the authors and what they visitors would react.
The all -night festival Nuit Blanche is held in many cities across the globe.
A Quantum City
A great Proust post, quoting the master himself. We should read Proust, really, not read about him, and here is a blogger who lets us do just that.
Quantum City
Quantum City
Friday, July 26, 2013
Happy Belated Birthday, Marcel
Alas! I missed Proust's birthday. Too frantically busy trying to get my novel formatted, final proofs, final spell check, final edits, and some PR. Crazy time. Heat wave, too.
Found a good birthday post which I'm passing on to you.
The Proust news of late has been ho-hum. Waiting for something rip-roaring to happen, although Proust and rip-roaring are not usually juxtaposed together.
I'm still working my way through the Albertine book. One of thse days. In the meantime, I read other stuff, some good, some just O.K. Do pick up the novel, HEFT. It was really good. You'll like it.
In the meantime, here's Proust: The Greatest Novelist of the 20th Century: Marcel Proust
Found a good birthday post which I'm passing on to you.
The Proust news of late has been ho-hum. Waiting for something rip-roaring to happen, although Proust and rip-roaring are not usually juxtaposed together.
I'm still working my way through the Albertine book. One of thse days. In the meantime, I read other stuff, some good, some just O.K. Do pick up the novel, HEFT. It was really good. You'll like it.
In the meantime, here's Proust: The Greatest Novelist of the 20th Century: Marcel Proust
Saturday, May 11, 2013
The New York Times blog had a great post on the 100th anniversary of the pub date of Swann's Way.
Happy Anniversary Marcel! NY Times Proust Blog
This is a wonderful blog with great, great comments. The perfect posts for Proustians.
Happy Anniversary Marcel! NY Times Proust Blog
This is a wonderful blog with great, great comments. The perfect posts for Proustians.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Proust as editor
If the editing of a long manuscript puts you off, think of Proust with ALL THOSE PAGES not just to write but to edit. Must have been so daunting. Especially daunting if unwell. If trying to finish before he died. The Atlantic has an article about Proust as editor. Hard to believe he could do this. All I can say is "Wow!"
Proust editing Proust
Happy Easter to everyone. We're having fare from the 2003 Bon Appetit: Ham with a glaze of mustard and red currant jelly and a rhubarb chutney. Medley of white and green asparagus. Whipped cauliflower. Slice avocado on mixed greens. Fresh sliced pineapple for dessert. Sounds good, doesn't it? No Proustian pineapple salad.
Baked Ham-with-Mustard-Red-Currant-Glaze-and-Rhubarb-Chutney
The other Odette
Proust editing Proust
Happy Easter to everyone. We're having fare from the 2003 Bon Appetit: Ham with a glaze of mustard and red currant jelly and a rhubarb chutney. Medley of white and green asparagus. Whipped cauliflower. Slice avocado on mixed greens. Fresh sliced pineapple for dessert. Sounds good, doesn't it? No Proustian pineapple salad.
Baked Ham-with-Mustard-Red-Currant-Glaze-and-Rhubarb-Chutney
 |
| Baked Ham with Rhubard Chutney from 2003 Bon Appetit |
The other Odette
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.
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,
Odette, the other one
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. |
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Where Have All the Good Proust Blogs Gone
Inquiring minds want to know. Reader, do you have any thoughts about this?
Thursday, November 22, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
The Marquise de Saint-Euverte’s Musical Soirée
It was a brilliant decision for A Curious Invitation: The Forty Greatest Parties in Literature by Suzette Field to pick this party, with the fun poked at invitees and servants alike, and with the social jockeying and snobbery as evident as the men's monocles and the ladies outrageous hair ornamentation.
This is one of Proust’s shorter (and therefore better) parties. The writing also contains quantities Proust's snarky humor. The narrator outdoes himself with his witty, exacerbating descriptions of the guests and the music, so many of which are imminently quotable.
Of one of the many footmen and grooms who attend the guests, Proust singles out the hair of one of them. “. . . that a head of hair, by the glossy undulation and beaklike points of its curls, or in the overlaying of the florid triple diadem of its brushed tresses, can suggest at once a bunch of seaweed, a brood of fledgling doves, a bed of hyacinths and a serpent’s writhing back. “
Of a guest, Proust writes, “M. de Palancy, who with his huge carp’s head and goggling eyes moved slowly up and down the stream of festive gatherings, unlocking his great mandibles at every moment as though in search of his orientation, had the air of carrying about upon his person only an accidental and perhaps purely symbolical fragment of the glass wall of his aquarium…”
Quoted from Swann’s Way, “Swan in Love” translated by Scott Moncrieff.
One bows to the master.
This is one of Proust’s shorter (and therefore better) parties. The writing also contains quantities Proust's snarky humor. The narrator outdoes himself with his witty, exacerbating descriptions of the guests and the music, so many of which are imminently quotable.
Of one of the many footmen and grooms who attend the guests, Proust singles out the hair of one of them. “. . . that a head of hair, by the glossy undulation and beaklike points of its curls, or in the overlaying of the florid triple diadem of its brushed tresses, can suggest at once a bunch of seaweed, a brood of fledgling doves, a bed of hyacinths and a serpent’s writhing back. “
Of a guest, Proust writes, “M. de Palancy, who with his huge carp’s head and goggling eyes moved slowly up and down the stream of festive gatherings, unlocking his great mandibles at every moment as though in search of his orientation, had the air of carrying about upon his person only an accidental and perhaps purely symbolical fragment of the glass wall of his aquarium…”
Quoted from Swann’s Way, “Swan in Love” translated by Scott Moncrieff.
One bows to the master.
Good Reads Review of Suzette Field's Party Book
A Curious Invitation: The Forty Greatest Parties in Literature by Suzette FieldMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a wonderful fun-to-read book. The forty parties discussed are a sweep of literature from the Bible to Stephen King. You can be glad you weren't invited to some of these parties--they're a real horror show, such as The Masque of the Red Death, Belshazzer's Feast, The Anubis Orgy, but they'll all such fun to read about, like a snarky society column.
Some thing "curious" about "A Curious Invitation" is that there's very little mention of what food was served at many of these parties. The importance of drink outweighs details about the food. I've noticed that many, not all, writers are drinkers, not eaters, so this isn't surprising.
You don't have to be an English or World Lit. major to delight in this book. You're in some very interesting company all the way from Trimalchio to Joyce and sometimes being a mouse spying from the woodwork is the very best vantage point.
View all my reviews
Friday, October 26, 2012
A Curious Invitation: The Forty Greatest Parties In Literature
An intriguing book has flown into my radar. Suzette Field's A Curious Invitation . . . arrived right before we left for Los Angeles on a research trip for my own work in process novel. Significant Other grabbed it and read it the entire time we were away, and I am just now getting to it.
Of course the first chapter in A Curious Invitation that I read was about Proust's account of the Marquise de Saint-Euverte's Musical Soiree in Swann's Way. If you have read this blog at all, you know I frequently get bogged down in Proust's parties, but his writing about the Marquises's party is absolutely sprightly, with spot on characterizations and comments about the guests. Oh the snobbery! The jockeying for social position! The servants! The music!
And guess what "little phrase" Swann hears just as he is itching to get out of there and head back home to find out news of Odette? Vinteiul's little phrase, of course.
The Curious Invitation's description of the party is also spot on. And this soiree is not as long as many of the parties in Proust, perhaps because Swann is so impatient to leave. I love these books (both Proust and A Curious Invitation) and you will hear more about them when I get my own dinner party out of the way this evening (no live music and very little snobbery). There is also a book signing tomorrow at the Boston Book Festival. I will be in the Sister's In Crime booth signing World of Mirrors.
Then it's back to Proust's party where we will dig the dirt, as it were, and on to some more "marvelous parties" in A Curious Invitation. Reading about the various parties brought back a few I remember. Seventh Floor Adolphus in Dallas before the Cotton bowl, and some high school blasts in McCarthy's basement. When did I grow so mature and even . . staid? Great party, by the way, at Santa Anita race track in the Turf Club Saturday afternoon. The "dress code" brings out the best. A very lively crowd, friendly, too.
Even if the blasted hurricane comes up the East Coast, we'll have the 40 Greatest Parties, Proust and an assemblage of hurricane lanterns and lamps to read by.
More anon,
Grapeshot
Of course the first chapter in A Curious Invitation that I read was about Proust's account of the Marquise de Saint-Euverte's Musical Soiree in Swann's Way. If you have read this blog at all, you know I frequently get bogged down in Proust's parties, but his writing about the Marquises's party is absolutely sprightly, with spot on characterizations and comments about the guests. Oh the snobbery! The jockeying for social position! The servants! The music!
And guess what "little phrase" Swann hears just as he is itching to get out of there and head back home to find out news of Odette? Vinteiul's little phrase, of course.
The Curious Invitation's description of the party is also spot on. And this soiree is not as long as many of the parties in Proust, perhaps because Swann is so impatient to leave. I love these books (both Proust and A Curious Invitation) and you will hear more about them when I get my own dinner party out of the way this evening (no live music and very little snobbery). There is also a book signing tomorrow at the Boston Book Festival. I will be in the Sister's In Crime booth signing World of Mirrors.
Then it's back to Proust's party where we will dig the dirt, as it were, and on to some more "marvelous parties" in A Curious Invitation. Reading about the various parties brought back a few I remember. Seventh Floor Adolphus in Dallas before the Cotton bowl, and some high school blasts in McCarthy's basement. When did I grow so mature and even . . staid? Great party, by the way, at Santa Anita race track in the Turf Club Saturday afternoon. The "dress code" brings out the best. A very lively crowd, friendly, too.
Even if the blasted hurricane comes up the East Coast, we'll have the 40 Greatest Parties, Proust and an assemblage of hurricane lanterns and lamps to read by.
More anon,
Grapeshot
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Would Proust Have Won?
The McArthur genius grants have just been awarded, and two novelists were selected. Junot Diaz and Dinaw Mengestu Win $500,000 Genius Grants.
Do you think Proust would have qualified? I do. With his great work, he did something no one has done before or since. The characters, the settings, the stories, the words, his subtle humor. Think about it. Proust was truly a genius.
Do you think Proust would have qualified? I do. With his great work, he did something no one has done before or since. The characters, the settings, the stories, the words, his subtle humor. Think about it. Proust was truly a genius.
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