If You Have A First Edition of Proust, You're in Luck

A First Edition of Proust recently hit the auction block.  Yikes!  This is not chump change.


 Lucky buyer lucky seller World Record for Proust First Edition if Swann's Way
I have an ancient edition of two volums of the entire novel that I bought in Houston when I attended Rice.  In those days of yore, I  patronized a bookstore that had many books from the Seamen's Library in Galveston.  Some of them were waterlogged, so they might have gone though the great hurricane.  My copy of Proust (in English) is a bit ratty but holding its own.  Been read a lot.

How is YOUR copy  of Proust?  Is it a First Edition?  You are in luck. 

Remarkable Proust Archives Sold at Auction

Treasure trove of Proust memorabilia auctioned off.  Wow! Proust Auction





Intimate letters, photos and other items said to be worth about $800,000.00.  Did you get to bid?  

And this link from the BBC news:  More about the auctioned items

Sotheby's in Paris conducted the auction May 31, 2016.  I can just imagine Proust writing about such an event.  Maybe some of his characters were there.  Anyone from the Jockey Club?  Certainly Swann, and maybe a Duke and Duchess or two.  Can you imagine the scene?  Some tension, enemies crossing paths, the Verdurins snubbed and snubbing.  The bids, the fear of exposure when such personal items go on the auction  block.  One is almost tempted to write such a scene.

This is the time of year everyone would have been at the beach hotels (or private residences), so it was a good thing they had the auction before the summer season started.   

I have been terribly negligent with this blog.  Reading. Writing. Cooking.  Gardening.  Family stuff. 

Forgive?   

Here's an extra:  Who made Proust swoon?