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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2009 10:54:42 GMT
Somehow,I feel the need to know. Who among us has read Proust? Did you read him on your own initiative,through school,in French ,or translated? Did you enjoy? I never had Proust hoisted on me. I have attempted to read him on a few occasions and while I still enjoy certain passages, I don't know that I would attempt to read all again.
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Post by spindrift on Aug 7, 2009 13:49:22 GMT
I know that I should read Proust but I have not yet! I feel I ought to try soon....
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 7, 2009 14:04:04 GMT
I read one of the books long ago and retain two things from it: the description of the boy whose head & hair made him look like a chrysanthemum, and how much I hated the book overall. A few years ago, when the book "Proust Can Change Your Life" came out, several people I know with good literary taste were reading Proust. I meant to try again, but .................
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Post by bazfaz on Aug 7, 2009 16:34:53 GMT
I bought all 12 volumes of the English translation. I never got beyond the first.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2009 17:41:57 GMT
Like untold millions before me, I have sunk in the swamp of Proustian prose before reaching the other shore.
I even had a cassette version of 'Remembrance of Things Past' read with passion by one of France's top actors (I bought it because I used to be his English teacher) and I think it may have been the best remedy for insomnia that I ever came across. Since I never have suffered from insomnia, I was out like a light within 3 minutes every time I tried to listen to it. Do not operate a vehicle or heavy machinery and listen to this at the same time!
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Post by imec on Aug 7, 2009 18:23:15 GMT
When I saw this first thing in the morning, I thought it said "Who needs PROUST?" ;D
For those who haven't read it, here's an excellent summary:
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 7, 2009 18:49:39 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 7, 2009 18:50:13 GMT
Oh yeah ~~ and do the English really say "Prowst", or was that just part of the skit?
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Post by spindrift on Aug 7, 2009 19:39:21 GMT
Perhaps we should all read one book and come up with a summary of our own? How many volumes? 20?
Someone else's opinion:
Quote:
' That all said, Proust’s work is to literature what the sitcom Seinfeld was to television- a piece of art that glorifies nothing, in the sense that the whole work really is a document of thirty-three hundred plus pages of high society 19th Century French gossip. It is well-written, at its best, but ultimately barren in a philosophic and intellectual sense. Nothing really occurs in all the pages. This is mostly why, due to its lack of any real plot, the book cannot truly be called a novel- even if one were to grant it a hundred percent in the fictive department.'
So I withdraw my offer of reading one volume....
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 7, 2009 20:10:00 GMT
*wipes brow*
Does this mean we're off the hook, intellectually?
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Post by spindrift on Aug 7, 2009 20:13:41 GMT
Definitely YES
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2009 20:18:55 GMT
It is really well written, though. We are just intellectually deficient.
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Post by spindrift on Aug 7, 2009 20:30:49 GMT
A few words from a chap called Dan Schneider on the subject of Proust: 'Some of the descriptions are breathtaking examples of prose- the equivalent of what it must have felt like the first time someone peered into a microscope: For a convalescent who rests all day long in the flower-garden or an orchard, a scent of flowers or fruit does not more completely pervade the thousand trifles that compose his idle hours than did for me that color, that fragrance in search of which my eyes kept straying towards the girls, and the sweetness of which finally became incorporated in me. So it is that grapes sweeten in the sun. And by their slow continuity these simple little games had gradually wrought in me also, as in those who do nothing else all day but lie outstretched by the sea, breathing the salt air and sunning themselves, a relaxation, a blissful smile, a vague dazzlement that had spread from brain to eyes. Proust’s sentence structure can impress, but it can also bore. Much of the work is like riding a rollercoaster- there are a few pages of breathtaking excitement when the ‘moment’ described is in full fall from the top, but the long slow climb to the next peak is often excruciating. ' But since I haven't sampled Proust myself I can't give my opinion
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 7, 2009 20:31:12 GMT
Nyuk nyuk nyuk heh heh heh heh ~~ dum but hapy!
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Post by Jazz on Aug 9, 2009 6:45:12 GMT
Somehow, I always felt that I should read Proust and so bought the first volume and read almost to the end. Some of it was exquisite and unforgettable. When I was in Batignolles and the Parc Monceau, I thought of him. I think of his writing as sensual rather than intellectual. But, I never read another of the books. However, a few days ago I discovered that there is a series of comic books out, created by a Frenchman, Stephane Heuet and it has been praised for its dialogue being true to Proust! I'm very curious. www.amazon.com/Remembrance-Things-Past-Combray-Vol/dp/1561632899tuulenhaiven.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/stephane-heuet-takes-on-proust/It took Proust 14 years to complete Rembrance of Things Past, Heuet is in his 11th dedicated year with his comic book version. I have to get (at least) the first.
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Post by nic on Aug 9, 2009 7:36:40 GMT
And when you're all finished reading Proust, you can tackle Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities!
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Post by spindrift on Aug 10, 2009 8:08:10 GMT
Here is a link to Amazon's reviews on The Man Without Qualities. * Those who enjoy reading James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust will find themselves at home here* I am pleased to have had the book drawn to my attention.
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Post by hwinpp on Aug 10, 2009 8:50:24 GMT
The closest I ever got to Proust was buying a cookbook, 'Kochen mit Proust', 'Cooking with Proust'. I gave it to my sister. I also saw the movie 'A love of Swann', at least I think that was the title, with Jeremy Irons.
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Post by tigronette on Aug 10, 2009 8:54:30 GMT
I never made it past the requisite 30 pages of Proust either - you know, the bit where you realise you really don't care what kind of silk the cushions are made out of (I'd love to get my hands on that Proust for insomniacs cassette though)
Next literature and masochism thread : who's read Pynchon (the crying of lot 49 not included), Moby Dick, Joyce (not the first two books though, that's cheating), War and Peace etc.
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Post by hwinpp on Aug 10, 2009 11:03:42 GMT
I've read Moby Dick. Also Billy Budd. I've not read anything by Dostyevsky.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2009 13:49:01 GMT
It takes as long to read Proust as it took to write it. Don't give up.
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Post by spindrift on Aug 10, 2009 16:21:53 GMT
I have read War and Peace several times. I confess that I tend to skip most of the battle scenes.
I have read all of Dostoevsky's books... most of Balzac's (he wrote so many). I really enjoy Zola.
I cannot, however, get on with Charles Dickens.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 10, 2009 16:45:57 GMT
Dickens is so very cinematic!
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Post by spindrift on Aug 10, 2009 16:47:37 GMT
But have you ever read of of his books?
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 10, 2009 17:08:48 GMT
;D ~~ yes, that's what I meant. Reading his books is like going to the movies because you can really see everything unfolding in your mind's eye.
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Post by tigronette on Aug 10, 2009 17:17:07 GMT
The Russian classics (some of which I have successfully ploughed through), are just long, not completely obtuse
Watt by Samuel Beckett is another one that I attempted to read (I did get further than with the Proust though)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2009 17:35:14 GMT
Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" is one of my favorite books. I cannot "get on" with Dickens either. Too bleak and boring.
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Post by Jazz on Aug 10, 2009 19:09:31 GMT
Spindrift, I enjoy Zola as well. I am have read most of his 20 volume Les Rougon-Macquart series. I loved and have copies of:
The Belly of Paris (le Ventre de Paris) The Masterpiece (L'Oeuvre) The Drunkard (L'Assommoir) The Ladies' Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) Nana Germinal
Years ago I worked my way through the Russian classics, but have no desire to reread them. The first Dickens' I ever read was a 'Tale of Two Cities' and it is the only one I ever liked.
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Post by spindrift on Aug 10, 2009 19:49:03 GMT
Germinal - very moving as well as quite horrific.....in the coalmining area near the Belgian border? I have read Nana too.
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Post by bjd on Aug 11, 2009 15:01:49 GMT
Well, I must admit that I have read all 7 volumes of Proust. It took me several attempts over several years to get past the first 50 pages, but then I did start again and read all the books within a few months.
I don't remember much since it's true that not much happens, but they were indeed beautifully written. I read them in French.
And I did try Musil's book but just couldn't get into it. Couldn't read Ulysses either.
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