Before you read Proust
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- čas přidán 7. 08. 2024
- Let's talk about Marcel Proust! I have read Swann's Way, which is Volume I of 'In Search of Lost Time', and now it's time to discuss it.
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0:00 - Context
0:45 - Stream of consciousness
2:35 - Who will enjoy Proust?
3:18 - Similar authors
3:38 - Some advice
6:08 - What it's about
7:02 - Critics - Zábava
Hi, thank you for your TED talk. Proust is my biggest challenge for this year.
Good luck!
Greg at @AnotherBibliophileReads is considering doing a Proust read along in 2025 doing about 10 or so pages a day. I have always wanted to read Proust (I find his life fascinating) so I would like to take advantage of the opportunity. Your excellent advice has made it more probable I will be successful so thank you so much!
Yes, we talked about it in his comment section! I found it funny that I had this video ready when he posted his announcement 🤭 It's great that you will be joining. Good luck!
Hi, Emmelie! One thing I'd emphasise is that the first volume can only be fully understood in light of the later volumes... In fact, this is true of each of the later volumes such that the entire work can only be understood by the end. Further, as is the case with every classic literary work, the first read-through is only really an introduction - it unfolds its secrets to the patient reader ( and re-reader ). Good luck! 💟
Haven't had the courage to try Proust, don't know why this is the case, I adore stream-of-conciousness. Thanks for the prod, must get onto this.
If you enjoy stream of consciousness, you can't skip Proust! You'll love it :)
Hi Emmelie... Thank you for your wisdom and insight. In Search of Lost Time is already on my TBR list.
Thank you for watching! 🥰
Great primer for Proust! I have a copy I know I’ll get to some day when I’m ready.
@@karlalikestoread Yay! Thanks for watching ;)
Thanks for the advice!❤
I am planning to read this first volume in August!!😍
@@Dawnsbookreviews Good luck! I'm glad you found it useful. :)
i ordered Proust and Middlemarch today.
@@DeadNetCord Amazing! I'm enjoying Middlemarch very much 🥰
Great book
I read all 7 volumes recently, 12/2019-12/2021, after many false starts over more than 50 years. I found that a readers guide helped a lot. I used Patrick Alexander’s Marcel Proust’s Search for Lost Time: A Reader’s Guide to the Remembrance of Things Past. One’s choice of a guides or guides, like one’s choice of translation, is a matter of personal preference, but may be critical. Spoilers are not really a thing with Proust.
In some ways I had more trouble with the first volume than the rest. I tended to get lost in the transition between Marcel’s narration of his youth and the narrative of Swann’s history well before Marcel was born. I never figured out exactly how Marcel the narrator could know the thoughts people were having before he was born. Things became much easier when I realized that one has to be very careful to observe narrative shifts, which are not always well signaled. I found the Penguin edition much more readable because of it made the structure of the narrative clearer.
To my mind, it is about memory. The narrator remembers in a temporal cubist style. The is exemplified in the opening of the book: on awakening in a room, the narrator passes through memories of all the rooms he has awakened in. Like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse 5, he becomes unstuck in time. It happens more as we get older. It happens a lot in Proust. Those are the best parts.
Enjoy.
I can see how a guide would help with reading In Search of Lost Time. Indeed, no worries about spoilers, and I agree with the narrative shifts. I love that you have read and enjoyed all the 7 volumes! Thanks for your comment!
@@ProseAndPetticoats Just a few more thoughts on difficult parts.
A firm grasp of basics of French history in the 19th and early 20th century (particularly the Dreyfus affair) is necessary for context and understanding the political dances going on. No great depth of study is needed. Wikipedia should be plenty. But, being written for a French audience, such familiarity is assumed. So it helps to have some going in.
One other point for the final volumes: Proust did not live to complete them. He had drafts, which were edited and assembled by others. Lacking the polish of his final edits, the narrative thread does tend to fray towards the end. But what can you do? He tried. We must try too. And, be grateful for what we have.
Thank you for mentioning the Patrick Alexander guide to Proust, It sounds very much like something I want to read.
I remember when I read Proust - I found the first section the most difficult to get over. you are inside the head of this child who is obsessed with whether his mother is going to come up to give him a goodnight kiss every night before he goes to sleep. And it seems to take for ever to say anything. But eventually, you go past the "madeleine moment", which is the first time Marcel gets a sort of physical access to his memories bringing them back as real experience (the "madeleine dipped in tea" is something he hadn't tasted for a long time, and the memory of the taste almost physically transports him back to his childhood where that taste is located) - and from then on you know that you are experiencing something special.
@@paulhammond6978 I loved that part (going to bed and needing his mother) the most! :)
Another awesome and informative video, Emily! I purchased the complete set of In Search of Lost Time a while back but haven't started reading it yet. This video is a very welcome creation to help me to begin the (admittedly) daunting process. Going to watch your Lolita video now. Thanks!
I'm glad you found it helpful! Wishing you the best of luck in tackling it ☺️
Which was your favourite volume? Mine was the first and the last, the last volume made it so worth it
Hi Henry, this is a video on volume 1, Swann's Way. ;)
@ProseAndPetticoats If you do do it, in my opinion the third volume is when it gets hard (introduction of a load of new characters and a lot of dialogue) the volumes in terms of quality in my opinion make a "V" shape with the third one being the lowest
Hello Emmelie! I hope you are doing well. While Proust is not my cup of tea and probably won't read his books, I still found your video interesting, enjoyable and insightful. 👍 Keep up the great work that you always do and I look forward to your next video! Have a great week! 😀
I'm glad! Ah, it isn't my cup of tea either. But that's okay :)
Thank you for making this. Since last summer I have been thinking I would enjoy In Search of Lost Time, if I could just be brave and patient. Maybe after I finish my reading goal of finishing 10 of my unread books (I am halfway there) I can start it. I feel like I have to mentally prepare; I don't want a goal hanging over me making me anxious while I read it.
You don't have to be anxious at all, but indeed, make sure you're in the right mindset to approach it! 🥰
"Before you read Proust, watch "Swann in Love" starring Jeremy Irons and Ornella Muti" :)
There's also a film version of the final volume -- "Time Regained", with John Malkovich as the Baron Charlus.
@@SmallSpaceCorgi That's right. the one starring Emmanuellle Beart. i completely forgot about that film.
I’m adding this video to my resources for the Reading Proust in 2025 Project.
Amazing! 😍
Hi Emmelie! Your videos are so inspiring to start and read books that I haven’t even heard about. Maybe not in time, but wanted to suggest to read “Fathers and sons” by Ivan Turgenev if you enjoyed Leo Tolstoy’s works.
Oh yes, I am obsessed with Tolstoy's works. I will be adding that book to my list. Thank you so much.
❤
Always wondered if translations could still express such singular feelings as reading those kind of autors.
Like, as a French native speaker, if I want to read Russian litterature or peotry I'm afraid of missing so much subtleties and the musicality the autor wanted to put on paper.
@@MYOSlS I think they can 🤎 but that might be an unpopular opinion. :)
Thanks I was thinking about it now I know now is not the time
But there's one problem I am facing. I really want to read books. But I start and leave them midway. I don't know what is wrong.
I have 75% completed Kafka on the shore but now I lost my will to read it further.
I was really enjoying jane eyre but after 'confession' part I lost interest. I was reading Sherlock Holmes, and really enjoying but when short stories came I lost interest. I started Sophie's world and left after two chapters for reasons I don't know, same reasons for Julius Ceaser, the stranger, little women, freakonomics, a man called ove, assassin's apprentice.
I don't know what to do and am wasting my time watching anime and what are best books to read, best classics books, ,etc.
I know giving such type of advice is impossible without knowing the person.
Still even if it's a little help I will be looking for your expertise.
Thanks
I have left a lot of books unfinished, because I felt I got enough out of them. The atmosphere, the world, the characters... whatever it was that kept me interested, I felt like I got saturated, I just imagined an ending and it was just as good for me as finishing the book. Just because an author wrote 1000 pages, it doesn't mean you need all of it. Maybe you'd rather be on to something new. I'm not saying this is the way to go, it's just what I do.
I don't know you, but it seems you are still looking for your perfect match in genre and authors. Maybe you could pick shorter works, since you find it hard to focus? This is a great way to get to know new authors and their writing style, without having to commit to 300+ paged novels.
PS: if you spend your time doing things you love, that time is never wasted. Don't be too hard on yourself!
I’ve been watching your videos for a while and have been wondering. Is there a reason why you read French books in English? It’s just an assumption but I have a feeling you do speak/understand French (I could be wrong though). I understand French but have been feeling guilty about picking up translated versions of French classics.
Actually, there is. French is my second language, but it's not at the level to be reading classic literature. It's too difficult for me (currently - I'm working on it), and then I miss things. My English is way better. I do read French, but it takes much more energy and looking up words. :) I could never tackle Proust in French!
I share the birthday with Proust, so I think I'm somewhat similar to him. (Nikola Tesla joined the club) His prose is essentially lyrical (being a novel still). So my favourites are totally different (Stevenson, Dickens, Mario Reading...) where the storyline is actually the driving force, and not the author's claptrap
(Am in a pub right now so ... grant a little... sympathy 🙂)
Wonderful! I prefer novels with a clear storyline and characters that push the plot forward. Have a great time in the pub, my friend.