Comments on: Proust anyone?

By: Pavlov's Cat

Pavlov's Cat — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 23:10:02 +0000

Also, of course, it helps a lot to have read The Odyssey.

By: j_p_z

j_p_z — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:53:14 +0000

Agree with Helen that you can’t pore over Ulysses, it’ll drive you crazy that way. You kind of have to treat it like you’re watching a movie or a play in a sense; he makes these big structural, gestural style choices for each chapter, and then plays by the rules of each choice for that chapter. It’s a little like a movie where the production design is different for each part of the film: one part styled like “The Matrix,” another part styled like “Casablanca,” and so on. If you click with the rules of the style choice for a chapter, then you start to enjoy all the fun he’s having with what he’s doing. One chapter, for instance, is written like it was a woman’s weekly magazine. One is written as a hallucination. One is a catechism. It’s a very funny book. It’s not like he’s cryptically hiding The Meaning of Life in between sentence 9,581 and 9,582; if you read it that way you soon go berserk.

Plus, come on, Molly’s monologue just slays. It’s worth wading through the whole damn thing just to get to that!

By: TimT

TimT — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:07:21 +0000

Not sure about Proust, but I think Ulysses is best appreciated in quote form. That’s due to the extreme density of Joyce’s prose: if you try it in paragraph form or chapter form, it ends up making no sense at all. A quote of a phrase, or a sentence, or a few sentences is just enough. As a book, Ulysses is often quite dull; as quotes, it can be entertaining. (Hence the festival known as Bloomsday.)

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 21:18:20 +0000

I’ve read Vols 1 and 2 of the Penguin edition (up to “Cities of the Plain”), I have to say I don’t know why so many people are terrified of Proust. I found it quite soap opera-y and a good yarn. Yes, there are some long passages about aesthetics which I didn’t terribly much want to bother with, but I liked the social-commentary aspect of it (e.g. the class implications with the Guermantes family)

But then, I enjoy fiction of that era which many people now don’t.

I read Ulysses when at Uni and discovered that if you pore over it and try to decipher every sentence it’s fatal. If I read quickly and let it wash over me then I could (sort of) understand it.

By: Meg Sefton

Meg Sefton — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:09:06 +0000

I’m interested in this. I did some research on the internet and found that the Proust Society of America, Boston Chapter, reads 100 pages of Proust per month and then is lead in discussion by a scholar of Proust. They “encourage” the use of the Moncrieff/Kilmartin Vintage 3 vol. paperback. Also Google “Waggish Reads Proust.” This blogger also uses the Moncrieff/Kilmartin, pre-Enright edition and journals his impressions on various themes.

In my MFA program we were expected to fly through many classic works, which just about killed me, as I had other things going on. I am interested in the stimulation of a book discussion group, however, and one that has realistic goals. One hundred pages a month might be a little slow, but then again, this is Proust.

I found the Moncrieff/Kilmartin Vintage 3 vol. paperback on Buy.com for $41.44. I’ll be curious to see what you finally decide.

Wishing you well.

By: Tim Sterne

Tim Sterne — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 06:33:27 +0000

Recent editions of the Moncrieff/Kilmartin translation feature revisions by D.J. Enright that (supposedly) improve the text. Note that “supposedly” – I don’t wish to give the impression that I actually know what I’m talking about.

The newish Penguin edition wasn’t particularly well received, mainly because each volume has a different translator with predictably varied results. According to this brief guide, the best volumes of this edition are Swann’s Way and The Fugitive. Given it is widely available and gets the thumbs up from various learned Proustians, I reckon the Moncrieff/Kilmartin translation, with or without Enright, would be the best choice.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 06:08:12 +0000

I was thinking about that too, PC. We read Camus’ L’etranger in senior (22 years ago!) and of course he was renowned for sparse prose.

I told a lie, actually – it’s not a Penguin at all – it’s “Wordsworth Books” – I was misled by the black cover! It’s a 2006 edition and a Moncrieff/Kilmartin.

By: Pavlov's Cat

Pavlov's Cat — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 06:04:36 +0000

Nor mine either, Mark, but I thought I might see if I could do a sort of parallel French reading and see how long I lasted. (*Predicts: 3 minutes*) Seems a shame to waste the high school French, considering the torture involved at the time.

Is your Penguin version the original Moncrieff translation, or one of the Moncrieffs-with-improvements (eg the Moncrieff/Kilmartin that T Sterne mentions)? What’s the date of the edition?

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 05:45:44 +0000

I strongly doubt my high school French is up to it!

By: A la Recherche de la Chaussette Perdue

A la Recherche de la Chaussette Perdue — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 05:21:06 +0000

Maybe we need to begin with a pre-reading-group reading group to get through the debates about the translations.

En ce cas, on devrait le lire en français, n’est-ce pas?