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#Proust
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AllDebooks
Letters of Marcel Proust | Marcel Proust
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#Litsolace #Midsummersolace

What are you grateful for today?

I'm so very grateful for this wonderful Litsy community. It's such a safe, supportive group of people. 💚📚💚

wanderinglynn I‘m grateful for butterflies, moths, bees, bats, & other pollinators that play an important but often overlooked role in ecosystem health. 🌻 5mo
dabbe I'm grateful for yet another day! 💚💙💚 5mo
34 likes2 comments
review
Adventures_of_a_French_Reader
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Panpan

2/5
First, I think these poems were collected mostly from personal letters Proust sent to friends, so they were not intended for publication.
Because of this, they are not polished, they tend to be simplistic in the rhymes, but also they contain a lot of personal references or references to characters from that period, which can make their context difficult to understand.

21 likes1 comment
review
Taylor
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Pickpick

Phenomenal ending to an unreal work.

Mind-bendy, ultra-reflective and fascinating, feels like something written in the future.... Pretty often I'd say to myself "Yeah this is wild stuff," especially in the second half. Somehow he managed to end this thing without letting me down at all. I love it.

11 likes1 stack add
quote
Taylor

It seems now therefore that there is no humiliation so great that one should not put up with it easily, in the knowledge that after a few years our buried faults will be no more than an invisible dust over which will smile the smiling and blossoming peace of nature.

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merelybookish
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I'M DONE!! 🎉🎉 After 15 months, I wrapped up #morningswithmarcel.
It was a journey and there were some rough spots, but overall, I loved it. Brilliant! 🌸💗🌸

AlaMich Which translation did you read? I haven‘t read Proust but I read a very interesting collection of essays by one of his translators, Lydia Davis. She described in great detail her process and the problems that came up while translating him. It was fascinating. (edited) 8mo
sarahbarnes Wow!!!! That is amazing. Congratulations - that has to feel like such an accomplishment! 8mo
merelybookish @AlaMich I did the Modern Penguin Library edition. Each volume has a different translator but Lydia Davis did the first one. I can imagine he's challenging to translate! His vocabulary is rich! (I googled so many words!) But there's a lot of word play and he notices when people use idiom or local dialects. 8mo
See All 26 Comments
squirrelbrain Well done! 🎉🎉🎉 8mo
Librarybelle Congratulations! 8mo
batsy Amazing! 🙌🏾 Someday I hope to get there 💫 8mo
BarbaraBB Wow, you did that pretty fast! Glad you loved it and kudos for finishing 🏆🤍 8mo
julieclair Congrats! That's an achievement! 🏆🎉 8mo
Ruthiella Congratulations! 👏👏👏 8mo
dabbe Yowza! 🤩🤩🤩 8mo
Cuilin Congratulations 🎊🎉🎈 impressive. 8mo
Billypar Oh my 😮 ...nice job! I always think maybe I'll read the first volume someday but never imagined reading them all. 8mo
LeahBergen Woohoo!! 🥳 8mo
jlhammar Impressive! 8mo
Tamra Amazing! 👏🏾 8mo
MaureenMc 👏🎊👏 8mo
Leftcoastzen Kudos! 8mo
merelybookish @Ruthiella @dabbe @Cuilin Thank you!!! I figured you guys would understand! 😊 8mo
merelybookish @Billypar if you read the first one, you might want to keep going! 8mo
Centique You are truly a legend! 7mo
Suet624 That's amazing. Such dedication! 7mo
vivastory 🤘 🤘 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 7mo
merelybookish @vivastory thanks Scott. I feel like when I saw you in December I was at a low point. But I managed to get through it. 7mo
vivastory I will attempt it at some point in the future, but have no idea if I'll make it through. I'd like to read at least the first couple. Do you have any more big projects on the horizon? 7mo
merelybookish @vivastory Not really. I am reading Woolf's diaries again. There's Zola 20 book series but not quite ready to commit to that. 😂😱 7mo
72 likes26 comments
review
Taylor
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Pickpick

I loved it, but I had to read it like a possessed person to get through it.... Actually that‘s how it has been for me with all of Proust.

As usual with these editions, the translator's intro in the beginning is excellent.

Some of this installment is like a fever dream; a new type of Proust. Fantasies and dreams and memories flood the reader. The prose is incredible as always, the observations revelatory. I also gasped audibly at one part.

quote
Taylor

For old age removes the ability to act, but not to desire. It is only in a third phase that those who live to a great age renounce desire, after being obliged to abandon action. They no longer stand for such petty elections as that of President of the Republic, where they so often formerly strove to succeed. They are content merely to go out, to eat, and to read the newspapers. They have outlived themselves.

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Taylor

I‘m halfway through this!

Really liking it so far. It‘s somewhat easy to follow and, like the previous volume, not crammed with characters to keep track of.

I can‘t believe I‘ve come this far in Proust…. The prose is filled with revelations (which I‘ve grown used to but is still heavily impressive), and I‘m fully in his world. I‘m reading this like a person possessed.

review
Taylor
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Pickpick

This was the easiest Proust volume to follow for me, with far fewer characters being presented, and the referring to my notes that that comes with.

It‘s filled with uniquely profound prose, as it took me through a psychological journey reminding me of many contemporary novels I‘ve read. The shift in setting and happenings was so needed. Our narrator is pretty messed up here but you gotta love him (or at least find the material fascinating).

quote
Taylor

I felt, but did not believe, that I controlled the future, because I knew that my feeling came from the fact that the future did not yet exist and that I could not therefore be subject to its inevitability.