Page: 513 (Swann's Way complete)
Pages read since last post: 120
Days elapsed reading Proust: 23
Books read since last Post: 1 (M. Marqusee, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the spirit of the sixties)
One down. I finished Swann this evening, perhaps fittingly in a university lecture hall, waiting for the lecture to start (which it did, late). I must confess that despite my earlier condemnation of Swann in love, the ending was rather good. I still contend that the section is about half as much again too long, but the ending struck was wistful in just the right way. Seen from this side of reading it, I am remembering Swann in love fondly - though I am in no hurry to reread it. Conversely, I'm not sure what to make of the short final section. The recurrance of the pattern established in the previous section with the narrator and Gilberte lacks subtlety (and does make me think that Proust is overly cruel to his protagonists, who appear to spend their time being unhappy when they have the thing they desire), and the whole thing meanders a bit. This last may strike people as an absurd criticism of Proust, but it seems all a bit pointless, though through the medium of some Googling, I think the point may be revealed in the second volume.
As an inside, I do not have the second volume as it is being held up by the postal strike (I think). I will advise on arrival, but don't expect it before the end of the week. I would suggest Saturday as the new start date. In the meantime, I suggest a guessing game for completion of the sextet, both in total number of days and in chronological time: I'm not sure we'll keep our cracking pace, but my thoughts are that we'll hit completion in June next year, and I think that the winner will come in at 110 days.
Sometime, late of an evening in March 2007, a regrettable decision was taken. As a consequence of this decision three friends, Dr Andrew Murray, Mr William Garrood (Member of Surrey CCC) and Dr Alexis Haynes would competitively read Marcel Proust's masterpiece A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. The aforementioned Proustanauts were later joined in their endeavour by Mr Elliot Smith, who, aided in part by a bout of pneumonia, promptly overtook them all. The saga continues...
2 comments:
Congratulations Monsieur! I suspect, not controversially, that major chunks of progress in future volumes will coincide with vacations/breaks. Hence I am predicting vol 2 to be finished ~ Christmas, vol 3 around late February, vol 4 Easter, vol 5 late May BH and vol 6 early summer on holiday somewhere. Since these are reasonably universal timepoints, I'd propose a June estimate. 110 days, however, is slightly optimistic - Alexis may hit that, but I suspect neither of us are likely to. My 16 days per volume is not sustainable as a) the volumes get longer on average, b) my workload is light at the moment - no teaching, and c) I will get bored at some point. For myself, I predict 160 days - the winner - and my money is on Alexis - 130 days. The question at the end, of course, will be how long it would have taken were we not tackling it in unison as a bizarre trans-atlantic cyber-book club. Pride amongst one's friends would seem to be an excellent motivator.
Rather amusing this. Having ordered volumes 3-6 on Amazon now, the confirmatory email that I received suggests that, for my next visit, I might like to try Swann's Way and Budding Grove! There's a thought.
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