Page: 280
Pages read since last post: 280
Days elapsed reading Proust: 27 (23, 4*)
Books read since last Post: 1 (R.Graves, I Claudius)
Volume II is a joy. I did not get reound to picking it up on Saturday, realising - with a somewhat downcast heart - that it is about 100 pages longer than Swann's Way. However, once started, I am finding this volume simply magical to read. It helps that, although not quite the tight, fast moving plot we have been promised, there is a sense of movement. That said, it's best parts are not those of pace and plot, but the long meditations, like the section on Bergotte c.page 150. There are some splendid one liners as well, which I have momentarily misplaced, but may collect later.
I also think I have a better idea about how to read this now. Like some of the mammoth Russians, though not long C19 British authors, these are books that really require immersion over sustained blocks of time. One needs to luxuriate in the language and the narrative (such that it is). I suspect that part of my problem with Swann in love was not giving it enough attention, though I maintain it is inferior to Combray and especially to this volume.
Incidentally, deep immersion is not the best approach to I Claudius which - though still excellent - I would have said works best when read in a more fragmentary way. Otherwise, it feels a little too short. Caligula's reign, for example, I remember from last time as being a long drawn out nightmare, but the section is actually quite short, especially when read through on one morning. Nonetheless, a great book.
My cup overfloweth.
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Goodness, you really are enjoying this aren't you? I have spectacularly failed to capitalise on my weekend away, and am languishing on page 74. Largely due to my finishing a prior reading project on Saturday morning, and then getting distracted by Woody Allen's most recent collection of splendid absurdity. Finally forced myself to tackle Proust on the plane home from Germany, to find that it is glorious. Francois is fast becoming one of my favourite characters - particularly when she assures the slightly perturbed narrator with the lines "Just wait til you see if rabbits don't squeal every bit as much as chickens. Why, their voices are even louder." What fun!
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