What are you reading now?

[amateur51]

Back to Proust: I have just started on the new translation. Proust does require a large committment of one's time. I read the original Scott Moncrieff translation, which was a heroic undertaking but apparently left the rude bits out. Then I read the Kilmartin revision, which put the rude bits back in. Now here we go again. If there is ever another translation I'll have to give it a miss, I havent got enough time left.

Brave fellow, umslopogaas!

Who is this new translation you're trying written by?

[french frank]

Paul Scott is the name you're looking for.

I've never read anything by CP Snow. He has acquired a reputation for dullness...is it justified?

Yes, Paul Scott. I enjoyed Staying On. Is CP Snow dull? Yes, probably. I quite enjoy that in a novel.

[amateur51]

Yes, Paul Scott. I enjoyed Staying On. Is CP Snow dull? Yes, probably. I quite enjoy that in a novel.

[DracoM]

The Road / Cormac McCarthy.
Must be a Nobel Prize winner some day.

[umslopogaas]

The new version of Proust's "In Search Of Lost Time" is in six Penguin Classics volumes, with seven different translators:

1. The Way By Swann's, trans. Lydia Davis
2. In The Shadow Of Young Girls In Flower, trans. James Grieve
3. The Guermantes Way, trans.Mark Treharne
4. Sodom and Gomorrah, trans. John Sturrock
5. The Prisoner and The Fugitive, trans. Carol Clark and Peter Collier
6. Finding Time Again, trans. Ian Patterson

The whole is under the "general editorship" of Christopher Prendergast.

The guy in my local bookshop, who is clearly an enthusiastic reader, said he thought some volumes worked better than others, so no doubt we can look forward to further revisions.

I will report back, eventually, but dont hold your breath, you cant rush Proust.

I'm looking forward to vol. 2, Young Girls In Flower are delicious, and James Grieve is an equally delicious eating apple. Cant wait for the first bite.

[Richard Tarleton]

Just finished re-reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, prior to starting his latest, The World until Yesterday. I'd like to see GG&S on the introductory reading list for every university history course - a mind-expanding book.

I'm a short way into Alan Rusbridger's Play It Again, about taking up the piano again and learning Chopin's G Minor Ballade in a busy year in a Guardian Editor's life. I note he's Sarah's guest on Ess. Classics next week.

[JFLL]

I thought I’d have another go at Proust (started but abandoned in my twenties), and have almost finished Du côté de chez Swann, and wondered whether our own M. Vinteuil could say whether he thinks Proust might have had a real violin sonata in mind behind as a basis for the one by Vinteuil which so moved and obsessed Swann. I’ve seen Fauré, Franck and Saint-Saëns mentioned.

[vinteuil]

I ... wondered whether our own M. Vinteuil could say whether he thinks Proust might have had a real violin sonata in mind behind as a basis for the one by Vinteuil which so moved and obsessed Swann. I’ve seen Fauré, Franck and Saint-Saëns mentioned.

... happy to oblige!

Proust evolved his thinking about the little phrase over many years - he didn’t want people to pin it down to any one particular work. In his dedication copy of ‘Swann’ to Jacques de Lacretelle on 20 April 1918 he wrote:



«... Dans la mesure où la realité m' a servi, mesure très faible à vrai dire, la petite phrase de cette Sonate, et je ne l' ai jamais dit à personne, est (pour commencer par la fin) dans la Soirée Saint-Euverte, la phrase charmante mais enfin médiocre d' une Sonate pour piano et violon de Saint-Saëns, musicien que je n' aime pas. Dans la même soirée un peu plus loin, je ne serais pas surpris qu' en parlant de la petite phrase j' eusse pensé à l' Enchantement du Vendredi Saint. Dans cette même soirée encore quand le piano et le violon gémissent comme deux oiseaux qui se répondent j' ai pensé à la Sonate de Franck (surtout jouée par Enesco) dont le Quatuor apparaît dans un des volumes suivants. Les trémolos qui couvrent la petite phrase chez les Verdurin m' ont été suggérés par un Prélude de Lohengrin mais elle-même à ce moment là par une chose de Schubert. Elle est dans la même soirée Verdurin un ravissant morceau de piano de Fauré.»

[ “to the limited extent to which I have made use of real examples, the ‘little phrase’ of the Sonata (and I have told no-one this) is … the charming but ultimately banal phrase from a sonata for violin and piano by Saint-Saëns, a composer I don’t care for. Later on, when speaking of this little phrase, I shouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t also thinking of the Good Friday Music. Later, when the piano and violin sob like two birds, I was thinking of the sonata by Franck (above all as played by Enesco), whose quartet appears in a subsequent volume. The tremolos covering the little phrase at the Verdurins’ were suggested to me by the prelude to Lohengrin, but the phrase itself by something from Schubert. And the phrase is also at the same Verdurin soirée from a ravishing piano piece by Fauré.” ]

[Mandryka]

I thought I’d have another go at Proust (started but abandoned in my twenties), and have almost finished Du côté de chez Swann, and wondered whether our own M. Vinteuil could say whether he thinks Proust might have had a real violin sonata in mind behind as a basis for the one by Vinteuil which so moved and obsessed Swann. I’ve seen Fauré, Franck and Saint-Saëns mentioned.

As mentioned, there were several models for the sonata, but I prefer to think of it as the Saint-Saens one. I suppose you can take your pick!

I'm currently halfway through the Painter Proust biog: can't say I've yet detected any homophobia in Painter's attitude to Proust's 'activities' - then again, maybe that's just me! :)

[JFLL]

... happy to oblige!

Thank you indeed for this, vinteuil – very much to the point. It seems to have been a composite inspiration, then, unless of course Proust merely wanted to put de Lacretelle and posterity off the scent. (I like ‘I shouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t also thinking of …’.) I’m glad to hear that Franck’s great string quartet is to appear later – a particular favourite of mine.

[teamsaint]

I am reading "Elgar's third symphony. The story of the Reconstruction. "Anthony Payne.
Interesting.

[JFLL]

Is CP Snow dull? Yes, probably. I quite enjoy that in a novel.

I'd say not dull, but unshowy, but you won't like him if you don't like reading about middle-class English professional people, politicians or academics, who some people find dull as a matter of course. The ones I most like are the Cambridge ones, particularly 'The Masters'. Take no notice of Leavis.

[amateur51]

Thank you indeed for this, vinteuil – very much to the point. It seems to have been a composite inspiration, then, unless of course Proust merely wanted to put de Lacretelle and posterity off the scent. (I like ‘I shouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t also thinking of …’.) I’m glad to hear that Franck’s great string quartet is to appear later – a particular favourite of mine.

Great stuff, JFLL - I adore the recording by the Fitzwilliam Quartet

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Franck-String-Quartet-Violin-Sonata/dp/B000FIHMGM/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1359922818&sr=1-1

[teamsaint]

don't know if this has appeared on this thread before, but "Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole is a cracking read.

[amateur51]

don't know if this has appeared on this thread before, but "Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole is a cracking read.

One of my all-time favourites too, teams