What are you reading now?

[Alain Maréchal]

... if a tad bulky for how we imagine Proust to have been...
.

I do not think we have to imagine: there are plenty of images and descriptions. Alan Bates (I recall seeing that film) never resembled somebody who would have danced delicately with Reynaldo Hahn.

Confession: a couple of years ago I resolved to read À la recherche for the third, and what I suspected would be my final time, in a good edition, although we now know that not even the Pléiade is as definitive as I had at the time assumed. Unfortunately (although, fortunately, in my opinion) prompted by some research on the Second Empire (N3 is still honoured here, for the wealth and urban development he brought to the area)*, I realised that I had never read about half of Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart, and had never read, not even in school, La Fortune des Rougon, which starts it all off. So I decided to read the whole 20 volume cycle, in sequence. Proust has been set aside, and for some time I have been going to bed rather late.

* his first visit to the spa entailed alighting from the Imperial train at St-German des Fossés and travelling the rest of the way by coach, along with a baggage coach, an Empress (in a separate coach) a clandestine mistress (ditto, obviously), and an Imperial guard (several coaches). He gave his opinion that this was unsatisfactory and it would be convenient if the railway were to be diverted and extended. When one is an Emperor one's wish is a command. The railway was promptly built and Vichy cashed in on the ensuing boom.
When the Empress realised the mistress was also in attendance she packed her household and decamped to Royat, thus making the fortune of that spa as well.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That was actually in 1986.

Not the year I saw it - I didn't go to Stratford until I took over as Head of Performing Arts in 1990, and I think it was the year after that that I saw him in the role there ...


... Or maybe not --- did he come to the Barbican to perform it there with the RSC in that year/the year after? If so, then my 33-year-old synapses may well have got entangled, and I went with my Eng Lit group, not the Theatre Studies lot.

[Richard Barrett]

All this talk of Proust reminds me once more that I haven't read any of it... I don't think I'm going to live long enough to take it on in French, there was a time 30-odd years ago when I read untranslated books by Queneau and others in the original, but it was a slow and laborious business and in those days I spent a lot more time in France than i have since; but there seem to be problems with both (there are only two, right?) of the available English translations which I find quite offputting, and this discussion here isn't making me feel any less hesitant about the project. Maybe it doesn't matter too much which one is chosen...?

[Alain Maréchal]

Not the year I saw it - I didn't go to Stratford until I took over as Head of Performing Arts in 1990, and I think it was the year after that that I saw him in the role there ...


... Or maybe not --- did he come to the Barbican to perform it there with the RSC in that year/the year after? If so, then my 33-year-old synapses may well have got entangled, and I went with my Eng Lit group, not the Theatre Studies lot.

Stratford 1986, Barbican 1987. I attended, I had expected him to adopt a " great film star paying his duty to the theatre" attitude, but he was superb. I have admired him ever since - although I already admired him having seen him in Godspell in 1971. Is it really that long ago?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Stratford 1986, Barbican 1987. I attended, I had expected him to adopt a " great film star paying his duty to the theatre" attitude, but he was superb. I have admired him ever since -

- Many Thanks for this, Alain - and apologies to Conchis.

[Conchis]

All this talk of Proust reminds me once more that I haven't read any of it... I don't think I'm going to live long enough to take it on in French, there was a time 30-odd years ago when I read untranslated books by Queneau and others in the original, but it was a slow and laborious business and in those days I spent a lot more time in France than i have since; but there seem to be problems with both (there are only two, right?) of the available English translations which I find quite offputting, and this discussion here isn't making me feel any less hesitant about the project. Maybe it doesn't matter too much which one is chosen...?

I would strongly advise reading the Scott-Moncrieff translation as revised by Terence Kilmartin in 1981.

It really is the only book you will read that might change your life (and for the better, I might add). In many ways, it's sad that the book doesn't have wider penetration - plenty of people resolve to read it, but never do; others give up - as I did at the first attempt - in the face of what I thought was Proust/Moncrieff's impossibly precious style. You need stamina to read it, probably more stamina than most people have got, but the rewards are huge. I hope to read it again, one day soon.

[Conchis]

Stratford 1986, Barbican 1987. I attended, I had expected him to adopt a " great film star paying his duty to the theatre" attitude, but he was superb. I have admired him ever since - although I already admired him having seen him in Godspell in 1971. Is it really that long ago?

Some of us remember him from Playway:

https://youtu.be/oeVJDQG0auE

[Bryn]

Only just started on it, but:



Though much, much shorter, it already appears a more illuminating, to me, than Watson's "The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play".

[Joseph K]

Will Self's 'Phone' was much less engaging than the previous two books in the trilogy, I found - or at least, while it features a promising start, it also features a two-hundred-odd page longueur in the middle so I often would procrastinate reading it, consequently it took me much longer to finish. Finishing it overlapped with starting Richard Barrett's 'Music of Possibility' and I'm on the 'Awareness' chapter of that, it's proving to be very interesting so far, very lucidly written.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Nice cheerful, gentle read: Anne Applebaum: Gulag - a History. All you ever wanted to know, or probably not

Odd where recent close study of life of DSCH has taken me...

[muzzer]

Anne Applebaum has written some great books imho, and is highly informative on twitter.

[gurnemanz]

Anne Applebaum has written some great books imho, and is highly informative on twitter.

A friend lent me "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56", knowing about my interest in post-war Germany. I learnt a lot more. My previous knowledge of post-war developments in the other E European countries was shown to be very sketchy. Compelling and fascinatingly detailed.

[Wychwood]

I would strongly advise reading the Scott-Moncrieff translation as revised by Terence Kilmartin in 1981.

Yes, a thumbs-up here for that recommendation. Having read it(more than once) I resolved never knowingly to watch any cinema film purportedly based on or inspired by the book. The images that the translation creates in my head are good enough.

But Proust himself, on film, is another matter. Is he here?

https://youtu.be/51COHIgjbYU

I'm sceptical, and remain to be convinced that that's really Marcel running down the steps.

[muzzer]

Thank you. That’s the translation I have in a Penguin from 1989. I may splash out on the Enright revision from 1992 in a rather tempting Everyman box, if I make it through the Penguins.

[Wychwood]

I think the Enright "revision" of the Kilmartin "revision" came out in six paperback volumes in 1996 under the Vintage Classics imprint. Possibly a cheaper alternative to the Everyman, which I don't know. Quite confusing, really!