I swore I'd never force Proust on anyone, Proust should always be self-inflicted. Also there are pre-requisites. To finish A la Recherche du Temps Perdu a reader must incline towards France and Frenchness, including the bits that many foreigners find difficult. When Charles de Gaulle wrote "All my life I have had a certain idea of France." (Toute ma vie, je me suis fait une certaine idée de la France)" to kick off his Mémoires, it's advisable you have a clue as to what he was on about. For Proust demands that understanding.On the other hand no one should ever turn away wilfully. Long sentences, paras, parentheses, yes. Complex but not obscure language, yes. Weirdos, yes. Subterranean analysis, yes. But... the Proust reader spends time, lots of it, in a four-dimensional universe and departs with memories as personal and vivid as any reality.
Why personal? Because Marcel tends to dig up stuff which can make you cry out in recognition. What would you expect from him? Tales of sexual whatnot? There are those. But how about a young child, vulnerable in his adoration of his mother, lying tearful in bed, fearing she may not kiss him good-night because there are guests and she may have other duties. How that endures. How the vulnerability nags at me.
I’ve read Kilmartin’s translation twice, perhaps three times. You can download the earlier Moncrief translation free, for a Kindle, as I have also done. During an idle half-hour recently I switched on for that evocative (and ambiguous) first sentence: “I went to bed early,” “I used to go to bed early,” or “I would go to bed early.” Reached the child’s sorrows and switched off. It’s not book you dip into.
I read it mostly in one hour sessions at breakfast time. It was only the length that presented a challenge, but I was hardly conducting academic analysis, just reading it for endless enjoyment. Although having made some effort to learn French language over the years and having walked extensively in the country I was not aware that my French connections were enhancing the experience, but perhaps that was there subconsciously - all the better for that.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I should try again. I failed the last time--listening to it while exercising does not seem right!
ReplyDeleteMarly: Europe's quite a big place, bigger even than Rhode Island I believe. A little more precision, please. Doubt it would be Scotland.
ReplyDeleteMarley (cont): Sorry, the above comment should be elsewhere. I'm displaced in time and and geography as one frequently is.
ReplyDelete