Re-reading Remembrance of Things Past; this is the first volume.
I dearly love the passages where the author - as a youngster - spends time in Combray. The descriptions of poor Aunt Leonie are perfect. The sorrows of the author when sent to bed; the descriptions of the town and the church; Swann's visits at Combray. Then a lengthy discussion of Swann and Odette (which I don't enjoy as much as the Combray scenes); Swann visiting the Verdurins. Author meeting Gilberte.
Throughout - the author's effort to understand memory - at the end of this volume: "The places we have known do not belong only to the world of space on which we map them for our own convenience. None of them was ever more than a thin slice, held between the contiguous impressions that composed our life at that time; the memory of a particular image is but regret for a particular moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fugitive, alas, as the years." Curious how that would come across in the original French. (Is "regret" the word here? Maybe in the sense of "longing for what cannot be regained?")
The very first page refers to the rivalry between Francois I and Charles V, who else talks about this kind of thing.
Haven't decided how quickly I'll proceed, other than "not very."
No comments:
Post a Comment