Jacob’s Comments (group member since Nov 14, 2014)

Jacob’s comments from the One Year In Search of Lost Time ~ 2015 group.

The end of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

Can you believe it!

The most obvious Proust re-reading group names would be "Finding Proust Again" "Proust Regained" or "Proust Retrouvé". I expect the French title wouldn't scare away any re-readers. But of course, these are the most obvious titles which isn't necessarily the best. One could go a similar route but vary it with "la Recherche Regained" or "la Recherche Retrouvé".

I still plan on starting over in January. My pace will depend on whether or not there's a group reading it according to a schedule. If not I might make it a 2 year read. If there is I'll manage to do it in a year again.

I'm not sure what a re-reading Proust group looks like without a scheduled read. Maybe a source/review aggregate with the possibility of interpretive/discussion threads? If I'm involved in something like this I'm sure I'll organize a scheduled read as well even if it doesn't include that much conversation. This group was a good motivator for me to keep reading even if I didn't write much along the way.

"Soon the anti-aircraft barrage started up with such intensity that we realized that the German aeroplane's position was very close, just above our heads" (~39.88%).

Hi AraLucia! It's great to see you starting such an ambitious read. I've found it incredibly rewarding!

Well I've cooled on the idea of continuing with a Proust group. I think what I'm really looking for is the next level in reading ISOLT which might not be a realistic ambition online. In end I may just stick to my own schedule. I've read it by myself before, I don't see why I shouldn't again. More then anything else, this group has been very good at keeping me on pace to reading ISOLT in one year.

So I'll reverse my recent changes to this group. I don't mind if someone here wants to take over this group for their own purposes.

When you say "an additional group for new readers--2016" you mean a new group, right? A separate group for first time readers? I ask because I started this group and I've been one of the most active participants following the schedule but I'm not a new reader.

I suspect a Re-reading (only) Proust group would have very little back-and-forth or active conversation. I suspect the back and forth will mostly come from people reading through it on a schedule. Of course, I can't be sure. I also think that yearly readers would benefit greatly from having resources compound each year rather than letting those resources be left to inactive groups. Admittedly, that's party because of my own GR activity. If I see that a group isn't currently active I don't join it or even browse through it. Maybe other people do.

I don't think anyone new will be looking for a 2015 read through ISOLT.

I'm not married to the title. Personally I'd prefer dropping the date and making it clear at the beginning of the description that there's a current and an upcoming read through ISOLT.

Me too. I have varying degrees of ambivalence toward Montcrieff's titles, I can appreciate The Cities of the Plain, but this one is terrible.

This volume was first published posthumously in 1925 under the title Albertine disparue. From Wikipedia (confirmed by Jane Lewin, Pléiade's website, and Predergast's series introduction): "The first definitive edition of the novel in French (1954), also based on Proust's manuscript, used the title La Fugitive. The second, even-more-definitive French edition (1987–89) uses the title Albertine disparue and is based on an unmarked typescript acquired in 1962 by the Bibliothèque Nationale."

The critical explanation continues here.

The translator of the Penguin edition doesn't explain his choice of title for The Fugitive. The translators sometime use the 1954 French and sometimes the 1987 which Prendergast talks about in the Editor's Introduction.

The critical question aside, I think The Fugitive is more appropriate as a title since it doesn't step on it's own revelations - who wants to read The Prisoner knowing that then next volume is called Albertine Gone? Not me. At the same time, I think Albertine Gone is more accurate then The Fugitive. I suppose in this case I prefer a non-spoiler title to accuracy.

I got them from Waterstone's in England in epub format. I got them in 2010, and I'm not even sure if you can buy ebooks from out of the country now. I had to do that because at the time only the first 3 volumes were published in the US, ebook or print.

I've read my Penguin ebooks twice. I think this year I might buy ISOLT in print. If I do I'll get MKE so I have something different, and then I'll probably give MKE a try.

Looking back from the end of the volume, I'll admit that the first time I read this I wasn't convinced of Albertine's fate until I neared the end of The Fugitive. I thought it was a ploy she came up with to be left alone, to truly escape. I guess I got that from the title. But she was never really a fugitive, was she? It seems like it's mistitled, or maybe it's a red herring.

I think Jonathan may have suggested that strategy. I've only read the Penguin. I might use the MKE my next time through, I'm not sure. It'll be hard to part from what I've know for two reads.

Would it be best to use this group as a starting point? If we roll this over into 2016 it would immediately have greater legitimacy as an "All things Proust" group rather than starting from scratch. If we're hosting yearly reads anyway then it seems natural. I know some other groups, the 2013 in particular, have a larger membership but it seems mostly inactive. Also, it makes more sense to me not to have the gap between yearly reads.

I believe right around this time last year is when I first started this group and people started joining in late November. Not to get too far ahead of the purpose of this group - yes indeed, I'm nearly caught up to our schedule - but if we want to turn this group into a permanent meeting place for Proust reading and studies then it would be good to start on it.

Now to get caught up on our current threads!

We could put "yearly" or "annual" or something equivalent in either the title or immediately in the description. I think a few lines show up from the description when people search the groups.

I've started to wonder if we should start a permanent Proust group instead of a yearly read-through group. It could host yearly readings of ISOLT but also be a good place for other sources to compound instead of disappearing into years past, or lost time, as it were. What do you all think?

I'm surprised to hear that Proust was known as one of the funniest people in Paris. Although there's humor in ISOLT, like any great novel, it's not what attracts me. I even don't think humor's a very significant quality to his writing. Admittedly, it might just be a difference between our senses of humor.

I agree he overstates the point in this instance, it's obviously not true for everyone or even most people. You have to be desirable before this works. But I think overstating it adds to the irony of the situation by making it a little absurd to boot. I remember reading this and thinking more about Proust's last 15 years rather then universalizing his advise, which admittedly he's put in a very universal way.

I'm not sure how someone could not reread ISOLT immediately after the first reading. (view spoiler)[I would go even further and say that it's the only book I've ever read in which the ending dictates a return to the beginning. You haven't read it once unless you've turned back to the beginning and started reading it again. I'll be arguing this point pretty vigorously in our discussions in the last volume. (hide spoiler)] I finished it for the first time last December and immediately returned to the beginning. I'd probably join a reread this year too. At the very least, I think Proust may be someone who I never want to not be reading. There are a handful of other works that I reread nearly every year. The only difference is it doesn't usually take an entire year to reread Hamlet. I'd like to read it with a group again but eventually I might settle into a 2 year repeated reading schedule.

The only thing that might keep me from following along with next year's group is the fact that I'd like to read The Man Without Qualities and the 3 novels of James Joyce in the same year-long, little-by-little style.

Ah yes, I've gotten behind too! So that's why October's been such a quiet month. I'm about 30 pages into the Fugitive so it shouldn't be hard too catch up. The problem is I get a little behind and then keep up with the regular pace so I just stay that far behind.