Brain Pain discussion

“Proust”. A name that everyone knows, but few have read. Is it the seven volumes, 3000+ pages with one and a half million words and 400+ individual characters that seem so daunting? Or is it ‘Overture’ that begins the first volume – a 40 page description of that undefined space between sleep and wakefulness – that some find to be a barrier to the rest of the work? Whatever our individual or collective reasons for leaving Proust perpetually on our TBR list, we will make room for Marcel here in Brain Pain.

I will kick this off with a dogma that I often hear/read:
"Save Proust until you are older (meaning 60+) since you will not really understand it much until then".
This presumably implies that we all grow older AND wiser over time. What are your thoughts on that simplification or, is it like Jim mentioned, simply the sheer size of the work? Is this the Himalayas of literature?

The Himalayas of literature, lol! That's a good analogy because I happen to think he's the greatest writer of all time. And it takes something like a mountaineer to have the persistence to completely climb, I mean read his books.

Well, I've saved Proust for the right time of life, obviously. I do read smarter I find, slower, much slower, no longer very concerned with finding out what happened, not caring if nothing happens.

Haaze wrote: "I will kick this off with a dogma that I often hear/read:
"Save Proust until you are older (meaning 60+) since you will not really understand it much until then".
This presumably implies that we al..."

I personally would like try to tackle it now in my spry youth, and then reread it when I'm older. I may not get it all the first time, but I'd rather see if I like it in the first place early on rather than wait decades and find out it's not my thing. Would be a bit of a disappointment, that.

I read all of Proust in my 20s, when I felt like time lasted forever. I loved it all but understood probably only a little. Now I feel time is getting increasingly short & hesitate to invest in such a long term commitment. On the other hand, I remember how much I loved it and would like to read it to see what I understood now.

Hi Bill. Even the fastest readers have to to put on the breaks to read Proust. Often I'd have to retrace my steps, or start a paragraph all over again, so don't worry you aren't alone!

Amber, I'm 27 and I've only been able to get through the first 3 volumes. I stopped because he kept writing about high class dinner parties, which I found utterly boring. But prior to those there was a lot of stimulating writing on bashful romance and natural settings, things that spry young adults might be more interested in. Maybe I'd enjoy the latter volumes later in life, but for now I'm content with the first 2 volumes and I'd recommend them to anyone my age who is interested in reading Proust, even those as young as 20. Good luck should you decide to give it a go.

The last volume makes everything else worthwhile, I think. You could read 1,2, & 7 but what you'd miss is the way Proust revisits and picks up all the motifs of the work and weaves them all together. It's really an amazing experience.

But 4 & 5 are really something of a chore if I recall correctly.

Alright you sold me. I'm going to get around to volume 4 eventully. My to-read list bubbled last year (and it's still really long) so I decided to put the Proust marathon on hold. Thanks for sparking my interest again =)

Chris wrote: "Alright you sold me. I'm going to get around to volume 4 eventully. My to-read list bubbled last year (and it's still really long) so I decided to put the Proust marathon on hold. Thanks for spa..."

BTW, Andreea is leading a discussion on Vol. 2 (starting on Jan 16th) for about 10 or 11 weeks. If the Proust readers are up for it, they will continue on to Vol. 3 through 7, which I'm sure will take more than a year to complete.

I don't know how many people reading Proust in this group already know this and are unimpressed by it (since it's a pretty well known fact?), but I personally amazed by the fact that initially Proust thought his novel would be a single volume one albeit a very long one (800 pages or so). He then changed his plans (because nobody would print a 800 pages novel) and thought he'd write a two volume novel, then a trilogy. During WWI the novel further expended into a 5 volume monster, but it wasn't until after the third volume was published that Proust finally decided on the 7 volume structure. I can only imagine how baffled somebody who read Swann's Way in 1913 and expected the story to end within another volume to see how the novel they're reading grow longer and longer. I think it also serves to remind us that not reading all the volumes in one go is okay. It took the first readers 14 years to finish Proust's novel (the first volume was published in 1913, but the last one was only published in 1927), we can still enjoy it if it takes us, modern readers, just as long to read it.

Very good points, Andreea. I wonder if Proust in the last paragraph would decide to write even more volumes.

we can still enjoy it if it takes us, modern readers, just as long to read it.

(Laughing) Not if you're my age Andreea. I've got deadlines. I don't know how many extensions I'll get. :-)

Aubrey wrote: "Haaze wrote: "I will kick this off with a dogma that I often hear/read:
"Save Proust until you are older (meaning 60+) since you will not really understand it much until then".
This presumably impl..."

I'm in agreement with Aubrey on this. Although being only 20 may impede my understanding of the work somewhat, I'd still rather attempt it now. I've just started reading Swann's Way, and so far I'm enjoying it. Maybe in decades to come I'll read it again to get what I missed; I think it would be interesting to see how I interpret it at different stages in my life.

Ashley wrote: "...I think it would be interesting to see how I interpret it at different stages in my life...."

Much agree with that attitude! Go for it! (When I was younger, I was reading more technical and business stuff, so the re-reading of literature has never been particularly a part of my life experience. Also, there has always been so much on my TBR that I have done little re-reading until recent years (last seven or so). I now much applaud re-reading, even though I shall probably never do a lot of it.)

To reread a book is the best compliment you can pay to it and its author according to my own terms. But like Lily my reading lists are so volumous I almost never have opportunities for rereading, I've been wanting to reread Woolf's Waves, A Room of One's Own and To the Lighthouse but just not now. Maybe sooner than later, don't quite know yet.

Like Lily and Filipe, my list of books to read is quite large, so I rarely get the chance to reread literature. There are few books I've reread recently, but I try to make time for books that I've found particularly engaging. I currently have a list of books to reread, which I'll hopefully get around to eventually, and I have a feeling Proust's work may make the list ;)