The Guermantes Way - post VI

The thing about Proust is that it tends to stretch into the weekend hence why I have tried to do a lot of reading today and will do the same tomorrow.

Bullet points between pages 382 - 456

* Following his tryst with Albertine he plans the meeting with Mme de Stermaria, who he had been assured by his friend Saint-Loup is looking for a physical and emotional involvement with Marcel but she lets him down and fails to meet for their dinner date

* Ironically after he had decided he no longer had any interest in Madame de Guermantes he is invited to go for dinner there and she speaks to him and seems to show a great deal of interest in him even mentioning the times she noticed him while out walking

* He uses Albertine as a diversion but he is crushed by the failure to meet with Mme de Stermaria but just as he is weeping over her Saint-Loup arrives and takes him out for dinner showing him kindness although he upsets him by telling him that he told Bloch that Marcel really didn't like him

* He goes to the Guermantes for dinner and although believing gossip that the husband and wife are separating finds them together and is introduced into their circle of friends, which includes Royalty

* The situation is left that M. de Charlus is expecting Marcel at 11pm and Saint-Loup warns him that if he fails to attend then his uncle will give up on him

We pick up on what de Charlus wants tomorrow...

The Guermantes Way - post V

A really good day’s reading for a change. For the benefit of the librarian who said nothing happens in the book there has already been an insight into how the Dreyfus case divided friends and families

Pages 268 - 382

* Still in the setting of Mme de Villeparisis’s salon there is an exchange with a German Prince that makes Marcel realise that his father will never get the backing from his friends to be elected to the Academy

* Madame Swann turns up and tells him that M.de Norpois has attacked him behind his back and then Saint-Loup tells him that his aunt believes that he doesn’t like her because he never talks to her there then follows a moment of clarity for Marcel about his position with Mme de Guermantes

“I knew that I did not appeal to her, that I had no hope of ever making her like me.”pg285

* He is on the brink of heading off for another stay at Balbec and knows he won’t see her again before he goes

* As he leaves the gathering he is accompanied by M de Charlus who although acting strange for most of the time has a proposition from Marcel and on the way towards telling him moans that being anti-Semitic, which was all the rage following the Dreyfus case is opening up society to patriotic nobodies

* M de. Charlus outlines a proposition to take Marcel in hand and give him every chance to advance in society but in order to go ahead with the plan he needs to see him everyday to get to know his tastes and opinions better and for him to avoid going into society

* But things change rapidly as his grandmother becomes ill and starts to decline. A doctor recommends she gets some fresh air but she has a stroke while out and then takes to her bed and after a protracted illness passes away marking the end of chapter one

* Saint-Loup finally finishes with his mistress after falling out of love with her but not before she accuses Marcel of trying to seduce her while her lover was back in his barracks

* Saint-Loup tells Marcel that he has come across Madame de Stermaria (who I can't remember) in Morocco on his travels and she is recently separated from her husband and implies in the letter that she would be keen to pick up again with Marcel

* At the same time Albertine, the old flame from Balbec reappears, but he doesn't love her anymore. She comes to his room and although at one point interrupted by Francoise they make love and although it gives him the chance to answer some of the questions he asked back in Balbec it is still loveless

A visual temptation

Following the launch of Sony’s Reader device to handle e-books it has to be said that it looks good (judging by pictures on the web). Of course there are still lots of buts that you might discover while using it but the web site for the product seems to be sleek and the product looks like it would work well in certain situations (picture from Sony web site). If there is a flaw then it is around the issue of where the Reader is going to be used. I can see it working very well on holiday, where packing one device rather than a couple of heavy paperbacks appeals. But on the train I would feel uncomfortable having to use a device that you have to look at, which means the muggers can see it as well. One of the attractions of the iPod is that it is hidden in a pocket and you can not do that with the Sony Reader without defeating the aim of the product.

book of books - And Quiet Flows the Don

I am still posting reviews relating to stories of families torn apart by the Russian revolution, following last weeks reading of Nabokov’s Speak, Memory. Mikhail Sholokhov was one of the writers who managed to write and survive in Stalin’s Russia and that does have a tendency to taint a bit his works but there is quality here that manages to last long after the descriptions of whites and reds have faded from the memory.

Plot summary
Very similar to War and Peace in terms of ambition and feel. It follows a Don Cossack family through trials and tribulations of family life and then the upheaval of the First World War and the start of the revolution with the first signs of uprising in 1905. Russia is at war with Japan and failing to make progress. The novel sketches the family of Gregor, the main character with his brother, sisters, mother and father working in the fields to make a living. The book ends with the revolution starting after Gregor and his brother have already served in the First World War and been decorated for bravery. But the system starts to collapse and some lives are taken, very cheaply, in the battle to assert dominance in the Don.

Is it well written?
This book won a Nobel prize and you can see why because he overlays detailed descriptions and images of peasant life in the Don with a mounting political story that is developing in the background that breaks in on the personal story. The theme of the book is that just when you think something or someone is dead then it/they come back again. So Gregor, the main character has a relationship with his neighbour and his wife and just as you think he is happily settled down he goes off with his mistress with alarming consequences.

Should it be read?
As a study of peasant life in Southern Russia and a tale of the hardship of those people it has echoes in Grapes of Wrath and once the revolution starts the novel and the relationship between the reader and the characters changes because you too are forced to pick sides and work out who you want to support because there are moments when Gregor sits on the fence leaving it up to the reader to work out their own position. The 650 pages go very quickly because it is well written. But as I said at the top the differences between Sholokhov and Pasternak are marked because one had Stalin’s favour and it does make me wonder if that detracts from the book? Even so it deserves to be read.

Leads to
This is the first volume so it naturally leads to the second, The Don flows home to the Sea, and working backwards would work well with Dr Zhivago and Speak, Memory as a run of titles on a similar theme

Version read – Penguin paperback

The Guermantes Way - post IV

Despite it being a press day on the magazine I work for, meaning that it was hard work from morning till the close of business, I was determined to raise my reading above 60 pages, otherwise I will never get through this Volume in time to start the next one on Monday.

Bullet points between pages 187 - 267

* Marcel goes straight from the theatre to Madame de Villeparisis where he comes across a number of women who for various reasons have been limited to the fringes of society

* Madame de Guermantes arrives and starts to display her particular brand of social mixing, which is to appear sometimes to be almost above those people she has deigned to visit

* For a long time he has wanted to be part of the circle that Madame de Guermantes socialises with and now he gets a chance to mix with some of them and finds his friend Bloch already in that world and Legrandin trying desperately to break into it

* As well as the theme of reoccurring meetings there are also moments when people say something that is meant for someone else but is overheard and confusion reigns and often humour, for the reader at least, is the outcome

* There is an interesting moment when Madame de Villeparisis admits that M. de Norpois, her lover, is in the library but as he enters the room he pretends to have come just off the street and grabs any hat he can get and walks awkwardly into the room to discuss the Dreyfus case with Bloch

* The old diplomat avoids getting involved with a debate about the guilt of Dreyfus instead using his political skill to sidestep any pinning down of his own opinions

* Saint-Loup turns up and then for the first time Madame de Guermantes finally talks to Marcel but then things get bogged down in diplomatic discussions and he loses the chance for intimate conversation

More progress tomorrow…

reading homework

My wife attended a session at my son's primary school yesterday on how to read with your children. Sadly I was work otherwise I would have been interested to have gone to have heard what was said. She reported back and apart from some of the usual stuff you would expect about reading often and not worrying too much about whether the words are right as long as it seems to make sense (maybe my son should try Proust?) there were a couple of things that stood out for me.
Firstly was that it is good for children to see their parents reading. I do all of personal reading alone on the train and so it jolted me a bit to maybe get the books out when he is around.
Secondly, if children's books are left strewn all over the place (has this teacher been to my house?) then they will not grow up to respect books.
My homework is to tidy up the children's books then sit down and read some Proust in front of the kids...could think of worst ways to spend the weekend.

The Guermantes way - post III

The world is a very small place and the circles that Marcel moves in are crossing with each other all the time with sometimes awkward results. This really is like a soap opera with old whores from Volume II turning up in the most unexpected places.

Also talking of circles of repetition tomorrow I will try and get beyond just a meager 60 pages a day…

Bullet points between pages 121 - 187

* It becomes clear that because of problems with his mistress Saint-Loup is not going to be heading back to Paris anytime soon and be in a position to sell his friend’s virtues to his Aunt

* After some consideration the plan that the narrator comes up with is to praise a painting by Elstir that he knows that Aunt has and asks Saint-Loup if he will by letter recommend him and ask if his aunt would allow a visit to see the picture

* Following hot on the heels of his mistress Saint-Loup gets leave to go abroad and that leaves Marcel in the position of after two weeks going back or staying on and hanging out with Saint-Loup’s friends

* He tries to speak to his grandmother on the phone and the isolation and nervousness he feels after losing contact with her on what was at the time a very new technology means that his whole instinct is to return to Paris

* Once back he discovers that Saint-Loup has not made any introductions for him with his Aunt and so he resorts back to his stalking tactics trying to catch her attention by ‘meeting’ her on daily walks

* To prove that the world is a very small place when Marcel finally meets Saint-Loup’s mistress it turns out to be a prostitute that he knew in the past and he muses on the fact that what any man could have paid 20 francs for has cost Saint-Loup a million

* He goes for dinner with Saint-Loup and his mistress and is taken into their fragile world of threats and arguments that make it clear that this is a relationship that is painful at times to both and must surely end in the ruin of one or both of them

* More cracks show in the theatre after the dinner and Saint-Loup and his mistress get into an argument about a dancer and his rage is directed on a journalist who he hits in the face


One of the themes of the book so far is the Dreyfus case, which splits friends with Saint-Loup being pro Dreyfus and Marcel’s father and quite a few others being against. In a nutshell Dreyfus was a senior artillery officer, who also happened to be a Jew, who was accused of giving secrets to the Germans. He was quickly found guilty and locked up on Devil’s Island and despite the lack of evidence against him it became a political issue, hence why people like Marcel’s father wanted him locked up. In the end justice did prevail and Dreyfus was released, pardoned and was in time to serve his country with honour in the First World War.

E - 're we go

The other week I commented on a story about developments with roll-up screens and commented that things had gone a bit quiet on the e-book front. However they are quiet no longer following the move by Sony to take the wraps off its e-book store, which according to Reuters will launch next week.
The idea is that deals with the top six publishers will provide the store with about 10,000 books that are designed to be read on the manufacturers portable reader device that the news wire reports is finally ready to go after the e-book store launch was held up earlier this year because of technical glitches.
It will be interesting to see if making books available as digital downloads has the same impact on the book business as the equivalent in music has on the high street chains including most obviously HMV. There is always a great deal of talk about platforms, media and audiences around these types of developments and no doubt the type of people who download books will be different to those who buy paperbacks and the market should grow. All we need to cap it off is Apple’s iPod’s incorporating books and the market should be complete.

The Guermantes Way - post II

Far be it for me to have a dig at the great Marcel Proust but somebody should have taken him in hand when it comes to his love life because he verges on stalking women and then putting them up on pedestals that they don’t even know are in existence. First he did it with Gilberte, then the girl from Balbec and now his sights are set on Madame de Guermantes.

Bullet points between pages 61 – 120

* His tactics of making sure that Madame de Guermantes sees him on her journeys too and from her home are frowned upon and even though Francoise makes it clear the tactics are backfiring he ignores the warnings

* However he sees sense at some point and although changing his plan of attack by focusing on her nephew Saint-Loup as a route to her, at least he gets away from the carriage stalking routine

* Down at the barracks where Saint-Loup is stationed there is an insight into how fragile Marcel is with a fear of an unknown hotel room and then high states of nervousness fuelled by nothing other than his imagination

* After a few weeks he finally plucks up the courage to ask Saint-Loup to sing his praises to his aunt but oversteps the mark when he asks to borrow her photograph but manages to get the friendship back on track by showing a great interest in the art of war

Bearing in mind the first world ear was not too far away for Saint-Loup and his friends there are hints of what might be coming with a mention of the Schifflen plan and a brutal assessment of some future battle tactics to take the offensive at any costs

Book of books – Dr Zhivago

When most people think of Dr Zhivago they immediately think of the David Lean film and I should imagine think that it is pretty faithful to the book so there is no need to go any further and actually read Boris Pasternak’s novel.

The reason for posting this review now is that the memory of the Nabokov experience in revolution is still fresh in the mind after reading Speak, Memory last week.

Of course the film falls far short of the book and goes further in that it answers some of the questions left hanging in the film and takes Yuri’s character on for quite a while after Lara exits the dacha and heads off into safety.

Plot summary
The story follows the main character, Yuri, who becomes a doctor and is happily married with a child when the revolution tears his life apart. Running parallel to his story is that of Lara who also finds her life and her love entwined with the revolution but from the angle of the worker not the fringe aristocrat. Three things happen to take Yuri, who is also a sensitive poet, and shake- him out of his normal life: the first world war, revolution and civil war. He loses his wife and child, who seek exile in Paris, falls in love with Lara then loses her and then forms another relationship that is with a poor woman. Each time he seems to fall in love with someone at a lower level in society before finally dying a humble death. At his funeral the different circles he has lived in momentarily and awkwardly come together - the perfect metaphor for the fact Russia could never return to its former situation.

Is it well written?
The major difference between the film and the book is that in the novel there is not as much of an attempt made to get the reader to like Yuri. You can observe with him and understand why his experience is parallel with what was happening to the entire country. There are a couple of speeches that Yuri makes that stand out as expounding the theme of turmoil the first when Yuri talk about how “the roof being taken off the country” and the freedom it gives to everyone to do as they like. The second speech is by Lara, who talks about the tearing up of lives and blames the war for it. It is hard to sympathise with a man who goes from woman to woman but that restlessness and corrosion of the social codes is exactly what was happening in the country and partly why it is hard to side with Yuri. To be able to do illustrate the turmoil caused by wars and revolutions through the story of one man is quite an achievement.

Should it be read?
The main question I was left with at the end of the book, which has been billed on film posters as ‘the greatest love story ever told’, was who was it that Yuri loved? Was it his wife? Lara? Russia? I came to the conclusion that it was a time of innocence that he loved and sought solace in poetry and nature where people can be idealistic, without having to resort to violence. The other theme that has been an influence on numerous other writers and is not unique to Pasternak is the idea of echoes through time with people turning up in places where they would least be expected and enemies and acquaintances cross paths time and time again. Ironically it is the idea that someone you once loved will come back that is the most romantic aspect of the novel for me. This should be read but maybe not by those people looking for a mushy love story but by those prepared to empathise with a man who keeps having any form of security ripped away from him.

Leads to
More books set against the backdrop of the revolution – Mikhail Sholokhov’s two volumes about Don Cossacks or of course some of the heavy non-fiction stuff of which the list is pretty long but Orlando Figes A People’s Tragedy is a good starting point.

Version read – Vintage paperback

Four a year not a classic rate of reading

Penguin really seems to be fixated on the idea that people who enjoy reading will only manage to get through four books a year. The publisher quotes research to that effect back in the summer on the re-launch of its classics range. An article on The Book Standard and a mention on the daily Bookseller blog reveal that the publisher and Amazon are starting a Penguin Classic Reading Group @ Amazon.com. The plan is to get through four books a year starting with Fifth Business by Robertson Davies.
It’s a great idea but why limit it to just four books a year. With the greater interaction that the web offers surely it would have been possible to get several groups going or at least a book a month?

The Guermantes Way - post I

Back to the Proust this week and at the rate of pages read today easily right through the weekend no doubt. For those that don't remember the contents of the first two volumes of Remembrance of Things Past the basics are that you are following the memories of Marcel Proust as he recalls his youth with his family and the people they meet. The main characters apart from Marcel are his mother and father, the maid Francoise and the Swanns, who Marcel develops an unsuccessful relationship with their daughter Gilberte.

That is only the briefest of sketches and brief is of course not a word that you would use in connection with anything to do with Proust’s richly dense descriptions but it will hopefully suffice as we embark on Volume III

Bullet points from pages 1 – 60

* The family has moved and the story starts with Francoise the housekeeper trying to get her bearings and a description of the apartment they now inhabit as part of the Hotel de Guermantes

* Through dialogue between Francoise and the footman it is possible to discern the situation of both families – Marcel’s and the de Guermantes - with the later not being in the house for too long but having all the airs and graces of ancient landed gentry

* Marcel is determined to ingratiate himself with the de Guermantes social circle, much in the way that he did with Madame Swann's in Vol II. His apparent breakthrough in his quest comes at a night at the opera where all of the main players in the Guermantes social set are in attendance

“The duchess, goddess turned woman, and appearing in that moment a thousand times more lovely, raised towards me the white-gloved hand which had been resting on the balustrade of the box and waved it in token of friendship, my gaze was caught in the spontaneous incandescence of the flashing eyes of the Princess, who had unwittingly set them ablaze merely by turning her head to see who it might be that her cousin was thus greeting, and the latter, who had recognised me, showered upon me the sparkling and celestial torrent of her smile.”pg 55

* He then tries to catch the eye of the Duchess by hanging around on the route her carriage takes hoping that by looking as if he is deep in thought he might be catch her attention without looking like he was desperate for it

The immediate question that tomorrow's reading might solve is whether or not he manages to break into the Duchess of Guermantes social circle…

Stockings full of dross

If things have gone according to plan then Santa usually brings an armful of books with him down the chimney when he visits this home for Christmas. But I just hope his book buying elves have got taste because with a reported 60 celebrity memoirs on the shelves this yuletide according to both The Independent and The Times fighting it out for attention it might be difficult to avoid one of them ending up in the stocking.
The worst possible scenario is that waiting for me under the tree will be the life story of a 20 something nobody that won a reality show/played football/slept with another star/went topless and wants to explain why they are not shallow/or the old crusty luvvie looking back over 40 years of anecdotes very few people have any interest in.
Roll on Boxing Day and buying your own selections in the sales…

revolutionary reviews

Bearing in mind the turnmoil that Nabokov and his family faced running away from the revolution it seems apt to post some book reviews next week that are set against the background of that period of history. So expect to see some thoughts about Dr Zhivago, Quiet Flows the Don and the Don Flows to the Sea as well as some historical stuff including the opus on the revolution, A People's Tragedy by Dr Orlando Figes (someone who once taught me about historical research but sadly not about russian history).

bookmark of the week

This is a slice of a portrait by Gutsav Klimt of a picture called Judith I, which was painted in 1901. I saw the picture in a gallery in Vienna on a holiday there years ago, pre children, when my wife and I walked around the city enjoying everything to do with Art nouveau (or the secession movement).
Since seeing the Klimt at the Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere I think some of the Klimts they had have since be reclaimed as property that was taken by the Nazi's and has recently been auctioned by the rightful owners. The impact of seeing rooms with original Klimt paintings in was almost overpowering and something that, although only a slice, this bookmark reminds me of.