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Lost Time Thursday: Unknown Beloved
Mar. 10th, 2016 11:00 amArchived from Livejournal
"Suddenly the sky was rent in two; between the Punch-and-Judy and the horses, against the opening horizon, I had just seen, like a miraculous sign, Mademoiselle's blue feather. And now Gilberte was running at full speed towards me, sparkling and rosy beneath a cap trimmed with fur, animated by the cold, her lateness, and the desire for a game; shortly before she reached me, she slid along the ice and, either to keep her balance, or because it appeared to her graceful, or else pretending that she was on skates, it was with outstretched arms that she smilingly advanced, as though to embrace me."
- Swann's Way, "Place Names - The Name," p. 566
Swann's Way is over and I miss it already, but in a way, it isn't going anywhere, ( for a couple of reasons: )
Overall: absolutely delightful, and impressively close to perfect for a book with 600 pages and not much plot. If you don't like following sensitive children around while they develop a bunch of misconceptions and attachments, you could even read "Swann in Love" as a self-contained novel, though I can't at all guarantee you won't want to push poor Swann out of a moving carriage. I haven't cringed and laughed so hard since Persuasion.
Now I have to order Volume 2, or else get it from the library -- unfortunately the local chain bookstore has an entire shelf of Jodi Picoult, but no Proust at all. I was planning to take Swann's Way to the used bookstore when I was finished, but I love it so much that I don't think I can.
"Suddenly the sky was rent in two; between the Punch-and-Judy and the horses, against the opening horizon, I had just seen, like a miraculous sign, Mademoiselle's blue feather. And now Gilberte was running at full speed towards me, sparkling and rosy beneath a cap trimmed with fur, animated by the cold, her lateness, and the desire for a game; shortly before she reached me, she slid along the ice and, either to keep her balance, or because it appeared to her graceful, or else pretending that she was on skates, it was with outstretched arms that she smilingly advanced, as though to embrace me."
- Swann's Way, "Place Names - The Name," p. 566
Swann's Way is over and I miss it already, but in a way, it isn't going anywhere, ( for a couple of reasons: )
Overall: absolutely delightful, and impressively close to perfect for a book with 600 pages and not much plot. If you don't like following sensitive children around while they develop a bunch of misconceptions and attachments, you could even read "Swann in Love" as a self-contained novel, though I can't at all guarantee you won't want to push poor Swann out of a moving carriage. I haven't cringed and laughed so hard since Persuasion.
Now I have to order Volume 2, or else get it from the library -- unfortunately the local chain bookstore has an entire shelf of Jodi Picoult, but no Proust at all. I was planning to take Swann's Way to the used bookstore when I was finished, but I love it so much that I don't think I can.
