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/lit/ - Literature

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1929557 No.1929557[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Hello, /lit/, I'm french and from /mu/ and this summer I decided to read some french classics.
I'm starting my third one and it's "Du côté de chez Swann" by Marcel Proust.

I just decided to make a thread here to ask /lit/'s opinion on this novel, and on Marcel Proust in general.

>> No.1929581

He gives great head.

>> No.1929587

I have never seen anyone on /lit/ say anything bad about Proust. He doesn't get discussed overly much, though.

>> No.1929588

It's all awesome. No other author compares in terms of character development, except maybe Tolstoy. Also, I'm jealous you get to read it in french.

I actually wrote a 30 page paper on Proust's use of time and memory in "In search of lost time" last year.

Enjoy it and take your time. You're probably reading the best books you'll ever read so don't rush it.

>> No.1929592

>>1929587

You mean he doesn't get discussed very much. VERY much. Not "overly" much, for fuck's sake.

>> No.1929593

I'm reading it in english at the moment. It's now my life's goal to learn enough french to read the original.

>> No.1929605

>>1929588
Fucking this.

Take your time with it, you'll find yourself reliving so much of your life reading it. Savour every word, it's basically the best novel ever written.

>> No.1929610

OP here
So far, I've read the first chapter, and I admit I'm pretty much liking it. He describes feelings pretty well even if I think his writing is somehow quite modern and can be confusing.

It must be really challenging to translate it because of this expression and of some one-page-long sentences.

>> No.1929631

>I just decided to make a thread here to ask /lit/'s opinion on this novel, and on Marcel Proust in general.

Here's what you need to know about Proust, OP. Read "Swann's Way". Thrill to sensitive M. Swann and vulgar Odette de Crecy, and their "cattleyas". Okay, so the first thing you notice is that all of this takes place before the narrator is old enough to understand it. In other words, the first 500 pages (or however long the Overture and Swann's Way are in your edition) are a flashback and THEN we start getting to the "plot" of the novel.

Okay. Now in reading "Swann's Way", you might have read a slightly disquieting scene, in which it seems like the narrator---while walking outside someone's house---spies on Vinteuil's daughter while she is talking with, apparently, an S&M Lesbian, who suggests that they spit on Vinteuil's framed photograph and then go have S&M Lesbian sex.

When you read this bit in Swann's Way, you are likely to think: "Uh, what just happened here? Am I suddenly in a different novel?"

All I can say is.....get ready for a lot more of that once you reach the halfway point.

In any case, please do come back and chat again once you've read Proust. I hope that you and I can exchange wise and knowing glances, like M. de Norpois and Mme. de Villeparaisis, while steering clear of the underhumans who have not read Proust.

>> No.1929646
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1929646

>>1929631
Proust was right about everything.

>> No.1929647

>>1929588
Thanks, I know I'm reading some serious shit (after Proust, I'm in for Stendhal), and I will try to enjoy it as much as possible.

>>1929631
I didn't quite get everything, but Swann's Way IS the novel I'm currently reading (except I mentionned the original title)

>> No.1929661
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1929661

>>1929592
>mfw colloquialisms

I understand that you view /lit/ as a place which requires formal language, but since this is only the internet I and many others like me will sometimes (hell, often!) speak in a more casual way. We might even say 'real' instead of 'really' on occasion!

Sorry for making you rage, compadre.

>> No.1929677

>>1929647
You should read Flaubert after, instead. Or just keep reading all of Proust, like a boss.

>> No.1929692

>>1929677
Nah I never really liked Flaubert, and Le Rouge et le Noir is one really important novel, as important as L'éducation sentimentale, if not more.
And besides, I have other things to read to prepare my school year