If you haven’t figured out by name, I’m relatively obsessed with names and etymologies. I can remember way way back carrying my Petit Robert around to look words up. But the name Vinteuil has been stubborn as hell- refusing to come to the light. At a certain point I resigned myself to the annoying Continue reading “Vinteuil- at long last I grok you!”
Taking stock
Okay, so I got up to page 129 in the Pleiade for my ‘read Proust marathon starting January 1,’ and then I had to go back again. There was too much stuff packed into the pages and I couldn’t take it all in properly to serve my purposes, which is to track the little phrase. Thus, I’ve had to Continue reading “Taking stock”
Let’s talk Ottomans, shall we?
As I’ve said before, I’m no history buff, so forgive me if I’m a little glib about such matters. But let’s talk Ottomans, shall we? And Persia, Byzantine culture, St. Mark and so on. We have to, because Continue reading “Let’s talk Ottomans, shall we?”
Do you think it’s odd that…
…that Proust has all those chapters on Place-Names? If so, I don’t think you’re going to like this post, so best not to read on lol!
Are you still reading? Okay- here’s my thought. Or rather, here’s a hint in the picture below:
A pretty sight. One I think I should use on Continue reading “Do you think it’s odd that…”
A fork in the road: Forcheville
He’s not just the other one. You know, the one that Odette went off with, forsaking Swann. No, Forcheville is the prime contender for the Place Name: The Name award, his name in and of itself a place, or rather the idea of place. Also the idea of Continue reading “A fork in the road: Forcheville”
Okay, so what’s the question? It’s about that Little Phrase!!
“My thoughts had taken a turn a bit particular. I was myself what the book was talking about. A church, a quartet, the rivalry of Francis I and Charles V. “
For most, it’s just a little phrase – a mere 10 words long. Obviously this little phrase isn’t the one in the Vinteuil sonata. It’s a different one. And it has confounded me for – okay, I’ll admit it, for 20 years, no joke. When I first laid eyes on the odd combination of words in the opening paragraph of In Search of Lost Time [ISOLT], I was vaguely Continue reading “Okay, so what’s the question? It’s about that Little Phrase!!”
You say Combray, I say Cambrai
Even though I’m not French I get it. The sound of an ‘o’ in a French word is nothing like the sound of an ‘a.’ So you say it’s Combray and I say but maybe it could be Cambrai. And then you ask me if I’m nuts. And I say well I’m not French, but… Continue reading “You say Combray, I say Cambrai”
Isn’t a little phrase an Ode-ette?
Now what would MP be up to, calling Swann’s lover Odette? Ode – some kind of poem-ish form. But diminished. a diminutive ode. An Odette. So basically a phrase. But a little one. A little ode.
I’m not saying there isn’t a little phrase in a piece of music written by M. Vinteuil and played… Continue reading “Isn’t a little phrase an Ode-ette?”
Ceci n’est pas un Swann de Combray
Meet Le cygne de Cambrai: Francois Fenelon. He’s a French archbishop from the late 1600’s who somehow took on the sobriquet The Swan of Cambrai. And could possibly, just possibly, have served as inspiration for the Swann of Combray front and center in Swann’s Way.
It could be nothing more than that. Just a simple borrowing of… Continue reading “Ceci n’est pas un Swann de Combray”
Saint Marcel, author of the book
Okay, a word about all the church stuff. Archbishops, saints, churches, resurrection.
I’m not proselytizing here. I’m talking in a fictional sense. And I think the same could be said for Continue reading “Saint Marcel, author of the book”