"Proust for Beginners" with Caroline Weber

[@Kevinsouth]

"I feel like I didn't understand the whole thing but wanted to cry anyway." (Paraphrasing the host.) You have summed up all of Proust to so many!

[@Fuliginosus]

I've read it three times over the past twenty years, and still love hearing people talk about it.

[@siouzsie]

I have read In Search of Lost Time 5 times and am about to start again. I get the feeling I would absolutely adore Proust for his wit, intelligence and great kindness with a hint of wonderful wickedness. In Search of Lost Time is beautiful, joyous, poignant, heartbreaking and funny.I love the world he created and when not immersed in the novels, somehow feel bereft.

[@yolandasilverio1205]

I am about to start reading In Search of Lost Time. I have all 7 volumes and will journal my reading as I go along.

[@knowsutrue]

At 57 I have started to listen to Lydia Davis’s translation of Swann’s Way. I did some research beforehand to learn more about how to approach etc, and I don’t know why that at this point in my life it came up but is absolutely the most beautiful enrapturing experience. I certainly have been through a lot and so the richness in the writing is such a beautiful space to explore I know there’s so so much that I could investigate within the narratives but for now I am just dreamily with my eyes closed, brought into worlds upon worlds and enjoying the ride. Tomorrow I will receive the text in the mail so I can revisit and explore as I wish.

[@anodyne57]

Just 50 pages in, but my god...how good is her translation! Such a shame it was the only volume commissioned for her.

[@ianjamesparker2315]

Caroline Weber's energetic love of Proust is such a joy to witness. Presently reading 'Proust's Duchess' by Caroline Weber, such a captivating read.

[@williamowen2515]

Just finished Swann’s way and needed help to begin tying it all together. I enjoyed this talk very much. Super enlightening!... probably should’ve listened to it before I read the book. I’m definitely a Proust beginner and wouldn’t describe my reading experience as feeling carried away. (More like running a triathlon! Hard, but worth it.) Thank you! You’ve given me the motivation I needed to continue to Vol 2.

[@sergioalves5278]

Obrigado, Caroline, aqui do Brasil. Sei que vou parecer presunçoso, mas " descobri" Proust aos 30 anos, estou com 61 e já li e reli a série 6 vezes, com descobertas e com mais prazer a cada releitura. Penso que sou proustmaníaco( sei que não existe claro, este termo). Proust é um mundo.

[@janethulstrand4741]

Definitely have to stop avoiding reading Proust, after listening to this very interesting discussion. Merci!

[@JoVicttor49]

I'm currently reading Proust and I have to say this was a great talk. I'll def check Caroline's work.

[@meversusme7728]

Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is on my favorites list. Really enjoyed the discussion. Thank you for uploading it.

[@Maria-ul6lj]

Very nice interview. I really enjoyed it! Thank you🌻 I recently started reading La Recherche and so far it's been amazing. Sometimes difficult, but always amazing. The way she imagines how it would be to be writing and having servants taking care of everything else, made me realize it'd be wonderful to be from a "developed" country and be able to write and not worry too much about insecurity, not access to health systems, and all the problems being Colombian implies 😅 At least I get to see these videos and I'm very grateful for it♥️

[@MiataBRG]

As a first time reader just getting to the end of Swann's Way I loved listening to this discussion. Talking about Proust is very difficult outside academia because no one I know has read him! Thus i come here to listen to ideas and opinions. Thank you👍

[@melissahouse1296]

Absolutely loved this. So look fwd to reading PDuchess when ive completed In Search.. You were both wonderful to listen to thank you!

[@ellenpaasch4743]

Thoroughly enjoyed this interview

[@CHUCKRYALS1234]

Nice presentation. I just started vol 4. I learned a lot. Thanks.

[@jdcharlwood]

Always good to read a biography of an author and perhaps to go to the places that they have written about. I remember watching a wedding taking place in the church that he writes about and the landlady saying 'I believe in divorce!'. I was also told that you should only read Proust when you are 40 years old or older.

[@johnmccann373]

I am just starting a mountain of books. Read Lydia Davis translation of Swanns WAY, AND I am now reading it for the second time, the excellent annotated and edited version of Edward Carter, that Caroline was holding- a wonderful size book with wide margins. My "addiction" started with the party of theSaint- Euverte's and the footmen:" One of them, of a particularly ferocious aspect and rather like the executioner in certain Renaissance paintings which depicts scenes of torture, advanced upon him (Swann) with an implacable air to take his things. But the hardness of his steely gaze was compensate by the softness of his cotton gloves, so that as he approached Swann he seeming to be showing contempt for his person and consideration for his hat," I have read Proust DUCHESS, and cannot wait for the follow up. A BRILLIANT SCHOLAR great writer,and enthusiastic lecturer. I would love to be one of her students!

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Yes. Could anyone else have written that ? !? And that's only one of countless passages you might have quoted.

[@lindamiller2648]

Quite interesting. Always pleasant to hear Proust talk. If only the interviewer would stop fiddling with her face!

[@lindamiller2648]

Ha! Was about to comment when I saw your name and thought it must have been an old comment of my own. You share my name, my fondness for Proust, for dressage and for Lyle Lovett, and my intolerance of fiddling!

[@arsnovaarsnova]

Talking slower will ennoble you, will show that you are really one and behind each word, each phrase, each concept and not letting your mind and your ego push an push words way faster than you would want, beauty nobility clarity and ability to convince others will only happen when there is a slowing down, a humility to know that `simple` is very difficult, as far as Proust, one comment below I think nails it, Proust goes around in circles,eternally so, enjoying floating from thought to thought and from the ability (or disability) to render his thoughts clear and in so doing stronger, and unable to enhance drama, reading it is a good training intellectually, but there is not much in it, perhaps his internal disorder did not allow him to achieve real literary beauty and strength.

[@johnmccann373]

Thank you Caroline for turning me on to the Moncrieff/Carter volumes, good for my failing eyesight. I am diving into "Sodom and Gomorrah", and reading Carters bio of Proust. I am rebooting my French, but am too old to wait --- I. may dive into some parts of it in French. I have watched all of your videos. I have also read the "House of Fragile Things", and gotten sidetracked by the Camando, and as a art sleuth, have dug into the dark corners of Vichy France, which Proust and the Dreyfus Affair and the Goncourt brothers make the Occupation more understandable. I am going to start on Swanns Way after finishing the entire series.

[@jimmartin1803]

Thank you for this. Do you have anything on James Joyce and the novel Ulysse?

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

@jimmartin1803 DO YA have anything on Woolf s BETWEEN THE ACTS ? (and not just THE WAVES ...).

[@tomquinn607]

Really illuminating. Thank you!

[@gingergirl65]

So enjoyed this ❤

[@itsROMPERS...]

This was enjoyable enough that I found myself really regretting the poor audio. Each needs a lavalier mic so they don't sound like they're shouting in an echo chamber.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

If they just talked at normal levels rather than screeching it would have helped !

[@MisterWondrous]

Sorry I am a little late, but I did want to note that Stephen Colbert's father was also a prominent physician, and was a high official in the CDC, Center for Disease Control, which was all about epidemics. Stephen even resembles Marcel, but Mr. Irons may have made the perfect Swann. Back to the delicious discussion.

[@_NAED_]

Salut! Which book by Proust is recommended for grieving? Merci!

[@_NAED_]

Please link the docu Caroline mentions toward the end of this conversation.

[@Longleyta]

If you've never seen it, try to find a video of the Monty Python game show spoof of the "All England Summarize Proust" competition. Classic!

[@musicwoman8570]

Excellent. Im on my second read-

[@anodyne57]

"What would Proust say is the meaning of life?" The dumbest possible line of curiosity.

[@ps100able]

What a brilliant women

[@FfionKellegher]

I am currently creating an online French literature course to be marketed and sold by my company, LinguaTute. This would be an 8-week long course consisting of one live class (1.5hrs) every week, which will be taught by a PhD French literature student at Oxford University. I'd really love to hear people's opinions on what should be included in this French literature course - in return I can offer you a 10% discount on the course (which we will begin delivering around the end of May/beginning of April - specific date is still to be decided). If you would like to have a chat with me and help to shape the future of this course, please respond to this comment. Thank you!!

[@kenjohnson6326]

I'd like to hear what that first husband of hers has to say about getting to really know people. I will say my first impression is of a very entertaining introduction to Proust.

[@Ruimte8]

Why are they shouting all the time?

[@thespiritofhegel3487]

'And I suppose they told you too that my roll of life is not natural? But before proceeding to conclusively confute this begging question it would be far fitter for you, if you dare! to hasitate to consult with and consequentially attempt at my disposale of the same dime-cash problem elsewhere naturalistically of course, from the blinkpoint of so eminent a spatialist. From it you will here notice, Schott, upon my for the first remarking you that the sophology of Bitchson while driven as under by a purely dime-dime urge is not without his cashcash characktericksticks, borrowed for its nonce ends from the fiery goodmother Miss Fortune (who the lost time we had the pleasure we have had our little recherché brush with, what, Schott?' - James Joyce, 'Finnegans Wake', 1939. recherche : exotic, exquisite, extremely choice or rare + Proust, Marcel (1871-1922) - author of 'A la recherche du temps perdu' ('In Search of Lost Time'). Schott - Scott-Moncrieff, (1889 - 1930), English translator of Proust, 'Remembrance of Things Past'.

[@tommurray6407]

I had thought of marcel as a gleefully vicious gossip. Celeste albaret's book shows another much kinder version. But then we are all multitudes as whatshisname said.

[@Thomas-fu8vp]

One does not simply read Proust, one studies and passionately so, or otherwise it is futile.

[@doctorshawzy6477]

starting on my 3rd reading

[@telephilia]

Yikes, Once is enough.

[@jesuisravi]

Geothe, wise and great in all his ways...Marcel Proust, wise and great only in one...fortunately it was in the one way that matters for posterity (i.e., us) and I confess, I'd rather read Proust any day than der grosse Meister

[@telephilia]

I've read the first 6 volumes. One more to go - should be able to complete by Xmas. But for most readers it's too onerous a task to bother with. Long, difficult prose, and, really, not much happens plot-wise and it all seems, well, effete despite the insights about love, psychology and the nature of time and memory. In other words, not even every serious reader's cup of tea.

[@j_drichmond]

YT advertising... just after the audience question about the ‘meaning’ of life, a self help advertisement was intercalated... and absurd enough to be it’s own parody. I did not expect to laugh out loud while watching a lecture on Proust.

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

NDE - RESEARCH & its achievements toward Proust s "findings" and their insights in relation to I Ching... =what do we know about anything, and can we know more while staying on this side of the Ignorance ... (?). My dissertation that will NEVUHHHH be ..

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

KRISTEVA s book on Pr : Time And Sense - care to comment ? 2) Germaine BREE s book on Pr 3) CUKOR s film RICH AND FAMOUS where the Jacqueline Bissett character says sth concerning Pr to the Candice Bergen character, but I can t recall exactly what. C a n s b y fill us in on those ? O er

[@zahretelomr]

Why are they both screaming????

[@cineric3800]

Because they speak American english, I guess.

[@thelaurels13]

Because they are women, and women usually shriek when talking.

[@rossgopicotrain4042]

They are obviously 'bookworms'; and the mere thought of attempting to tackle Marcel Proust - one of the most gifted writers of Western literature canon history - would, nay should titillate and tantalize any such person! That is all!! RGB-Y2 out!!!

[@itsROMPERS...]

Neither of the above comments is true. The audio set-up is terrible. They are both far from any mics. They should each be wearing clip on lavalier mics.

[@doctorshawzy6477]

ok..never heard of the younger brother...learned something today..

[@ilonabaier6042]

very helpful per se but I found the discussion about having reading in French superfluous. Of course if one can read the given language reading it in the original is more than a no-brainer. Imagine forgoing reading things in only the language you can speak. How ridiculous is that? For the majority of the native English speakers it rules out all of the Greek classics, all of renown religious and many philosophical writings. I need not expand.

[@doctorshawzy6477]

these two are two intense...,,,too " worked up".... cannot take anymore despite being a proust fanatic...

[@anodyne57]

Watch something else.

[@patriciapendlbury2603]

Too loud! 😫 why is she yelling?

[@carolenewman5180]

Ant listen this woman. She’s yelling.

[@HarryandMathilde]

Scream much?

[@bwsmpp]

Husband flex.

[@doctorshawzy6477]

semi hysterical ladies....ok though.....

[@itsROMPERS...]

They aren't hysterical, they are "projecting" so they are picked up by the single mic. The audio set-up is abysmal.

[@patriciapendlbury2603]

They both seem over the top excitable....even if the sound is messed up

[@Thomas-fu8vp]

Americans.

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

Nevuhh heard of passion ..esp in lit crit ??

[@doctorshawzy6477]

talking too fast...but I learned something....

[@smalltown2223]

I’ve never been a fan of Brussel Prousts, even though they’re very popular with a Roast Dickens dinner.