Literature with Chléo

 Marcel Proust In Search of Lost Time

This book is composed by 7 tomes, written between 1913 an 1927. The book won the Prix Goncourt, a very know price in France. 

The novel is a roman à clef, which means real people or events appear with invented names more or less explicitly. The style of the book is know for its very long sentences which want to portray the creation spiral in the making and writing. Proust wants to reach the totality of reality that always manages to outrun the writer. He attempts to capture life in motion. As the title suggests it, the book is also a reflection on time, and the incapacity to capture the present.

The book is the realization of the theory he wrote in Contre Sainte-Beuve. In this essay he reply to the XIXth century literary critic Sainte-Beuve. Indeed Sainte-Beuve thought a writing could only be explained and analysed by the life of the author and the historical context. Proust explains this way of analyzing books is too reductive and superficial. That's why Proust changes his draft and takes out all the mentions of his own name "Marcel" from the book so it's not mistaken for a autobiography. He also writes in his essay : "Beautiful books are written in a sort of foreign language. Beneath each word each one of us puts his own meaning or at least his own image, which is often a misinterpretation. But in beautiful books all our misinterpretations are beautiful." Meaning that each reader is a meaning maker, it's a good thing you can have in mind while reading In Search of Lost Time.

One of the most famous part of the book is the madeleine one, which is now used in the everyday life. It's a phenomenon that triggers an impression of reminiscence. It can be an element of everyday life, an object, a gesture, a sound or a color, for example, which is bound to bring back or reactivate a memory in someone's mind, as a madeleine does in the memory of the narrator of À la recherche du temps perdu. But this madeleine and this cup of tea represent also the book's creation elements that induce the memory that will start the literary creation. Thereby, the first reading of the book is the draft in the narrator's head that only starts writing at the end of the last book. 

Extract of the madeleine :

"No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea." 

But an episode that influenced me is in Swann's Way, Marcel Proust applies himself to recounting Swann's memories. In the passage "Swann in Love", he evokes more precisely the relationship that existed between the characters of Swann and Odette de Crécy. Despite Swann's love for Odette, he eventually suspects her of cheating. His jealousy reaches a climax when, having returned home after spending an evening with her, he decides to go back to Odette's house, tormented by the idea that she might be unfaithful. He sees a light at her window. He approaches the window, certain to catch Odette in the company of one of her lovers. In the describing the rest of the plot, from "On the point of knocking on the shutters, he felt a pang of shame" to "perhaps not so much in knowing as in being able to show them that he knew", Proust addresses the theme of truth. He compares the window through which Swann will discover the truth that is dear to him, namely whether Odette is faithful to him or not, to a manuscript whose cover would arouse the curiosity of its reader. Thus, a book would be a window, an interface that would show the reader a certain truth. Through the various thresholds, such as the front and back covers, the literary work attracts the reader's interest, as the light escaping from the window does for Swann. It is by opening the shutters to look through this window, by opening the book, that the secret can be revealed and the curious can know the truth. Reading would then be like a process of searching for the truth. In fact, reading a book would be like lifting a veil on a secret and searching for a truth.  

I'd like to finish this first book recommendation with a little game. Proust is also known for his Questionnaire, that he didn't create but answered a few times when he was young. I'll let you the questions, and you can answer them!

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
   
2. What is your greatest fear?
   
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
   
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
   
5. Which living person do you most admire?
   
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
   
7. What is your current state of mind?
   
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
   
9. On what occasion do you lie?
   
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
    
11. Which living person do you most despise?
    
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
    
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
    
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
    
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
    
16. When and where were you happiest?
    
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
    
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
    
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
    
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
    
21. Where would you most like to live?
    
22. What is your most treasured possession?
    
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
    
24. What is your favorite occupation?
    
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
    
26. What do you most value in your friends?
    
27. Who are your favorite writers?
    
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
    
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
    
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
    
31. What are your favorite names?
    
32. What is it that you most dislike?
    
33. What is your greatest regret?
    
34. How would you like to die?
    
35. What is your motto?