War and Peace? Piece of Cake! Remembrance of Things Past? Argh.....

Hi! This is my first post in a long time and I am excited to join this group! I love Big Fat Books.

I just finished the first of the three volume edition of Remembrance of Things Past. Anyone have any tips on dealing with Marcel Proust's prose when he goes off an a tangent? I feel my brain has to split into three: one to put a bookmark in the plot's action, two to follow along on the ramble, and three to try and tie the first two together.

I did a LOT of skimming in this first volume. It was the lesser of two evils: either spend all year reading this book or that.

Does anyone have any tips on doing this intelligently? Intelligent skimming?

(Hope fully this is not anathema to this group and I don't get kicked out for suggesting skimming. If so, I apologize for the interruption!)

:)

>1 farrhon: I'm actually curious about the 'skimming', especially as Proust has come up as suggested reading. It seems to me that your 3-split brain is working very hard. Do you go back to review the skimmed parts? Are these skimmed parts sort of like Moby Dick's pages upon pages of listing various species of whale where it's more a catalogue of possibly-relevant-to-some but certainly not meant as reading material for all? I'll be watching your thread to see how you fare, or if someone with previous experience with Proust has an opinion/suggestion, too!

Skimming Marcel Proust!!!???
Seriously, welcome to the group farrhon and good luck this year.
I read Remembrance of Things Past some years ago and really enjoyed it, but I found I had to put aside my tendency to 'zip' through the pages and just read 10-20 pages a day. That way I was captured by his language, characters and observations. I feel that if you skip paragraphs (or even pages??) you may be missing the beauty of the work and time will go very slowly! Hope that helps and good luck!

That's how I read the four volumes of Proust I've read so far. I read 15-25 pages a day, but read it deeply and really paid attention. It was rewarding. (And that's how I read War and Peace--twice!)

>1 farrhon: I had a hard time finishing the first volume! I had bought a beautifully illustrated edition and I motivated myself to read to the next pretty picture. It worked. I never got to the rest.

Good luck!

Welcome to the group.

The key to Proust is time. Patience. A willingness to go along for the ride.

(Or an utter lack of anything else to read :) -- I read most of it on an extended trip through Asia.)

Proust will reward you in the end. Just prepare yourself mentally that it may take you A LONG TIME (like, a year - or two!) to get through all seven volumes. You may also want to check out some reader's guides which will help you look up characters or events -- I liked Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time, A Reader's Guide to The Remembrance of Things Past by Patrick Alexander; also, there's a Reader's Guide by Terence Kilmartin, one of the translators of ROTP.

>2 PocheFamily: Hi!

As far as my "skimming", yes my brain is working hard and I don't feel I am immersed in the book. It feels like homework (sigh). I tend to closely read the action parts (ex: meeting Gilberte, conversations, etc.) but then, when M. Proust starts on about - say - the appearance of the sea at Balbec (for the umpteenth time), I get a little restless and start looking for the next paragraph that has dialogue!

Other posters are telling me to slow down. I'm about to start the next 1000 page tome, I'll let you know if I was successful!

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I knew in my deepest being that I was cheating myself of the pleasure of Proust. I'll try the slow and steady method that you all are suggesting when I pick up the next volume.

In the meantime, please enjoy this skit from Monty Python; it the "Summarizing Proust" competition!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwAOc4g3K-g

(warning, its a bit off-color)

Welcome to the BFB group.