The Guermantes Way Annotated

Author : Marcel Proust
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 772 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (361 download)

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Download or read book The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust written by Marcel Proust and published by . This book was released on 2021-07-12 with total page 772 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finally the scheme of the novel as a whole comes into view, as the narrator uses the characters of book two (the always-gallant St. Loup and the outmoded Madame de Villeparisis) to try to ascend socially to the "pinnacle" of Mme de Guermantes's legendary salon. But along the way, we encounter two beloved characters from book one who have drastically changed, who are shown not to fit into what's required of Marcel's new world view. Three highlights: An incredible tour de force Balzacian 100 pages at Madame de VilleParisis's that involves a fantastic comedy of errors with hats; the force of Charlus, who, though a problematic character w/r/t gay anxiety, is fantastically written; a trip to the theater that complicates interpersonal analysis from book 2 and ends with a memorable wave. Now, there are problems too. You NEED to carefully read the Wikipedia page on the Dreyfus case before this volume, as all of Proust's Paris is swept up in the incredibly confusing vagaries of the case. Two sequences - one on military history, and somewhat disappointingly, the book's climactic dinner (which is an intentional disappointment, I know, and stylistically fascinating), read sluggishly. Proust's worldview is fundamentally flawed in all sorts of ways, but is presented as truth, which has its seductions but also its frustrations. But there's so much that's fascinating here. His willful denial of plot conventions (the book abounds with spoilers) and refusal to focus on what most interests us really work. There's a European storm building up here and the novel ends on an excellent cliffhanger - for the first time, I started reading the next volume as soon as I finished.