The Year of Reading Proust discussion

Fionnuala wrote: "Sorry about the shiny..."

I meant shiny as in something attractive and shiny a magpie would like to steal and hoard (... the way I cannot resist and hoard books to be precise). IOT ("In Other Words") I really liked it! Thanks for posting it!! The picture quality is very good. :D

One has to imagine that the Salle à Manger was packed with the furniture Proust inherited from his parents (with just a narrow path to acess the second bedroom), as was most of the Salons... Basically Proust lived in his bedroom and Céleste spent her time in the kitchen on the other end of the apartment.

Book Portrait wrote: "I meant shiny as in something attractive and shiny a magpie would like to steal and hoard (... the way I cannot resist and hoard books to be precise). I..."

I know all about hoarding - today I bought two books:

and

and I looked through the sumptuous fac-similé edition of Combray.
Talk about shiny, it is the ultimate in hoardability..

Fionnuala wrote: "I looked through the sumptuous fac-similé edition of Combray..."

O_O

How did it look?! I'm dying to get a look at my hands on it! I was reasonable and resisted until it was sold out on Amazon & Fnac.com and now there's nothing I'd like more for Christmas... I think it's still available in some bookstores... *excogitates Christmas tactics*

Let me know how you like "Proust contre Cocteau." I'm really enjoying it. Claude Arnaud's portrait of Proust is not one from an Adoring Proustian: it has some sharp edges... :)

I was checking 'Lettres a sa voisine' on Amazon. The listed price is $19 but you can buy it used for $37. Go figure!

I liked 'Beepee' by the way.

Book Portrait wrote: "O_O
How did it look?! I'm dying to get a look at my hands on it! I was reasonable and resisted until it was sol..."

They took it out of the box and left me to look through it for ages - and they said they had lots in stock.
Each page is a photocopy of one four column proof page containing all Proust's strike outs and additions and extra 'paperolles'. Then attached to each page is an extension page with the printed version of his notes. The pages are large and not flimsy at all, more card-like, and there aren't that many of them since the edition only covers the Combray section that Proust was revising in early 1913. If you want to have a look - see this page:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Jocelyne wrote: "I was checking 'Lettres a sa voisine' on Amazon. The listed price is $19 but you can buy it used for $37. Go figure!

I liked 'Beepee' by the way."

I'd say it's about 15€ here.
What's your own preferred diminutive, J?

Fionnuala wrote: "

I'd say it's about 15€ here.
Wh..."


Giotto and the Orators: Humanist Observers of Painting in Italy and the Discovery of Pictorial Composition, but in French translation because the English original is out of print and very expensive...

FioFio, I also have the Czapski in my wish list..

By the end of the year we should all list the books we have hoarded.. and see whether we can come up with a reading plan...

Fionnuala wrote: "When I see the images of the soldiers and the manif Pré-Saint-Gervais, the reality of the war really strikes home.."

War Propaganda and Images

http://www.ww1propaganda.com/world-wa...


http://www.ww1propaganda.com/world-wa...
War






"...he was mad about Moroccans..."
http://www.posterclassics.com/vintage...


Reynaldo Hahn, 1916, with fellow soldiers. (BnF)

Reynaldo Hahn, 1916
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1...


Finding a "sunshade" in the rubble of horror.
http://digital.nls.uk/first-world-war...

Kalliope wrote: "Marcelita... Where are you?..

We need you to show us these cylinder hats that the ladies were wearing during the war in France..."

Echoes of cylinder hats and Chanel, who changed everything...1916.






War Fashion



LE STYLE PARISIEN, 1916.
COSTUMES TROTTEURS.
Modèls de Worth, Cheruit, Dœuillet.

Chanel 1916


Article:
"French Fashion during the First World War" BY Florence Brachet Champsaur
http://www.thebhc.org/publications/BE...

What a contrast there is between these two sets of images, Marcelita - you are good at this!
I loved the hen poster - eating very little and producing such a lot...

Marcelita wrote: "We need you to show us these cylinder hats that the ladies were wearing during the war in France..."

Echoes of cylinder hats and Chanel, who change..."

The second image does offer an echo to Nefertiti's....!!!

I have a wonderful large fruit bowl like the ones in the 5th poster in post #211. Of course, it is Moroccan.

Thank you Marcelita... I am glad you are catching up with the posts..

Kalliope wrote: "I have a wonderful large fruit bowl like the ones in the 5th poster in post #211. Of course, it is Moroccan.

Thank you Marcelita... I am glad you are catching up with the posts.."

In blue and white? It just needed to bring Morocco back, after S-L survived the helpfulness-not of Oriane.

Dropped waist dress 1916 ... And Chanel revolutionised the fashion world with this fresh, unfussy line making everyone else outmoded in one swift move... before she decidedly wore the trousers literally and figuratively... Thank you for all the pictures Marcelita! :)

Kalliope wrote: "By the end of the year we should all list the books we have hoarded.. and see whether we can come up with a reading plan..."

I'm taking my comment to The Lounge... :)

Speaking of the Great War...my dad's company went into the Battle of the Hindenburg Line (aka B. of the Siegfried Line--Pershing's soldiers called it the former). Anyway. The company went in with 200 men; the battle lasted four days. They came out with 18. It occurred in October 1918 and my dad would say, "That's when we broke Germany's back." He was not an educated man, but what a way with words. Because an animal with a broken back can live awhile, and Germany surrendered a little over a month later. And as he grew older, every October got harder and harder for him...

Oh, another one--how I wish I'd had some of the posters you all are posting when I taught All Quiet on the Western Front, to my 10th graders, years ago.

Elizabeth wrote: "This week's reading mentions (obliquely) the English Blockade of Germany. This was considered scandalous at the time; the British Navy effectively stopped all imports (including medicine & food) i..."

Elizabeth, I want to discuss this with you - but it's in the Dec 1st section so I'll repost my query there..

Marcelita wrote: "

Thank you Marcelita... I am glad you are catching up with the posts....."

I actually have a couple, one blue and white and the other with more colours.. Both are beautiful.

Yes, the episode of Orianne and Saint-Loup and Morocco felt to me ominous...

Morocco also figues prominently in Bel-Ami

Book Portrait wrote: "Dropped waist dress 1916 ... And Chanel revolutionised the fashion world with this fresh, unfussy line making everyone else outmoded in one swift move... before she decidedly wore the trousers lite..."

Morand on Chanel, "The Allure of Chanel."
"Coco Chanel invited Paul Morand to visit her in St Moritz at the end of the Second World War when he was given the opportunity to write her memoirs; his notes of their conversations were put away in a drawer and only came to light one year after Chanel's death. Through Morand's transcription of their conversations, Chanel tells us about her friendship with Misia Sert, the men in her life - Boy Capel, the Duke of Westminster, artists such as Diaghilev, her philosophy of fashion and the story behind the legendary Number 5 perfume..."
http://pushkinpress.com/book/the-allu...

Marcelita wrote: "Book Portrait wrote: "Dropped waist dress 1916 ... And Chanel revolutionised the fashion world with this fresh, unfussy line making everyone else outmoded in one swift move... before she decidedly ..."

one of my first reads when we are done, will be

Fionnuala wrote: "Book Portrait wrote: "Maybe Mlle FifiNuLala can scan it or photograph it?" ;D

"

Posted before, but they go well with FioFio's plan.

I thought Haussmann was the one that is now a bank?

Fionnuala wrote: "I thought Haussmann was the one that is now a bank?"

That is right... !!!!.. I am getting confused...

I think I need to go back...

Kalliope wrote: "Fionnuala wrote: "Book Portrait wrote: "Maybe Mlle FifiNuLala can scan it or photograph it?" ;D

"
Posted before, but they go well with FioFio's plan."

Number 9....Number 9.....
On my wish-list.

Marcelita wrote: "Morand on Chanel, "The Allure of Chanel." ..."

Chanel was also a close friend of Cocteau - among many other artists (Picasso, Diaghilev...)... We are circling around the same group of people. :)

From the LA Times:

The friendship between Chanel and Cocteau proved mutually beneficial. The two shared a passion for theater. Cocteau asked Chanel to design costumes for his most famous plays, including "Antigone." In turn, she was one of his greatest patrons, commissioning works of art (and even allowing him to live in her home while he recovered from his opium addiction).
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-1...




Cocteau with Coco Chanel (left) & Miss Weiseveiller in Veneto Street Rome 1958

Portrait-Souvenir de Jean Cocteau
INA documentary (1964, 90 minutes, en français)
http://www.ina.fr/video/CPF86634884

Kalliope wrote: "Posted before, but they go well with FioFio's plan."

I never thought to sneak into the courtyard! Next time I'm Boulevard Haussmann... Thanks for the photos! :)

Kalliope wrote: "one of my first reads when we are done, will be Misia..."

There was (you guesses it!) an exhibition "Misia, Queen of Paris" at the Musée d'Orsay in 2012 (of course I missed it):



http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/events/e...

Detailed presentation:
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/events/e...

... and there's a CATALOGUE!!
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/collecti...

:D

French Vogue diaporama on Misia:
http://www.vogue.fr/culture/a-lire/di...

Fionnuala wrote: "I know all about hoarding - today I bought two books:
Proust contre la déchéance. Conférence au camp de Griazowietz..."

I bought this one too yesterday! And I also finally got to see the Facsimile but I was disappointed... I guess that's what happens when one expects too much...

So now the top spot on my Christmas list is re-opened... Such a difficult task to pick just one book I'd like the most for Xmas... ;)

Book Portrait wrote: "..And I also finally got to see the Facsimile but I was disappointed... I guess that's what happens when one expects too much..

Yes, I understand your disappointment - we build things up impossibly in our imaginations - a bit like the Narrator! - but I still think I would like to own a copy of the facsimile. I know that when I close Le Temps retrouvé, I will want to reread Combray - just Combray. I think I might like to do that using the facsimile, to view the scaffolding as it were, to get a small glimpse of how and why Proust altered whatever parts he altered in those early months of 1913 before the war, before Agostinelli died, but after, if I'm correct, he had already written A l'Ombre and sections of Le Côté de Guermantes. Having advanced with those volumes, he must have felt the need to make revisions of Combray. I'd like to see what was changed, and what he had written before he changed it. I'm sure I could read printed versions of his early drafts elsewhere but just seeing his actual crossings-out will be...moving and powerful.
Also, think about it, we will never get to see this kind of scaffolding in the future as word processing doesn't lend itself to the preservation of drafts. This opportunity is rare. And as there is such a limited edition, it will be like owning a...Fabergé egg!

Marcelita wrote: "
Posted before, but they go well with FioFio's plan."

Number 9....Number 9.....
..."

Yes, we have a collage of the Plan of 102, boulevard Hausmann (1906-1919) and the photos of the interior court of 9, Boulevard Malesherbes (the family lived in the first floor from 1873-1900).

We did not visit 45, rue Courcelles (1900-1906), but I hope to do so next time I am in Paris..

We were lucky to get into the inner court.. some people were leaving at that precise time.. One needs a code to open the door.

Thank you FioFio and Marcelita (this name obviously cannot be worped), for making me realize that my mémoire was beginning to make dirty tricks on me and I had to set out in la Recherche du fact perdu.

Kalliope wrote: "Marcelita wrote: "
Posted before, but they go well with FioFio's plan."

Number 9....Number 9........"

Yes, we have a collage of the Plan of 102, boulevard Hausmann (1906-1919) and the photos of ..."

The courtyard of 45, rue Courcelles (1900-1906).
It was a weekday-holiday, so the guards minding the entry were absent. We just walked in like we belonged, which in a sense we did.

Proust's apartment would overlook this courtyard...top right corner@5:00.
(If the courtyard were a clock, this image would be 2-3:30, with the entry at 6:00.

Marcelita wrote: "
Yes, we have a collage of the Plan of 102, boulevard Hausmann (1906-1919) an..."

Lovely courtyard... thank you...

Marcelita wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "Marcelita... Where are you?..

We need you to show us these cylinder hats that the ladies were wearing during the war in France..."

Echoes of cylinder hats and Chanel, who change..."

Great! thank you! I was wondering what that looked like.Now I remember I had several family pictures of my great-grandmother and her sisters (8 sisters) dressed like that during the summer in Mar del Plata.Well in M del Plata there was no war but they certainly took after French fashion.

Poor Reynaldo Hahn if he´d wake from the dead and see his Venezuela managed by the Chavez clon-clown Maduro!!!!That is real magic realism of the worst species

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynaldo...

the chavist clown in action:

http://www.rpp.com.pe/2013-11-27-nuev...

and Queen Cristina is his ally :(

Marcelita wrote....Echoes of cylinder hats and Chanel, who change..."

"...we have achieved some charming results in the realm of fashion, without ill-considered and unseemly luxury, with the simplest materials, that we have created prettiness out of mere nothings. To the dresses of the great designers, reproduced in a number of copies, women prefer just now dresses made at home, which affirm the intelligence, the taste and the personal preferences of the individual.” MP

British Poster

http://www.ww1propaganda.com/world-wa...

Kalliope wrote: "Book Portrait wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "Fionnuala wrote: "A final comment -when speaking of 'Dans les choux', the Cocteau character, Andrée's husband, it seemed to me that Proust was describing hims..."

Something for the Cocteau set, from my favorite Parisian bookstore (rare treasures):

http://www.edition-originale.com/imag...

Marcelita wrote: ".Something for the Cocteau set, from my favorite Parisian bookstore (rare treasures"

Enjoyed that, Marcelita - especially Cocteau's signature portrait which seems like it flows in a single line from the end of his pen!
Also noted the Hommage à Marcel Proust at 300€....

Marcelita wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "Book Portrait wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "Fionnuala wrote: "A final comment -when speaking of 'Dans les choux', the Cocteau character, Andrée's husband, it seemed to me that Proust wa..."

Thank you for this, Marcelita. I am making a note to come back to this when I receive (and finally read) the Cocteau bio.

Kalliope wrote: "Thank you for this, Marcelita. I am making a note to come back to this when I receive (and finally read) the Cocteau bio.

I gave away my recently bought but yet unopened Proust contre Cocteau. It often happens that I'm stuck for a present to take to someone and I end up dipping into my store of private goodies. This time it was a particularly apt present as the recipient is interested in early French film - though less interested in Proust...

Possibly a stupid idea...but...years ago an actor named Hal Holbrook, who was able to dress/make up himself as Mark Twain's double, did a monolog as the writer. There was also a similar one-woman performance based on Emily Dickinson, called "The Belle of Amherst." Someone (preferably thin and dark) should do one as Proust. What does anyone think?

Elizabeth wrote: "Possibly a stupid idea...but...years ago an actor named Hal Holbrook, who was able to dress/make up himself as Mark Twain's double, did a monolog as the writer. There was also a similar one-woman ..."

Today is Mark Twain's birthday...1835!

Fionnuala wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "Thank you for this, Marcelita. I am making a note to come back to this when I receive (and finally read) the Cocteau bio.

I gave away my recently bought but yet unopened [book:Pr..."
To the Lounge.....