The Year of Reading Proust discussion

It's a new bug that just cropped up, P.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

You always know, Jason. I just reported the problem. What a pain.

ETA -- oh good, you did too on the thread. You are the speediest moderator I know. :)

It's 'cause I complain about stuff in the Feedback group (I love to whine), so then I get notified on these threads about other bugs. So you're basically thanking me for being a crank.

I'd love that beer, though. Of course, that means I will pick up the second round!

I just found this book.. I was looking for writings by Montesquiou and there is this with 4 articles by Proust and 3 by Montesquiou. I may get it. If I do I will do the entry in GR.

http://artslivres.com/ShowArticle.php...

I bought The Lemoine Affair from MH as an epub (should have bought the Kindle version), I downloaded it to my iMac but when I click on the download, I get an error message saying 'There is no default app specified to open the document...'

I emailed MH, as indicated last night; but I have not gotten a response. I want to see how Proust does S-S & how he does S-B critiquing Flaubert.

Can anyone help, how do I specify a default app to open it?

@Proustitute

I now have The Lemoine Affair readable on an E-book Viewer via Calibre, thank you. I can copy it, email it to my iPhone, paste it in WriteRoom & have an editable copy, which is what I wanted & why I didn't choose the Kindle version. Thanks again.

I'm a little familiar with Flaubert having read MB twice but I haven't read Balzac since France, and more for my French practice than to have a view on him; so I have no idea how 'revolutionary' Flaubert was as it seems that one must know the literary time that proceeded an author to understand his historical newness.

Yet from what I read of the Flaubert and the Sainte-Beuve pastiches I found them to be written in a humorous style--not that I got Proust's wit--but he seemed to be poking fun at them.

Were readers at the time supposed to find humor in these two pieces or am I mistaken?

I read the Lemoine Affair after reading Swann's Way and loved how funny Proust was and how silly it felt reading his novella versus his life's work.

I feel like I missed out on half of the references but the more French lit that I read, the more often I go back to re-read and get some of the jabs he's throwing out.

It's a quick read and there's still some time, but I would recommend reading the Lemoine Affair before reading Swann's Way. One of the magic of Proust is his uncanny ability to imitate the styles of the writers of his day. Monsieur Proust's Library pointed out that his talent for absorbing a style would show in ISOLT. The Lemoine Affair clearly illustrated that. It's a great read, too.

can The Lemoine Affair be appreciated if one does not know the style of the writers Proust imitates, the pastiche style? Or is there a reasonable introduction to it? I've only read de Botton's "How Proust can change your life" and am more than ready to begin the Search (even more than before), but maybe reading this before Swann's Way would be worthwhile.

now i'm tending more to Proust's short stories for preliminary or parallel reading, i just opened a topic about it:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...