Friday, May 31, 2013

In Search of Lost Time


Photograph of Proust

In Search of Lost Time is also called Remembrance of Things Past.  It is a novel that was written in 7 volumes by the French author Marcel Proust in 1871 to 1922.

The first volume is called Swann's Way and is one of the shorter volumes.  The entire set revolves around themes such as memory and the exploration of such, separation anxiety, art and homosexuality.  The Novel is  delivered from the experiences of the narrator while he grew up.

Marcel grew up in France during a time when the aristocracy was being supplanted by the rising power of an affluent middle class.  He was a homosexual and was one of the first authors to mention homosexuality openly.

He was very close to him mother and had a number of changes to deal with during one of his most prolific writing periods.  In 1903 his brother married and left home.  That same year his father died.  A little over a year later his mother died as well.  Proust himself died in 1922 of Pneumonia.



Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness...

I have finished the book.  That is really mostly what I have to say about it.  I mean I can pick up on the themes.  There is gender exploration in the male heroes and the domestic females.  We have the light and dark of human nature and the savagery of the natives with the cultured simplicity of the colonials...but the book just seemed very slice of life to me and not even very informative.

The book was beautifully written and fairly engaging.  However, I am no great intellectual.  I am a smartish sort of fellow, but not one devoted to in depth analysis of stories.  I like them, or I don't.  This one failed to capture me....moving on....

Next up...In Search of Lost time by Marcel Proust....