In Search of Lost Time

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....

If only life was so easy
that everyday was sunshine and happiness
but problems and issues surround
and we stumble as we go along

We make errors and carry regret like a second skin
we hold onto them like a suitcase full of old clothes
any progress a small victory, flashes like a firecracker and is gone
a brief light that illuminates our path before the darkness returns

Love is a sharp sword
yet it is that which we use to defend ourselves
to keep the world at bay
we take our fill of it, only to lie starving

The people we love shape and mold us
yet abandon us to the darkness in times of need
bonds of commonality refresh and sustain
but in the darkness our hands come unclasped and we lose our way

The next book I am reading is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

Conrad is a polish author who lived from 1857 to 1924.  He most likely died of a heart attack.  He moved a lot as a child living in the Ukraine, Warsaw, north of Moscow and other places.

He was a poor student and was sent to France at 16 for a career at sea.  He spent 20 years in the merchant navy and eventually made captain.  This was to form the basis for most of his stories and characters.  He wrote about what he knew...what he lived.

He started writing at the age of 36.  Due to poor health he had to give up his career at sea.  He wrote the rest of his life.  Like many authors he never achieved measurable financial success but managed to keep afloat.

He was described as "an emotional man subject to fits of depression, self-doubt, and pessimism, disciplined his romantic temperament with an unsparing moral judgement."  Interestingly enough he was a contemporary of Henry James who he knew personally.

Heart of Darkness is a story about Charles Marlow and his job on the Congo River as an Ivory transporter. Conrad himself had been the captain of a boat 8 years earlier that sailed up the Congo....I feel an adventure coming on....

Tim

I finished Portrait of a Lady.

So my take on it.  Much deeper than most of the pieces I have read of this genre.  A really tragic tale about a  youthful American girl who wants to experience life and basically fails to find what she had hoped.

She was so free spirited and open eyed and ends up choosing an unconventional life.  She doesn't marry the rich English Lord or the American businessman, but instead marries a poor American living in Italy.

She ends up unhappy and basically estranged.  I really enjoyed the book.  The writing style was simple and engaging with a tendency toward wonderful prose.  The ending really left me wanting.  We spend all this time learning about Isabel and what makes her tic, then dismiss the whole story in a few paragraphs....

Well....off to the next book.

Portrait of a Lady

My current book, Portrait of a Lady, was written by Henry James.  James was born in New York City to a wealthy family.  I think, so far, what I really see as one of his strengths, is that he is in many of the characters in this book.  We have the main character who is visiting England from the states, something he did for the first 20 years of his life; her older uncle, who, also American, chose to live out his life in England, which James also did; the traveling newspaper writer from America, something James also did; etc..

This personal investment in his story gives the overall feel of depth and reality to the tale.  There is an early buyin to the story because of this.  Even though this story feels so much like a Pride and Prejudice, the emotional revelations of the characters and the insight they give is much different.   I think I am going to love this book.

A Passage To India

I finished this book some days ago.  I just have to say that it was well written, but it totally failed to engage me at all.  I am sure I totally missed the point of the book, but I came away not caring a whit form the characters and not having learned a thing about India.

On another note, so far, Portrait of a lady has been a pleasure!