by Dennis Abrams
I’m going to try and keep this short and sweet. Proust, among the many things he has to teach us, teaches how to see, not through his eyes but through our own eyes, and in ways we never imagined possible. And I have to thank all of you who, through your posts, your questions, your comments, and your emails, helped to show me ways to read In Search of Lost Time that I never imagined possible. It has been an extraordinary journey — a little more than a year completely immersed in Proust. Knowing that you were out there forced me to read the book more closely than I’ve ever read anything in my life. Forced me to think about it more constantly than I have any other book. Forced me to look at, analyze and write about the book in ways that not only kept me interested but kept the hundreds of readers around the world who have been following the blog interested as well.
For that, for your constant inspiration, for the friendships I’ve made, I am eternally grateful.
I wish you all the very happiest of new years, and I hope to see you next week when Project D is officially launched.
http://projectdblog.wordpress.com/
Dennis
Bravisissimo, Dennis. Many, many thanks.
“My last post.” That’s hard to process. I suspect the post for December 31, 2010, will have a long and vital life as Proust’s — and Dennis’s — acolytes return here to explore what it has meant to live a year in thrall to Proust.
Occasionaly visits here have allowed me to begin to know the work of the writer Proust….whom i had never even known the name before this blog…am looking foward to project D. and hope to be able to actually follow it’s course this time..Thanks again Dennis for your contributions to the Literary Arts. TT
Thanks, Dennis!
We should all be jubilant that we have finished our reading and that the blog will live on. How many people can honestly say that they read it – all of it – so many words and pages. The fact that we did it together allowed us to have a sense of community which we all found meaningful and helpful in completing the project.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters); who have read Proust together … and others who have not yet read shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here (with apologies to Shakespeare).
Happy New Year, all.
I am very grateful to you, Dennis, and the readers who posted. Patricia, thanks for the recent links and for writing about the Bakewell book. Would you consider posting your 2010 reading list?
Yesterday I happened in the cooking section of a store and I was stunned to see a madeleine baking pan. I thought “My word, he’s everywhere!”
Thanks to Dennis and everyone. Happy New Year.
Thank you, Dennis. Though I’ve fallen behind in my re-reading of The Search, I’ll continue to read your posts alongside my daily (or weekly) reading. We all appreciate not only your summaries and commentaries, but the recommended readings and excerpts of other works.
Rick
And please feel free to post or to ask questions…I’ll still be stopping by to keep things updated.
Now I’m re-inspired to dig out my old madeline pan and bake up a mess o’ madelines to kiss off this project. Thanks to Dennis and everyone, especially Marcel.
I was amused today to see the NYT’s Book Review ask authors their ‘readerly resolutions for 2011” – of the eight authors queried, one facetiously promises to read Proust and another resolves to finish Proust, “I mean it this time…I really do.” My thirteen months reading Proust began with a lighthearted Proust pledge, spur of the moment, but Proust has been a thread of gold through the year, a commitment to deeper reading. Thank you, Dennis, for your masterful conducting, shepherding and inspiring us, I shall very much miss the Cork Lined Room. Happy New Year!
Your blog still lives…for us who read Proust today.
You’ve made my day.
I recently discovered this blog and it has given me the kickstart that I needed to finally read Proust. I have owned the Random House set for over 20 years and Proust was my dear father’s favorite author so this is something that I have wanted to do for a long, long time! Thank you for keeping the blog online for other’s to benefit from the project after the fact
And thank YOU for taking the time to comment! that makes my day.
I was very glad to find your blog. Proust readers seem so few. I feel quite isolated in my appreciation for him and very unfashionable. I am almost embarassed to love his work so much, as if I would be thought pretentious, as if I am merely dropping names or showing off. Yet, what what’s more necessary to life than to receive wise counsel, and what can be more revivifying than the beauty of art, the beauty of Proust’s wise, artfully intimate voice?
Contra de Botton, I did a tiny pilgrmage and traveled just a few days ago to his grave in Paris and laid a small stone (and a kiss of thanks…) there for him. (Call me odd, but it felt right. It may all be misguided idolatry, but it was well meant, and heartfelt.)
We Proustians often seem to me like a scattered tribe, I had no one to praise him and share him with, friends are more intent on their own reading, as well they must be. I am more hopeful now because I found your blog and saw another comment recommending the Goodreads “2013 Year of Reading Proust” project. I joined, and now hope to find good company, a place to fit in, and to feel comfortable with my love for Proust.
I am VERY glad you found us. If you ever have any questions, comments, please feel free.
Dennis, I just, a few minutes ago, finished The Search. I began it in ’09 I think, got through vol. II, then stopped. Picked it up again, starting over, a couple of years ago, and here I am! I read the whole shebang in ’99-’01, as well. Thanks again for your blog. I got a lot out of it. Rick
Rick: You made my day. Thank you so much.
Hello Dennis– just another note of appreciation– I am reading The Search for the first time and facilitating a wonderful group of lively minds who have committed to studying Proust for the foreseeable future– your blog has helped me immensely with insights, recommended support reading and wonderful energy for the read– as well as offering a similar community minded spirit to the work of the London Literary Salon. I refer to your blog frequently–and use your highlights to inform my work. When we started the study in November–we were doing an insane 60-70 pages a week– learned my lesson & slowed down –and now we are taking delicious 30-40 page bites a week. Proust is leading me to a Slow Read movement. Thank you for the insights and generosity of your work…
I don’t know why I just saw this…thank you so much for your kind words! I’m glad my blog was able to help you on your journey…
Dennis. I (& I’m sure I’m not alone) am nostalgic still for the Cork-Lined Room.
Can’t we go on another journey through the book, perhaps with a different twist? We could encourage graphics perhaps, pics of readers’ charts & drawings of a passage under consideration. Or photos of recipes made/ table settings, mad collages!! Ways for you not to have to extract & analyze long passages. (It was brilliant, but it must have been exhausting for you.)
But you are probably working on another project, just as compelling….?
Thank you, Dennis, for this blog. And thank you for leaving it intact for wanderers to discover years after its mission has been completed.
I picked up ISOLT in October 2015. I had been reading Pynchon, but he wasn’t thick enough. I needed some way to escape what was clearly turning into an insane political year in the United States, and books that could be consumed in less than a month weren’t going to help. Proust seemed like the perfect choice and he was, although ultimately he failed me. With your help, I’ve finished this massive undertaking, but there are still 4 weeks until election day, and the craziness just seems to escalate.
I may yet pick up the thread of Dostoevsky years after your group has finished it, but, at the moment, the most sensible course of action would seem to be to start reading this wonderful book all over again. Do you know of any support blogs for second-timers?
Thankyou for this wonderful resource, and for keeping it open. I joined part way through, having read the early volumes solo. I just pretended it was a live thing and commented along anyway, and it was fun to tag along with the ghosts of your comrades in 2010.
I will continue from the beginning again, and am considering having a crack at the “version originale”.
I will think of you when I’m in Paris in November, outraging Proust by idolatrously visiting his grave on the centenary of his death and mooning about the Jardin des Plantes etc etc.