THE GUERMANTES WAY BY MARCEL PROUST

“Every reader finds himself. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself.”

Marcel Proust

SALON FULL

After completing incredibly satisfying studies of Ulysses and The Magic Mountain, we have turned to the next big mountain of Modernism, Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. This is my fourth tour through the Search – each visit reveals new nuggets and gasping moments. This third volume considers closely the draw of the social dance and the realm of social power: you might not think the anxious aristocracy of the Belle Epoque will teach you something about the world you live in – you will be surprised. The two groups who have made it through the first two volumes in the last six months are lively and welcoming – we have room for two or three in either the afternoon or the evening. If you have not read the first two volumes previously, please contact us to discuss.

Here is how one Salonista describes the pleasure and work of reading Proust: ” This is a velvet jewel of a book that demands the attention of a lover full of enchantment and obsession, we need not get impatient as all good lovers perfect their art in taking their time.”

Reading Proust teaches the reader to observe how the world is experienced, to be aware that although humans are tempted to give greater weight to the perceptual universe, it is the entwining of memory, idealised experience (dreams) and relationships with what our senses perceive that moulds our consciousness.

SALON DETAILS

• Facilitated by Toby Brothers
• Monday afternoons 3-5.00 pm 
• Thirteen meeting study from 13 September to 13 December
• Recommended edition: Vintage Classics (Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright)  ISBN-13: 978-0099362418
• £315 for thirteen meetings includes background materials, literary criticism, opening notes and discussion notes