***Group Read: The Fugitive, or Sweet Cheat Gone by Marcel Proust

Here is the thread for Book 6 of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust called The Fugitive or Sweet Cheat Gone. The book breaks down like this:

I. Grieving and Forgetting
II. Mademoiselle de Forcheville
III. Sojourn in Venice
IV. New Aspect of Robert de Saint-Loup.

If anyone else is interested in reading In Search of Lost Time, please join Angela and me as we read Book 6.

I started this yesterday, since it is my treadmill book (lol) but I didn't get very far. Will be reading it again on the treadmill tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, I read that The Captive and The Fugitive are considered the weakest books of the series since Proust didn't get to revise and edit them before his death.

I am planning to start today. However, I am at the exciting conclusion of Emma and having trouble putting it down.

I understand that! I really enjoyed Emma this time around. :)

OK, I just finished Emma, so I think I can start this one now. I am really enjoying the Jane Austen reads this year! :)

I'm 12% done, or so, and I'm getting annoyed with Marcel. (What else is new?) He really needs to tell the truth! Why are none of these people HONEST with each other???

I started yesterday and only read a little. I am working more hours these days. Marcel seems to follow the same patterns over and over, doesn't he? I thought the part where he paid innocent young girls to sit with him was a little creepy. I will read some more today.

Yeah, well just wait. You weren't the only one who thought that was creepy, and the situation comes back to haunt him. :)

I am about 20% of the way through it. Marcel totally drives me crazy. I was going to quote the part about how with time the words we say in falsehood come true, but then I remembered that I had quoted it the last time he said it. All this subterfuge. How could he ever have a relationship? And I did get to the part where the parents sent the police. But I guess the police were on his side in it. Honestly!

Wow, you're fast. :) Although this book is shorter, so it's going faster I guess. Did you get to the tragedy yet? I got to the part where he receives 2 letters from Albertine after the tragedy, and that's where I had to stop for the moment.

No, I haven't gotten to the tragedy yet. Maybe today. :)

Well then I'm glad I didn't spoil anything!

I guess I stopped just short of that part. I have read about Albertine's death now. So I think your title is better than my title for this book! :) Anyway, it is interesting that this is one of his weakest books, because I think his writing here in the aftermath of Albertine's death is really strong. In my recollection, I recall her as being sweet with a gentle disposition -- like my sweet golden retriever (who is doing better, by the way!). But the parts from Balbec at the very beginning I can't really remember. I am not sure that she was so sweet then. For the first time, I understand the person who decided at the conclusion of ISOLT to start fresh from the beginning right away -- although I don't think that I will do that. I do think I will revisit this work sometime in the future.

Here are a couple of quotes:

She (Francoise) left the room, then returned, but I turned sharply away under the impact of the painful discharge of one of the thousand invisible memories which continuously exploded around me in the darkness . . . .

And she (again Francoise) added: 'It was bound to happen; she was too happy, poor creature, she never knew how happy she was.'

We exist only by virtue of what we possess, we possess only what is really present to us, and many of our memories, our moods, our ideas sail away on a voyage of their own until they are lost to sight! Then we can no longer take them into account in the total which is our personality. But they know of secret paths by which to return to us. And on certain nights, having gone to sleep almost without missing Albertine any more -- we can only miss what we remember -- on awakening I found a whole fleet of memories which had come to cruise upon the surface of my clearest consciousness and which I could distinguish perfectly. Then I wept over what I could see so plainly, though the night before it had been non-existent to me.

And another random thought the abbreviation ISOLT is an anagram for I LOST. This about losing and keeping memories seems to me what this is all about.

I am only about 30% through with the book. I am sorry that I always start out so slowly. I kind of have to build up steam. Next Tuesday I leave to take my baby back to college which it quite a distance. Plus there is work there, too. So, I will be gone most of next week. If I have time, I will try to read more. This part has really drawn me in, so if I have time, I want to keep reading some more today.

I finished Part 1 tonight. I had a quote picked out, but when I went back, I could not recall where it was. Now I am about halfway through. I am hoping to finish before I have to go out of town Tuesday morning.

Wow, you are way ahead of me now! Hopefully I can catch up with you next week. :)

I was surprised about Albertine's letter, asking to come back. All this time I thought they had a horrible relationship, but it seems like she really wanted to come back to him. Do you think she just wanted to use him again, or do you think there was some real feeling there? I thought she would really enjoy her freedom, but now I'm wondering if there wasn't some real feeling there after all.

It seems to me that she is just a lot more tolerant than I would be. No matter what he acts like, she has a good temperament. Or maybe she just wanted to make a "good" marriage. That is why I was wondering what she was like back when they first met. I just can't remember. But I recall we discussed whether he should pick her or Andree, and we thought Andree was better at that time.

I read a lot yesterday. I guess I just felt like reading a little further than I had planned. This morning I feel a little burned out from reading so much of it yesterday. But I am going out of town for most of next week, so I want to kind of get ahead.

Albertine was a little bit mean when we first met her at Balbec. Kind of spoiled, enjoyed being queen of her group of girls. She was always hot and then cold with Marcel, even back then. I think she mellowed a bit as she got older. I also think Marcel has a bit of a point when he mentioned that she probably kept her lesbian tendencies a secret from him because she knew how strongly he felt against that. She was afraid to tell him because she didn't want to eliminate his regard for her. There's probably some truth to that. Obviously it would have been better had they BOTH been honest with each other.

I do think Andree was a better choice for him, but he seems to be attracted to healthy vibrant girls as a contrast to his sickliness, and Andree is a little bit sickly as well, so I doubt he would ever have felt so strongly toward her.

I won't be scared if you get ahead - I will try to catch up to you when you are out of town. :)

Yesterday I read the first half of part 2. Back to society. It seems like familiar territory here.

I finished Part 2 and here are a couple of quotes:

His character remained unaltered, but his style had become less precious, as happens to certain people who shed their mannerisms, when, ceasing to compose symbolist poetry, they take to writing serial novels.

Truth and life are very difficult to fathom, and I retained of them, without really having got to know them, an impression in which sadness was perhaps actually eclipsed by exhaustion.

Well, back to my manga until tomorrow. I am trying to finish this Proust book before I leave town.

Before you leave town? Wow, that must be some sort of personal record for finishing a Proust book, haha! I'll be cheering you on. :)

This is a pretty short book, though. But I am also getting to the point where I am thinking of the book when I am reading something else.

Today I read part 3. This part and the last one are really short. I found it surprising. I really liked the last line of it. Seems like the last lines are always my favorites.

Yeah, he does tend to wrap things up really well at the end of each book and at the end of each section. :) I'm still at the beginning of Part 2. Go BJ, Go BJ, Go! :D

The last two parts are really short -- at least in my book. I barely started Part 4. But I have to help with packing, so I will not be able to read more until late tonight.

I'm in part 4 now too! Part 3 really went quickly...

I just finished Part 4. I thought it was a little melodramatic at the end.

So is Albertine indeed alive? This is what I have been wondering.

I will be out of town the rest of the week. I bet you finish tonight. Let me know how you want to schedule the exciting conclusion (at last!) to ISOLT. Have a great week!

You were right - I did finish it late last night. :) For some reason I don't have too much to say about this novel. Except that I find it amazing that nearly everyone Marcel knows is turning out to be secretly homosexual. Oh, and there are no happy relationships. Sigh.

Albertine is not alive. I thought the same thing at first, but then when Gilberte writes him to tell him of her marriage to St. Loup, she mentions that she telegrammed him and never got an answer. Then he realizes that "Albertines" telegram was actually from Gilberte, just badly translated from French to Italian by the telegraph office. His imagination supplied the rest of the words - and that's why he imagines it was from Albertine.

I just checked with the Proust guide and it confirms that. When "Albertine's" telegram arrived, I was thinking that was the most interesting thing that's happened so far in this book!

I think you would really enjoy my Proust guide. If you read it when we are done here, I think it will pull together details and people in your mind from all 7 of the books. Most of these characters have been mentioned in all the books, at least briefly. But we tend to forget those brief occurances. The guide reminds me and refreshes my brain on all those details and really makes the novel seem like one book instead of seven. There's also a short and long plot summary, and short and long character descriptions. If you had a Kindle I'd lend you my copy!

Oh, and the guide confirms that Proust has based most of his characters on people from his real life. Albertine is based on a love affair he had with a man (who often complained of feeling smothered by Proust) who ran away from him and died. Charlus was based on a real person, and so was the Duchess Guermantes - actually she was based on 3 women. I'm sure there's more from his real life but I havent' finished the character summaries yet!

Let me know when you are ready for book 7. I'm ready whenever you are!!!

I have a confession to make. I've enjoyed having you as my reading buddy for so long now that I've actually started to ponder what other long series we could read together! (grins sheepishly)

What a nice thing to say! I like having you for a reading buddy, too. It makes the reading more fun. There is bound to be another long series out there.

I think it is kind of sad that he gets this telegram from someone he thinks has died and just ignores it because he no longer cares. I don't think he can ever truly be happy. Can you tell me again the name of your guide? I think I want to read some after finishing. I have one that is fairly short and I have that book about the paintings. I had intended to read that along with the books, but I didn't even open it!

We can go ahead and start the exciting conclusion if you want. I think we could finish before the next Jane Austen book.

I should be able to start the next book shortly. I already have it on the Kindle.

The Proust guide is Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time: A Reader's Guide to the Remembrance of Things Past by Patrick Alexander.

It has a brief summary of the series, a long detailed summary by book, detailed and brief character guides, a brief bio of Proust and his family, the situation in France at the time of writing, and the Dreyfus case. It covers a little of everything and I'm so glad I have it, because it has helped me get more out of the reading, although it does contain lots of spoilers.

I told you I was thinking about series! Of course, if we do end up adopting soon, I may have less time for reading. These are other series I'm interested in reading, possibly. Let me know if you ever want to read any of these series, or anything similar.

- Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard
- Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
- The Barchester Novels or the Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
- The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
- The Lord Peter novels by Dorothy Sayers (I've read the first two, I think, but want to read them all).

Thanks for the title of the book. I added it to my wishlist. It does sound like a better one than the one I have (although who knows, since I never read it!).

I have read both Dance to the Music of Time and the Forsyte Saga recently, and I enjoyed them both. I have been wanting to read some Trollope for a while now. I have the first two Barchester books (I think). I read the Sayers books many years ago and am interested in a reread of them. I have never heard of Cazalet Chronicles, but LT says I will love it. So let me know what you think. :) And I understand about having to cut down on reading time later if you adopt soon. You are in my prayers for sure!

I will go ahead and start the thread for Time Regained. The very last book! Can you believe it?

Well, you've been wanting to read Trollope for a while now, and so have I, so that might be the best way for us to go, if we want to read more series. Since Trollope is more popular than Proust, we might be able to get a few others to join us. Who knows?

I've already read The Warden which is an introduction to the Barchester novels, but that's as far as I've gotten. It's fairly short, and I could always re-read it along with you. That's the only Trollope I've ever read, and I enjoyed it, but everyone says the series gets much better after that. The Warden lays the groundwork for the Barchester area, I think.

Heading over to the new thread now. I know, I can hardly believe we are nearing the end of Proust's great work!

My daughter has The Warden and the second book. I think she has already read them, so I will have her send them to me. I can't wait!

That's good. I'm glad we came up with and idea we are both happy about. :)

Oh, and thanks for the prayers about adoption. The more I learn, the more scared I become, because some of these children have some very serious emotional and or physical problems, and I'm not sure how much of that we can handle. It's exciting and I'm happy to be getting serious about it, but it's sobering at the same time. So definitely prayers are in order.

We are trying to adopt a child as young as possible, and younger adopted children seem to adjust better, but sometimes age has nothing to do with it.