Sunday, July 10, 2011

Swann's Way, "Overture" and "Combray"

Aside from the, ahem, questionable wisdom of taking one's reader on a journey of anywhere between 50 and 150 pp. between chapter breaks, Swann's Way is perfect. It is so wonderful finally to make headway in a "classic" and to discover that it deserves to be called such. Also I learned two new French vocab words: unctuous (used too often in the translation, I think...could have used some synonyms) = onctueux; lubricious (meaning offensively lustful; lewd--thank you OED!) = lubrique, I am pretty sure. I see now one of the inherent difficulties of reading the novel in French--good old Marcel knows words that I not only cannot translate; he knows words I cannot necessarily define. That puts him up there with Melville in my book.

Status: Rebrance of Things Past, Swann's Way, p. 205
Forecast: T-38 days to Law School, approximately 1/15 complete. Looks good so far.

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