What are you currently reading?

[Mandryka]

Great stuff. I read it many years ago, and was really impressed. The novel is also the first in Duras's "Indian Cycle" (for lack of a better term), as the character of Anne-Marie Stretter appers again in Le Vice-Consul and later becomes central in the extraordinary India Song (book, play, film).

In fact, I'm not reading L'Amante Anglaise but L'amant de la chine du nord -- my bad. And even there there's a reference to Anne Marie Stretter. Fabulous book by the way, genre bending. And I'm sure it was a naive oversimplification on my part to think that these books are some sort of prototypical autofiction.

Very happy to have discovered Duras -- all those years battling with the French language has let me reap many rewards, and reading Duras is one of them for sure.

[ritter]

In fact, I'm not reading L'Amante Anglaise but L'amant de la chine du nord -- my bad. And even there there's a reference to Anne Marie Stretter. Fabulous book by the way, genre bending. And I'm sure it was a naive oversimplification on my part to think that these books are some sort of prototypical autofiction.

Very happy to have discovered Duras -- all those years battling with the French language has let me reap many rewards, and reading Duras is one of them for sure.

Yep, I was a bit surprised seeing you turning from L'amant to L'amante anglaise, as the latter is a novel (and play, but both derived from a much earlier theatre piece titled Les viaducs de la Seine-et-Oise) dealing with a particularly gruesome fait divers (based on actual newspaper reports from the late 40s), and is Duras in a completely different vein.

I haven't read L'amant de la Chine du Nord, which Duras wrote in reaction to the film that Jean-Jacques Annaud made of L'amant, which she publicly and notoriously disavowed (even if I suppose she got a hefty check for ceding the rights).

Do explore her films, Mandryka! I very much liked Une aussi longue absence (not directed by her, but by Henri Colpi, the original script is by Duras, though) and, most particularly, Le navire Night (Duras at her most durasien IMHO).

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[AlberichUndHagen]

I've read Daniel Deronda for over 1/3 of it and enjoying it so much that I wonder why this is not usually considered among her very best novels. I have heard the criticism that the two plotlines seem like they are from two different novels and dont seem connected. So far I dont agree with that (although I do agree that Gwendolen's plotline is better written), I think there are parallels between Mirah and Gwendolen in their seeing the world as their enemy but from different reasons and they react to hostility in different ways. Mirah remains innocent and wide-eyed while Gwendolen is haughty though ultimately sympathetic.

Btw, while the book handles serious matters it is still full of extremely funny jokes and witticisms.

[Mandryka]

I've read Daniel Deronda for over 1/3 of it and enjoying it so much that I wonder why this is not usually considered among her very best novels. I have heard the criticism that the two plotlines seem like they are from two different novels and dont seem connected. So far I dont agree with that (although I do agree that Gwendolen's plotline is better written), I think there are parallels between Mirah and Gwendolen in their seeing the world as their enemy but from different reasons and they react to hostility in different ways. Mirah remains innocent and wide-eyed while Gwendolen is haughty though ultimately sympathetic.

Btw, while the book handles serious matters it is still full of extremely funny jokes and witticisms.

I didn't manage to finish it, but I did get as far as 1/3 I think,  and I wondered why it's rep isn't higher too. But either I got distracted or the book deteriorated and I just abandoned it less than half way through. From memory (this may be wrong) there's a load of stuff about zionism and it didn't capture my imagination. I await your reaction to the rest of the book with bated breath (well . . . not quite . . . but you know what I mean.)

[JBS]

I didn't manage to finish it, but I did get as far as 1/3 I think,  and I wondered why it's rep isn't higher too. But either I got distracted or the book deteriorated and I just abandoned it less than half way through. From memory (this may be wrong) there's a load of stuff about zionism and it didn't capture my imagination. I await your reaction to the rest of the book with bated breath (well . . . not quite . . . but you know what I mean.)

It's been a few years since I read Daniel Deronda, but I do think it's a better novel than most of her other novels, except for Middlemarch.  The zionism is a rather romanticized British thing.  Perhaps it would be better to call it Disraelism.

TD
Just started this

[vandermolen]

All the Light we Cannot See:

[SimonNZ]

I think Daniel Deronda is rated highly by the critics, its just less popular with the reading public.

Back when I read Eliot I thought Romola was an unexpected treat and deserved to be better known.

[Mandryka]

I'm scared I'm turning into a latter day Casaubon, with medieval music taking the place of biblical philiogy.

[SimonNZ]

Not if you're keeping up with the latest developments.

[Daverz]

All the Light we Cannot See:

Sounds really interesting, though I'm a bit disappointed it's not about infrared astronomy.

[AlberichUndHagen]

[j winter]

50 pages in, excellent so far....

[ritter]

Yes! That section of Remembrance... has possibly the most touching paragraph in prose I've ever read.  Hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. 

[AlberichUndHagen]

Yes! That section of Remembrance... has possibly the most touching paragraph in prose I've ever read.  Hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. 

Thanks, Rafael!  I would ask for that paragraph but I do know that Proust's paragraphs (and sentences, for that matter) can be awfully long (with all due respect to Proust, he is an amazing writer, even if verbose, ).

[ritter]

 

Let me know when you've finished the book, and I'll point you to that paragraph (which actually isn't that long  ).

[Mandryka]

The standard biography of Duras seems to be that by Laure Adler, originally published in 1998 with to popular success:


Then there's this book by Alain Vircondelet, which is actually in my library, that has a chapter called "Durasie", which (as per an amazon reviewer) deals with her imaginary reconstruction of her Far Eastern childhood (and which I might take a look at soon).


Note that both Adler and Vircondelet have each published other books on Duras, dealing with more specific issues of her life and/or work. Their biographies have been translated into English.

These are both at the Instut Francais library in London, and I intend to pick them up next time I'm in Kensington (Tuesday probably)

Yep, I was a bit surprised seeing you turning from L'amant to L'amante anglaise, as the latter is a novel (and play, but both derived from a much earlier theatre piece titled Les viaducs de la Seine-et-Oise) dealing with a particularly gruesome fait divers (based on actual newspaper reports from the late 40s), and is Duras in a completely different vein.

I haven't read L'amant de la Chine du Nord, which Duras wrote in reaction to the film that Jean-Jacques Annaud made of L'amant, which she publicly and notoriously disavowed (even if I suppose she got a hefty check for ceding the rights).

Do explore her films, Mandryka! I very much liked Une aussi longue absence (not directed by her, but by Henri Colpi, the original script is by Duras, though) and, most particularly, Le navire Night (Duras at her most durasien IMHO).

I've now seen Le navire night. And clearly this is an interesting film poem story. What I would like now -- and I'm kind of hoping you can point me to something -- is a book not about the structure (eg the relation between voice and image . . .) nor the genre, but the idea.

I know, dans mon for intérieur, that she has something really important to say about the human condition, but what exactly? (Remember I'm an analytic philosopher by training . . . )

Next time I hear a cat howling in the night I shall be overwhelmed with existential angst.

[Mandryka]

This is the new translation, which I've not read. I have very fond memories of Scott Moncrief, not least because of the pictures and the feel of the hardback books, but by all accounts the new one is more faithful.

Have you read Swann's Way, or are you starting with Jeunes filles en fleures? You really do have to know what Marcel sees through a window one day when he's taking a walk if you plan to make sense of the later novels.

[SimonNZ]

Let me know when you've finished the book, and I'll point you to that paragraph (which actually isn't that long  ).

I'd also be interested to know which paragraph that is.

The second book has a lot of whats most memorable and most enjoyable about the whole work...as befits a study of adolescence which creates so many of our most vivid memories.


oh, and currently reading:

[AlberichUndHagen]

This is the new translation, which I've not read. I have very fond memories of Scott Moncrief, not least because of the pictures and the feel of the hardback books, but by all accounts the new one is more faithful.

Have you read Swann's Way, or are you starting with Jeunes filles en fleures? You really do have to know what Marcel sees through a window one day when he's taking a walk if you plan to make sense of the later novels.

Yes, I've read Swann's way, finished it just recently. And the picture is not actually about the edition that I'm reading, for one, I'm reading it actually in Finnish. I thought using a picture about English edition would make it more understandable what I'm reading since I don't think too many people on this forum are fluent in Finnish. 

[Mandryka]

I'd also be interested to know which paragraph that is.

The second book has a lot of whats most memorable and most enjoyable about the whole work...as befits a study of adolescence which creates so many of our most vivid memories.

Oh but the best bits have to be those comic scenes with Charlus. Especially his relationship with Charles Morel.

This is maybe the difference between you and me, Simon. You read it for the poetic evocations of innocence. I read it for the sex and violence!