i told ben: "i'm having a hard time not just picking up proust and starting it all over again." and he said, "why not do it then?" but i think i'll enjoy it more if i wait a little longer -- after all, i've only been not reading it for about as long as it took me to read it.
there is a short story collection, and there is jean fanueil, which i saw a copy of at the book trader and didn't get. tant pis pour moi! i'm reading nothing french now and i'm missing it a lot.
the day after her 33d birthday, amber resolved to read balzac's comédie humaine, consisting of over a hundred short stories and novels, many of which are no longer in print.
(here is an illustration for the comédie humaine, by aubrey beardsley, ca. 1895. i was terrorized throughout my childhood by aubrey beardsley drawings which decorated the staircase at the home of a strange aunt of mine.)
the balzac thing didn't go so well for amber. she didn't understand why she didn't like balzac the way she had loved proust, hugo, flaubert. she still doesn't understand why.
pourquoi? she asked, beating her breast.
so then she decided toalter this journal to be one focused on 19th century french lit -- not just balzac. but not avoiding him entirely, either!
welcome. we're back.
the statistics on this site show me that this is in fact one of the 25 most visited pages on notsoswift.com. so, someone somewhere is reading this.
i've turned on comments for this post. feel free to share. is there a specific novel, or group of novels, or translations, of individual works from the CH that would get me started? i'm a little surprised; i devoured proust, got lost in the unabridged les miserables, and am getting my feet wet with flaubert. why don't i get into the balzac the same way?
thoughtful comments and personal experiences will be most appreciated.
i started "a harlot high and low". there isn't a title to which this corresponds exactly on the sidebar list. i'm guessing Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes is it. and in guessing so, notice that perhaps that sidebar list looks four times as long in general as it really is, because the four separate "parts" of "harlot" are listed over there on the sidebar by their separate titles as well. "esther happy", etc. see what i mean?
i read a few pages of this and i have retained absolutely nothing. it's a penguin classics edition: is it possible that this translation is not up my alley? when i looked at the other library volume i had borrowed, "cousin bette", it states boldly on the back that the novel is "the culmination of balzac's comedie humaine. not where the list i've got is concerned!
so, out of order as they are, these volumes are going straight back. i have located plenty of volumes with the next few stories i "need" in them, but am loathe to spend the fifteen dollars it would take to get them. because i am bored and want to read something else.
i'm going to wait a little longer, for divine inspiration, but i'm taking no active steps to return to this project right now. this journal may grow cold.
whatever can be said about balzac, he's no marcel proust.