Group Read: Proust Volume 4: Sodom and Gomorrah

Here is the thread for In Search of Lost Time Volume 4, Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust.

Our previous threads can be found here:

Volume 3 http://www.librarything.com/topic/258050
Volume 2 http://www.librarything.com/topic/250359
Volume 1 http://www.librarything.com/topic/245011

I'm about to go on vacation so I won't be starting this til late July or maybe August. I'm excited to hear how this is from those who start earlier.

Who's still on board?

Thanks for starting the thread Jennifer. I'm on board.

ETA Enjoy your holiday!

I'm well underway with Sodom and Gomorrah. The first section is concerned with Sodom, and we find out about Charlus's proclivities. Marcel gives his views on the different types of homosexual men and their relationships and is particularly amusing about effeminate men married to masculine women. (It's France in the 1920's, so I'm immersing myself in the book and suspending my 21st century judgments.)

At the moment we're in Balbec, and Marcel sees lesbians everywhere. He's concerned that Albertine's female friendships are not at all platonic, and it seems he could be right. I'm enjoying the comedy and Marcel's scathing self-assessments, and am astounded by the sheer number of gay and lesbian characters.

I'm still reading the Prendergast translations. This volume was translated by John Sturrock, who apparently stuck very close to the original French. I was stopping to re-read sentences that made no sense, but realised that they just didn't and re-reading didn't help, so now I'm trying to absorb the meaning without worrying about the grammar. This is the least readable of the translations so far, which is why I'm forging ahead. Can't afford to lose momentum. Sturrock is good with the comedy, though.

>4 pamelad: interesting to know a little of what to expect. Forging ahead seems like a good idea!

I'm still planning to start around the beginning of August.

I've finished! I read the other volumes interspersed with other books, but this time I read nothing but Sodom and Gomorrah and became immersed. I really enjoyed it. The Verdurins reappeared, as did Albertine and Charlus. Mme Verdurin is a monster! Her salons were very funny.

The translation was good in parts. The comedy came across clearly and often made me smile. Unfortunately, the long, reflective sentences were strung together with commas and dashes, some of which seemed to be in the wrong places, because even on multiple readings they made no sense to me. Another problem was the slabs of untranslated French that punctuated the text. I'm sure Sturrock had a good reason for leaving them like that, but I'm a reader, not an academic, so I became mightily fed up. Despite the translation problems, however, I was drawn right into Proust's world.

I'll leave the detailed comments for later, to avoid spoilers.

>6 pamelad: That was fast! Glad to hear you enjoyed it. I'll be starting soon.

I've started reading this volume. Again, I'm impressed with Proust's ability to keep track of so many characters in the party scenes.

I started too but it will take a long time as I only read about 50 pages in between other books and I am not taking it with me on vacation, which is about to start.
But I am having a hard time getting into the story again so I am glad with your encouraging posts, >6 pamelad:!

How is it going?

I'm about 2/3 through. For some reason I'm not connecting to it quite as much as the other volumes. I'm still enjoying it, but it seems like more of the same with all the various parties and more Albertine. It's interesting to see the narrator's take on homosexuality as it dawns on him that people who he knows are or might be gay. And I do like seeing the Verdurins again. So not bad, but maybe it's just feeling a little stale right now.

We are going on a short trip to the beach and I won't bring this with (not really a beach read!) so maybe a break will be good.

After an evening with our book group, I asked a friend his views on instituting a monologue alert after, say, five minutes of someone not letting anyone else get a word in. He said grin and bear it. So it amused me greatly to read about Charlus and some other baron carrying on parallel conversations without listening to one another, the more softly-spoken man droning in the pauses when Charlus stopped for breath. Aiming to be observant, accepting and amused in a Proustian way.

Perhaps the humour comes across more clearly in the new translations. I found a lot of this volume very funny.

Started The Captive.

I'm stalled out after a ton of traveling, but going to recommit soon! I'll will put up two more threads - one for volume 5&6 combined (they are both relatively short and often bound together) and one for volume 7 and final thoughts. I'll try to do this in the next few days. I'll post here when it's done!

Hi Jennifer, I've set it up, following the same format as this thread. I hope that's OK. I have a lot more spare time than you do! Here's the link: https://www.librarything.com/topic/268170

I'm over two-thirds of the way through The Prisoner.

>15 pamelad: fantastic, thanks! Feel free to do the final thread also if you get there first. I'm just about to hit a less busy stretch and I'm planning to start volume 4 up again today.

I'm officially back to reading volume 4. I realized I actually only have about 200 pages left and with the kids back in school now and a light work week, I should be able to finish this week.

I've not been able to enjoy this volume quite as much as the previous ones, but I'm pretty sure it's because I've been reading so sporadically. I've learned that I need to make sure I have the time to really focus on it when I start a new volume.

I am finding several things interesting though. I loved the two contrasting parties here, the Princess Guermantes as the apex of society vs. the Verdurins again. It's interesting to contrast the conversation in the two different levels of society. I also thought that the narrator's grief for his grandmother that hits him when he returns to Balbec was very true to life.

I'm not as interested in all the discussion of language and word origin, though some of it is pretty funny.

I found the same thing about reading in bits and pieces - couldn't get involved, found it hard to pick the book up again after a break, lost track of the characters and events. I've found that by reading just the Proust, rather than two or three books simultaneously, I become immersed in Marcel's life.

I was amused by Mme. Verdurin's cluelessness regarding Charlus's backgound and social position. I think that choosing a person as decadent as Charlus as the link between the Verdurins and the Guermantes is an indication of what the two social sets have in common. Both groups seem pretty nasty to me, with Oriane and Mme Verdurin being particularly vicious.

>18 pamelad: I like that observation about Charlus as the link between the two parties. Interesting to ponder.

I've finished this volume. I had more trouble with it because I took so long to read it, but when I think back over it, there's so much that happens and it's really interesting.

I'd like to get back to Robert Saint-Loup, Gilberte, and Odette. I got a little tired of Charlus's antics.

I loved how the volume ends sort of with a cliff-hanger the narrator saying he must marry Albertine. Interested to see how that develops.

I saw that this was the last volume that Proust was able to oversee in publication because he died shortly after it was released. I wonder if we'll see any difference in subsequent volumes.

>19 japaul22: Congratulations on finishing.

I have come across a few oddities in The Prisoner e.g. a deceased person appears to be alive and kicking a few pages later. Overall though, the problems caused by the editors' having to assemble the book from notes weren't glaring. Perhaps Proust would have tightened up some sections e.g Marcel carries on at great length about his relationship with Albertine, but then again, the repetition and obsessiveness might be the point. The main difference I notice about the last 3 volumes is that they're shorter!

I'm going to Italy on Monday for five weeks, and will see how I feel about starting The Fugitive. Proust and Italy might go well together, but maybe not.

I am back reading this one as well. I just finished the long and to me rather boring part of the salons (although I understand its importante in describing the changing society in which the intellectuals take over from aristocracy) and am now back in Balbec. I am looking forward to this change of scene!

Well, I won't be finishing the series in 2017 but I hope to finish this book before New Year's!

Still at it...about to start volume 4.

Good on you!