Monday 3 May:
Seeing a woman briefly while travelling past; whether stopping would only be a let down; fear of boisterous young women; drunkeness; pursuing your desires; procrastination; monsters and gods — adolescence was the only time we ever learnt anything…
Saturday 15 May:
Francoise reminds me of Laurie Lee’s mother.
Tuesday 6 April:
Going slowly this morning on the bike along my usual route through Carlton I passed, as I must have done 100 times before without noticing it, an old house with ‘Combray’ across its crest.
Saturday 8 May:
“The steps of thought which we take during the lonely work of artistic creation all lead us downwards, deeper into ourselves, the only direction we can advance…towards an outcome of truth.“
Monday 28 June:
Saint Loup tells Marcel an idea that Marcel had previously told Saint Loup. This is what S. does to me all the time!
Thursday 22 July:
Much of Proust is to do with how we remember the past, but this section of the Guermantes Way (p.388) has been reflecting on how we anticipate the future, and how, when it arrives, it is not what we thought or hoped for.
Monday 26 July:
“The quality of a book, a house, a salon, depends essentially on what you exclude.”
Tuesday 27 July:
My god this has been tedious, this last section, analysing the Guermantes salon and that of the Princess of Parma. Having to stop myself skipping ahead.
Thursday 29 July:
I’m enjoying his detailed explication of Madame de Guermantes’ character. I’ve thought from the start that Proust mocks the idle rich (and others) without rancour, and without the satire falling into absurdity.
