Patrick O'Connor
Lettres De Cachet
Marcel Proust: Selected Letters Volume 2 1904–1909
By Philip Kolb (ed) (Translated by Terence Kilmartin)
Collins 482pp £25
One mid-July evening in the summer of 1975, I was attending a performance of Rossini’s opera Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra in the Roman amphitheatre at Aries. The moon had risen, and whilst the players of the orchestra were tuning their instruments, I overheard from the row in front an elderly gentleman reply to some question from one of his companions: ‘J’ai vu Marcel Proust trois fois dans ma jeunesse’. The buzz of conversation and the noise of the cellos and trumpets obscured whatever else he said. I wanted to lean forward and ask, ‘What was he like?’
Aesthete, snob, invalid, obsessed genius- and humorist, he might have replied. This selection comes from volumes four to nine of the compleat correspondence, published in France and also edited by Philip Kolb. These five years are crucial for the beginning of Proust’s work on A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. In April 1904, as he was about to shut himself away from the spring pollen that aggravated his asthma, Proust was sent a present of Japanese paper flowers that open under water and which were to figure in one of the most celebrated passages in Swann’s Way as he compares their flowering to the awakening of his memory.
Proust was not much in the habit of celebrating Christmas; then, as now, the night of St Silvestre, New Year’s Eve, was with its promise of the year to come, more of a festivity. Yet, as in the pages concerning Mme Swann at home, he enjoyed the comedy of the
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm