Sodom and Gomorrah by M. Proust


finished 10/20 ....... classic French ......... rating 10

This is an excellent novel with 6 or 7 books. I'm through with 4 of them now and plan to finish them all by the end of the year. This one concerns Marcel's love and jealousy regarding Albertine but there are lots of jealousies in the book - from social so sexual to talent and beauty. Proust is such a totally keen observer of human nature and behavior. Language is a theme, and homosexuality with it's somewhat different approach to being "seen." The tragic subjectivity of love - the way the loved one is never as she/he appears to us in our minds. Disappointment, betrayal, unrequited love, the degradation which sometimes comes, all of it.

In the second book, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, Marcel vacationed at Balbec and in Sodom and Gomorrah he recalls the experience on a vacation there where he again meets Albertine. Lovely stuff.

Posted: Sun - October 19, 2008 at 03:35 PM        

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