In Search Of Lost Time, Volume 2: Within A Budding Grove (Modern Library)-used

1. Time Is A Central Concern For Proust, Appearing First In The Title And Last As The Final Word Of The Novel. What Is His Vision Of The Past? Does He Have A Vision Of The Present? The Future? Can The Narrator Be Said To Be Living In The Past? Is He Like The White Queen In Through The Lookingglass , With Jam Tomorrow And Jam Yesterday But Never Jam Today? 2. The Renowned Translator Of Proust, C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Originally Grouped The Opening Section Of In Search Of Lost Time Under The Title The Overture, Which Includes Two Famous Passages, The Good Night Kiss And The Evocative Taste Of The Madeleine. Does This Seem Apt? If So, How Might This Fiftyodd Page Beginning Prefigure What Will Transpire Later? What Would You Expect To Follow, Given That An Overture Usually Introduces The Main Themes Of A Musical Work? What Does It Suggest About Prousts Conception Of Literature And Music? 3. The Episode Of The Good Night Kiss Strikes Some Readers As Odd Or Contradictory: The Narrators Need For A Kiss Seems Almost Infantile, While His Power Of Observation Seems Extraordinarily Precocious. Considering That He Is Sent To Bed At Eight Oclock, How Old Do You Think The Narrator Is? Is It Significant That His Father Suggests The Narrator Be Given The Kiss He Craves, Whereas His Mother Is Reluctant, Saying We Mustnt Let The Child Get Into The Habit . . .? Is The Fact That The Narrator Succeeds In Getting The Kiss He Wants A Good Thing Or A Bad Thing? Why? 4. The Whole Of Prousts World Comes Out Of A Teacup, Observed Samuel Beckett. Indeed The Episode Of The Madeleine Dipped In Tea Is The First (And Most Famous) Of Numerous Instances Of Involuntary Memory In The Novel. A Recognized Psychological Phenomenon Triggered By Smells, Tastes, Or Sounds, Involuntary Memory Vividly Reproduces Emotions, Sensations, Or Images From The Past. Why Do You Think Readers And Critics Universally Consider This Scene To Be Pivotal? What Does The Narrator Think About The Experience Of Involuntary Memory? What Might Its Function Be In The Scheme Of In Search Of Lost Time ? 5. Another Emblematic Theme Involves The Recurring Little Phrase Of Music By Vinteuil That Catches The Ear Of Swann At The Verdurins Salon And Steals Into His Life. How Do Vinteuils Compositions Stir Both Swann And The Narrator? In Prousts Scheme Of Things, Is Music A Higher Art Than Painting Or Writing Because It Can Produce Involuntary Memories? How Does Involuntary Memory Affect Writing And Painting? Is It Unrelated To Art Except As A Necessary Catalyst? 6. In Combray We Are Introduced To The Narrators Family, Their Household, And Their Country Home. Since Paris Is The True Heart Of Upperclass France, Why Do You Think Proust Chose To Begin In Search Of Lost Time Elsewhere? What Do We Learn From The Narrators Description Of His Familys Life And Habits? Is The Household Dominated By Men Or By Women? Does The Narrators Account Seem Accurate, Or Is It Colored By His Own Ideas And Preoccupations? 7. A Madeleine Dipped Into A Cup Of Tea First Impelled Proust Into The Remembrance Of Things Past. Though Proust Was A Gourmet In His Youth, In The Final Years Of His Life He Subsisted Mainly On Fillets Of Sole, Chicken, Fried Potatoes, Ice Cream, Cakes, Fruit, And Iced Beer. Consider How Food And Culinary Happenings From Meals At The Restaurant In The Grand Hotel In Balbec To Dinners At La Raspeli?E And The Guermantess In Paris Form An Integral Part Of The Work. 8. Swanns Way And The Guermantes Way Are Presented As Mutually Exclusive Choices For Promenades, With Swanns Way Given Primacy Of Place At The Novels Outset. Where, Metaphorically Speaking, Does Swanns Way Seem To Lead? What Are The Aesthetic Signposts And Milestones The Narrator Points Out? What Does The Landscape Around Combray Represent? 9. I Want My Work To Be A Sort Of Cathedral In Literature, Proust Once Said. In His Description Of The Area Around Combray And In Many Other Places In The Novel