Proust (long sentences)

I am fond of pointing out that if Proust had been able to type his novel(s) into Microsoft Word the whole thing would have been underlined in green for the reason : 


long sentence (suggest revision)


Imagine if he HAD revised the sentences - there would be no Proust, his style would be dead.


Getting your head round the long sentences is one of the most challenging and important things about reading Proust.  Probably it's where a lot of people give up, because it is very difficult at first.


It's the endless parentheses, you see, which break up the sentence so that by the end of it, if you are able to get that far, and if you haven't given up in the way that so many readers do when faced with Proust's masterpiece, usually about the time they reach the third volume, by the end of it, and yes there may often be a small recap of what he just said in case you've forgotten, you may have forgotten what he was talking about.


Proust has to be not just read but re-read - as you go along as well as by volume.  You often have to start again at the beginning of the sentence and pick it apart - it's a manner of reading to which people are not very accustomed, but it does actually serve well as a method.


There's no rush - what else are you going to be reading?  Another work of comparable genius?   Good luck finding one.  Your brain is adaptable and will reach up to Proust's level if given the chance.  Talk about brain training - that is what a genius does.


Great writers have to be read a page, a setence, even a word at a time.  There is a sheer pleasure in the placing of one word next to another which can be forgotten about in the rush of plot and narrative which drives most fiction.


Proust provides an atmosphere - a sensual portrait of the universe, heavily laden with sights, sounds, and particularly smells.  He is the cosmic laureate of smell.


The basic point is : the length of the sentences captures the meandering nature of his own thought structure in the most perfect marriage of form and content yet achieved in the novel.


That's what the long sentences are really all about - and they are part of the joy of Proust.  I am discovering that joy anew and finding that 'In Search of Lost Time' just has more and more to give.