[Vwoolf] Woolf and Proust ("My great adventure is really Proust")

Kimberly Coates kimbec at bgsu.edu
Wed Aug 7 16:04:22 EDT 2013


Hi, Erica et al:

Woolf uses the expression "the nerves of language" in reference to Proust in a letter to Roger Fry [Saturday, 6 May 1922]: "Last night I started on Vol 2 [Jeunes Filles en Fleurs] of him (the novel) and propose to sink myself in it all day. [. . . ] But Proust so titillates my own desire for expression that I can hardly set out the sentence. Oh if I could write like that! I cry. And at the moment such is the astonishing vibration and saturation and intensification that he procures—theres something sexual in it—that I feel I can write like that, and seize my pen and then I can't write like that. Scarcely anyone so stimulates the nerves of language in me: it becomes an obsession. But I must return to Swann" (Letters II 525).

Good luck with the Proust Celebration! And cheers to you all! I'm fresh back from a trip to London/Sussex/Paris; I saw Charleston and Monk's House for the first time (long overdue!), walked the downs, and filled my eyes and ears with the sights and sounds I've read about for so many years. Those of you attending MSA in Sussex, if you haven't had the experience of walking that landscape, pack your trekking shoes and do so! The play of the light and wind on the grasses yields a kaleidoscope of color that must be experienced. It was an exhilarating trip! I wish I were returning at the end of August but just couldn't make both the trip and the conference happen in the same summer. But I do look very, very forward to going back sometime soon!

Best wishes to all as you ready for the fast approaching new academic year!

Cheers,
Kim


Kimberly Coates, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
Affiliate Faculty Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies/American Culture Studies
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403
Office Phone: 419-372-9189


From: Sunjoo Lee <abgrund at naver.com<mailto:abgrund at naver.com>>
Reply-To: Sunjoo Lee <abgrund at naver.com<mailto:abgrund at naver.com>>
Date: Saturday, August 3, 2013 11:48 PM
To: Erica Delsandro <ericadelsandro at gmail.com<mailto:ericadelsandro at gmail.com>>, "vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>" <vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Woolf and Proust ("My great adventure is really Proust")


This one must be the best known and most cited "Woolf on Proust" (and the only one that came my mind):



My great adventure is really Proust. Well--what remains to be written after that? I'm only in the first volume, and there are, I suppose, faults to be found, but I am in a state of amazement; as if a miracle were being done before my eyes. How, at last, has someone solidified what has always escaped--and made it too into this beautiful and perfectly enduring substance?  One has to put the book down and gasp. The pleasure becomes physical--like sun and wine and grapes and perfect serenity and intense vitality combined. Far otherwise is it with Ulysses.



(from a letter to Roger Fry, Oct. 3, 1922)



The notes I made on this letter say that Pericles Lewis makes a quote from it in his "Proust, Woolf, and Modern Fiction."

I used to listen a lot to de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life as read by Sam West, and remember how West made that sentence, "One has to put the book down and gasp," immensely intriguing with his reading. It was as if he let me know the meaning of the word "gasp" by saying it.



I wrote this down just so we can have a passage from Woolf.

I wish I could have more.



Sunjoo



-----Original Message-----
From: "Erica Delsandro"<ericadelsandro at gmail.com<mailto:ericadelsandro at gmail.com>>
To: <vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>>;
Cc:
Sent: 2013-08-04 (일) 07:57:56
Subject: [Vwoolf] Woolf and Proust


Hello Woolfians!

My university is hosting a Proust Celebration this fall and I was asked to give a short talk on Woolf and Proust. Admittedly, I know much more about the former than the latter, and thus explained to the organization committee that my talk would be heavy on Woolf and light on Proust!

I turn to the Woolf community for any suggestions regarding texts that might help me put together a light, interesting, and engaging presentation on Woolf and Proust. Please respond off list to ericadelsandro at gmail.com<mailto:ericadelsandro at gmail.com>.

Thank you so much! All very best -- Erica Delsandro
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