Gordon Wood Reading Proust

For Wood, to encounter Proust at all was the most important thing. He told us again what he had said to Will: he really wanted to read this novel before he died. And, standing next to him, his wife Louise confirmed. In fact, it had become something of a family project. When I asked which translation he chose, Wood grinned and said he could not remember—whichever one was on Project Gutenberg. (That’s Scott Moncrieff.)

As I drove home, I couldn’t get the image out of my head: the renowned American historian, seated at his computer or perhaps holding an iPad or a Kindle, on a seemingly infinite scroll through the great French novel of the last century. This was incredible. It made me want to read more, to study harder, to do the things I was put on this earth to do. I had to know more about this. Everyone had to.

The next morning I emailed him. Would he be interested in writing on reading Proust at ninety for The Lamp? His refusal was prompt, polite, but firm. He told me that this project was too “personal” for him to write about for a magazine audience. Besides, he said, “it would be pretentious of me to write about Proust when so many others have written so many great books on Proust.” And what difference would one more essay on Proust make? “It is amazing to me that Proust has so many commentators,” he concluded, “and I am only counting those in English.”

From a lovely blog published today at The Lamp after the sad news of Wood’s death.