I inherited a lovely three volume pocket sized War and Peace printed on India paper by the OUP. I just checked and it had been reprinted three times in the war (mine is from 1944). So paper rationing had its uses after all.
I was told by a Russian to only read the war parts of War & Peace, the peace parts are "boring". So yes, why not multi part novels so we can skip the boring bits!
I'd love a book of Proust that consisted of all the great party scenes with an introduction of where we are in the plot, such as it is. Those scenes are my favorites. I'd buy that book and "go" to one of the parties from time to time.
I think it gets harder to have stand-alone sections, the deeper you go in the book. All of Swann In Love works as a standalone novel. We’d need a Proust scholar to tell us what was possible and palatable.
Loved your ‘priggish footnote’. Fanny Price has the bravest, most loving heart. I can imagine the MP amateur dramatics theatre bit working well as a modern setting ‘at home with the Bertrams’ and Fanny is the only one who refuses to be filmed for broadcast on YouTube.
Delighted to hear you’re on Team Fanny! It was startling to discover how much more I admired her when reading MP in my 40s compared to my early 20s.
Austen’s best heroine
I inherited a lovely three volume pocket sized War and Peace printed on India paper by the OUP. I just checked and it had been reprinted three times in the war (mine is from 1944). So paper rationing had its uses after all.
Oh nice. There was a bit of a W&P boom in WWII. It was common to see people reading it on the underground or at lunchtime in restaurants.
yes, more anthologies! and more hilarious footnotes!
I do plan on more footnotes…
I was told by a Russian to only read the war parts of War & Peace, the peace parts are "boring". So yes, why not multi part novels so we can skip the boring bits!
Such a bad opinion the peace parts are amazing!!
I'd love a book of Proust that consisted of all the great party scenes with an introduction of where we are in the plot, such as it is. Those scenes are my favorites. I'd buy that book and "go" to one of the parties from time to time.
They do read the Conbray section as a novella in France I think. Why not with other parts??
I think it gets harder to have stand-alone sections, the deeper you go in the book. All of Swann In Love works as a standalone novel. We’d need a Proust scholar to tell us what was possible and palatable.
Loved your ‘priggish footnote’. Fanny Price has the bravest, most loving heart. I can imagine the MP amateur dramatics theatre bit working well as a modern setting ‘at home with the Bertrams’ and Fanny is the only one who refuses to be filmed for broadcast on YouTube.
Omg yes that’s so right.