Book Description
Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is one of the most entertaining reading experiences in any language and arguably the finest novel of the twentieth century. But since its original prewar translation there has been no completely new version in English. Now, Penguin Classics brings Proust's masterpiece to new audiences throughout the world, beginning with Lydia Davis's internationally acclaimed translation of the first volume, Swann's Way.
Customer Reviews:
Immerse yourself in a rich, dense world of descriptive thought.......2007-08-31
I think people make too much of the 'difficulty' of Proust's writing, and I'm no over-educated super-literary snob, either (probably sufficiently proven in this sentence alone). Don't be scared off by the reviews claiming to have not been able to get through it. Sure you need to concentrate, hopefully without interruption, while reading Proust, but is that so bad? Isn't that a big part of what reading is all about?
Swann's Way is a rich and elegant tapestry, reflected nicely in the beautiful new cover design. It feels like a volume of pure thought of the first order - ruminative, peripatetic, placid, and somehow effortless and simple, despite the highly embroidered language. However, the language is not merely complex for complexity's sake, but to convey the intricacy of the thought therein, and, when combined with the gentle, steady pacing from which Proust never wavers, creates the feeling of wisdom itself unfolding on the page. It is a welcome antidote to the concoctions of the most "brilliant" contemporary authors being trumpeted today, that often leave you with nothing other than a fleeting amazement at the cleverness of the author.
After every reading session I felt richer and wiser, and more able to face the world with the same thoughtfulness that the narrator does (this doesn't mean that I was able to, mind you, just felt so). To me that's what reading is all about, and if that's wrong...then I don't wanna be right.
Unreadable.......2007-07-30
This was not a book I could pick up and read. Although I read the intro and a study guide and was keenly anticipating reading one of the greatest books ever written, I was unable to. I read the first Combray twice and still did not understand sections I had read. I felt defeated, disappointed, and stupid. The book, for me, requires intense concentration - no distractions or noise while reading - a virtually impossible scenario in my world. After reading the synopsis in the back of the book I wasn't sure I would want to pursue this even in a study group or classroom situation. It sounded dry and boring and I'm not sure it would be worth the effort for me.
something you should simply do..........2007-06-04
Reading Proust is one of those things that simply should be done. Swann's Way is 400+ pages of almost unbelievable prose, a river, a torrent of words, phrases, paragraphs that sweeps you along through it seemingly without conscious effort or care to the all too quick end.
This book is simply staggering, I can't think of any other way to describe it or explain it. It simply must be read.
There is an old saying that everyone should see Paris before they die. The same sentiment is true for Proust - you should simply do it.
Fine translation..........2007-03-01
Before reading Lydia Davis's translation, I'd wandered half-way into Scott Moncrieff's original version before getting lost. I'd read a review of this edition by Christopher Hitchens, who faults Davis's prose in comparison to Moncrieff/Kilmartin's. I feel however, that Proust's sentence-construction is so complex that the modernized language is a tremendous asset. This is a fine introduction to Proust; it comes with an introductory essay, a complete set of notes (which is very much needed), and a brief synopsis at the back (which could actually be a little more thorough).
compare the translations first!.......2007-02-21
Just as a general note with Proust translations, compare them in a bookstore before you buy any of them.
There is the original C.K. Scott Moncrieff translation, which is beautiful, though based on a flawed edition put together shortly after Proust's death (especially the later books in the set).
Then there is Terrence Kilmartin's revision, which is based on a much better French edition. You can still find editions of this used, and occasionally new as well. I prefer this one, as Kilmartin didn't change most of the truly beautiful language that Moncrieff rendered except in a few places to clarify confusing sentences.
D.J. Enright, who worked with Kilmartin, made further revisions after the latter's death, whose work (so he says) was incomplete. His reworking is based on yet an even newer edition of the French text, though with fewer changes than the previous French edition had from the original. I feel that Enright modernized the language too much. He claims French hasn't changed much as a language compared to English since the early 20th Century, so to approximate how it would read to a French person today, it needs to be put into more comtemporary language. I don't care for it personally.
I've read some of these other, altogether new translations, which is a good effort considering the potential for incoherence you might have reading a revision of a revision of a translation (whew!). They're not bad, but nowhere near as much of a "new standard" as, say, the Pevear-Volokhonsky translations of Dostoevsky, which give the reader a clearer original while still using beautiful and idiomatic English.
But back to Proust. Decide for yourself! Compare an old version of Moncrieff's translation to his revisors, and then check out these new ones published by Penguin.
And better yet, if you understand French at all, look at a French copy and just absorb the rhythm, the flow of the words, and find a translation that feels the same.
I can't tell you how many times I've spoken to people who hated foreign books in translation, only to find out they read a translation that reads like a textbook and not like something that was meant to be enjoyed!!
Book Description
XML in Flash is an excellent introduction to creating state-of-the-art Flash applications with XML. XML is quickly becoming the most popular way to store and manage data. Flash's XML Socket makes it possible to network Flash front-ends to an application server. This allows developers to use a Flash interface for applications such as message boards, real-time chats, surveys, news feeds, and games.
XML in Flash begins by illustrating the basics of XML and the Flash XML Object. In Part I, Flash is used as a teaching aid as you learn the basics of Flash/XML integration. Part II covers how Flash works with middleware languages, such as PHP and ASP, as well as performance and optimization. You will also create a Flash message board with a database. Part III delves into the advantages of XMLSocket. Hands-on projects include creating a stock market ticker to receive XML data from servers. Finally, the appendixes include invaluable reference information on XML, XMLNode objects, and XMLSocket objects, as well as Frequently Asked Questions.
The example applications also illustrate the key concepts necessary for understanding the Flash/XML relationship. You will be able to use the applications on the accompanying Web site regardless of whether or not you spend the time to read and learn about their inner workings.
Download Description
XML in Flash is an excellent introduction to creating state-of-the-art Flash applications with XML. XML is quickly becoming the most popular way to store and manage data. Flash's XML Socket makes it possible to network Flash front-ends to an application server. This allows developers to use a Flash interface for applications such as message boards, real-time chats, surveys, news feeds, and games. XML in Flash begins by illustrating the basics of XML and the Flash XML Object. In Part I, Flash is used as a teaching aid as you learn the basics of Flash/XML integration. Part II covers how Flash works with middleware languages, such as PHP and ASP, as well as performance and optimization. You will also create a Flash message board with a database. Part III delves into the advantages of XMLSocket. Hands-on projects include creating a stock market ticker to receive XML data from servers. Finally, the appendixes include invaluable reference information on XML, XMLNode objects, and XMLSocket objects, as well as Frequently Asked Questions. The example applications also illustrate the key concepts necessary for understanding the Flash/XML relationship. You will be able to use the applications on the accompanying Web site regardless of whether or not you spend the time to read and learn about their inner workings.
Customer Reviews:
Slick and detailed.......2002-10-25
If you are new to coding, and want to learn about the XML objects in Flash, and how they interact with PHP, ASP and Java, this book will more than get you started. Very well commented source code also.
No support.......2002-08-07
To be fair, I am giving them 3 stars. I purchased this book months ago to get me started with XML in Flash. I have not read the whole book, and gave up rather easily. I am not saying the book is bad, I just wanted to say that if you tell your readers the web site will be an "invaluble resource for learning the ins and outs of using XML in Flash" you might want to offer more than just the source code.
"[URL]will also have message boards and Frequently Asked Questions so you can find quick answers to any questions that need answering."
Please go to the website and look for yourself.
[URL]
The page was last modified 3/25/2002 and here it is months later.
Excellent Book, but full of Errors.......2002-07-25
This book is a MUST HAVE if you plan on working with XML within Flash. The book covers all the details of working with ActionScript and XML. I started out with little knowledge of ActionScript and working with the ActionScript associated with Flash's XML objects and methods. The authors explain almost every thing so clearly, that you understand not only how to work with the XML objects and methods, but how to work with ActionScript. I've found that there are quite a few errors that cause things not to work, which kind of bugged. But with my new knowledge was able to correct the bugs. .... I gave it 4 stars because it was enjoyable learning, easy to understand and I was able to do what I wanted...Learn XML in Flash, I would have given it a +5 if the errors wouldn't have been there.
Excellent book!.......2002-01-22
I bought this book not knowing what to expect, the description promised quite a bit of know-how was contained within. Pleased to say it was well worth it. Prior to getting this book, I'd gotten good with ActionScript and JavaScript but to hook Flash up with any back-end scripting or XML for my clients I've always been calling other people to consult and half the time had to just go with HTML instead.
I always had a fear of any of those 3-letter languages (ASP/PHP) since the few books I'd gotten on them were way to heavy on programming theory and usually lacking on real world examples, and definitely never had an example of how to connect those things to Flash! There's a good sampling of how to effectively use XML with Flash and working through the examples let me finally understand many concepts that previously had been just out of my grasp.
Up to the Mark!!.......2002-01-20
XML in Flash begins by illustrating the basics of XML and the Flash XML Object.
In Part I, Flash is used as a teaching aid as you learn the basics of Flash/XML integration.
Part II covers how Flash works with middleware languages, such as PHP and ASP, as well as performance and optimization. You will also create a Flash message board with a database. Part
III delves into the advantages of XMLSocket. Hands-on projects include creating a stock market ticker to receive XML data from servers. Finally, the appendixes include invaluable reference information on XML, XMLNode objects, and XMLSocket objects, as well as Frequently Asked Questions.
The example applications also illustrate the key concepts necessary for understanding the Flash/XML relationship.
Average customer rating:
- Good story
- Fun book, BUt Soapy
- Maybe my expectations got in the way?
- wonderful novella of rural hippie childhood
- Great at evoking a very specific time and place, otherwise too ethereal
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Flower Children
Maxine Swann
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Contemporary
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| Literature & Fiction
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Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
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Family Saga
| Genre Fiction
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Historical
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ASIN: 1594489459
Release Date: 2007-05-10 |
Book Description
From an award-winning writer: an elegant, lively, moving novel that portrays the strangely celebrated and unsupervised childhood of four hippie offspring in the seventies and eighties.
When Flower Children's first chapter was published as a short story in 1997, it announced the arrival of a new literary voice: it won every literary prize applicable (the Ploughshares' Cohen Award, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize) and was included in the 1998 Best American Short Stories. Now, Maxine Swann expands and continues that story, bringing its four sibling characters through to the other end of childhood, in a much-anticipated book that only Swann could write.
Based on the author's own family, Flower Children is the amusing, moving, beautifully painted story of four children growing up in rural Pennsylvania, the offspring of devoutly hippie parents. Impossibly at odds with their surroundings, the children find themselves both delighted and unnerved by a life without limits. A swing hangs in the middle of the living room. The children run free all day, dance naked in the rain, and go riding on ponies with the boys who live up the road. But as their childhood is celebrated, the freedoms their parents have given them have also compromised their innocence. In time, their world starts to collapse. The parents split. Puberty hits. The children are mortified by what they know and have seen. They long for structure, normalcy, restraint: the very things their parents have avoided.
Haunting and celebratory by turns, Flower Children is at once a portrait of childhood's unbridled joy and the story of a unique generation. Ann Patchett recently selected another excerpt of the novel to appear in the 2006 Best American Short Stories.
Customer Reviews:
Good story.......2007-10-10
This book was a good read; an interesting insight to growing up with hippie-type parents. Maxine Swann is a candid storyteller, and I look forward to reading more of her stories.
Fun book, BUt Soapy.......2007-09-14
I had a lot of fun reading this, but I expected more historical fiction about flower children. Never-the-less, a good read.-- Sam Yulish, author of "Where Have All the Hippies Gone?" and "The Hesitant Psychic."
Maybe my expectations got in the way?.......2007-08-01
When I heard about this book, I got really excited. Thinking that it might give me the kind of glimpse into the so called 'counter culture' that maybe I'd never heard about before.
I also liked that this was a 'smaller' book--thinking that I'd really get into this and get through this. (You know, a 'quick summer read'?)
Well, I got through this alright, but that's not saying very much. And that's not saying what I would've wanted to say!
Because the book, though well crafted--I appreciated the author's approach in telling her book in first and third person point of views--because some times that's the only way you can tell your story, the actual content of the story left me kind of out of it.
I mean, how the story unfolds--with their parents taking them to concerts and protests--THIS I would've wanted to see more of, or at least, SEE. Only these types of adventures are only told in a sentence or two. (Very early on in the book, the author goes to the trouble of 'telling' the readers a lot of stuff, without much thought to actually 'showing' us--and that's very frustrating--in that you're left wanting so much more from all this 'telling'.)
And the things that the author decides to elaborate on--like the part when the father takes his children out to see his parents and siblings, it's presented very episodically, without very much point to the progression of the story. I mean, you learn that his family is maybe eccentric and that their eccentric ways need to be straightened out, or maybe they'll lose their house, but so what?
I didn't see where all this really connected much to the story. I mean, in the story that I wanted to read, everything would've had something to do with the children. And how everything impacted them. And how they felt about living this hippie way of life in this very colorful time.
Only, I don't think any of this came out. Or at least, not that I could tell?
Either way, the novel picks up towards the end with the chapter entitled--Secret. When I read this, I finally thought 'YES' this is what this story should be about--FINALLY we're getting something about the kids! And I really liked this. (Too bad, it was the next to last chapter.)
I mean, with a title like 'Flower Children', it could've said so much more and went into sooo many different directions. I think it's just a shame that it really didn't.
All in all, the only thing that I'm left to say is that this novel read like a memoir. I mean, a real memoir--with not too much to punch it up.
Not at all what I had expected. :(
wonderful novella of rural hippie childhood.......2007-07-15
If you know what you're getting, this is a wonderful book. A novella expanded from a prize-winning short story, this sparse, evocative book transports you, not to a blow-by-blow, realistic account of such a childhood, but to a mood. Told from the viewpoint of a wise child, like Donna Tartt's "The Little Friend" or John Irving's "Until I Find You," you root for the kids against the irresponsible, unjust adults. Not recommended for education reformers or social scientists who just want data, facts, or objective reporting. The tone is mostly that of longing for a world-gone-by, not only of childhood, but for a special one, one perhaps impossible to re-create for any other children.
Great at evoking a very specific time and place, otherwise too ethereal.......2007-07-07
I could picture the world evoked in parts of this book very well. I grew up in a similar time and place to the children here---among hippies with kids and tough troubled natives of a rural area. I think the characters here are written to a bit of an extreme---the hippies are more out there, the natives mostly seem to border on psychotic or sociopaths---but I recognized the general picture. The parents, rich kids who rejected their background, are also fairly believable, yet again, done to extremes.
However, the book seems to me to try too hard to be artsy and ethereal. The point of view changes all the time---sometimes it's a "we" for all four kids, sometimes a specific kid---and this isn't really necessary for the narrative. The various boyfriends and girlfriends of the parents drift in and out, without always seeming to serve any role in the book. The children's personalities never become distinct, and their reactions to startling events never seem true to life. There are too many neighbors to keep track of, each with a tiny cameo. In general, the book is a bit of a mess---a pretty mess, an interesting mess partly, but a mess, like the father's apartment always is.
Book Description
Arranged for Piano/Guitar With Lyrcis.
Customer Reviews:
Songs of Flanders and Swann.......2007-03-10
Through their musical revues and recordings, Flanders and Swann made these songs popular during the late 1950s and through the 1960s. The songs are inoffensive and gentle but very witty. Although some of the people mentioned may have passed into history, their satirical humour still hits home. A fan will be pleased with the extensive list of titles found here - all of my favorites were included. Swann did not write down what he played but the arrangements here are very playable and will please anyone who has heard their recordings or saw them perform on stage or on television. I don't see the paperback binding holding up too long with hard use at the keyboard so I plan to spiral bind mine.
I was thrilled to find the book back in print and available in the United States and I am very pleased to own it.
The Songs of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann .......2007-01-10
Witty and entertaining in that delightfully gentle British style. Songs like the Hippopotamus and Gnu as well as An Ill Wind and Madiera still amuse people of all ages who hear them for the first time. A book for the lovers of clever humour.
Gentle Musical Satire.......2002-04-01
Their last hat dropped in 1968 and 9 years passed before the words and music of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann were finally published. Donald had never written down the music and played the shows extemporaneously from the lyrics; Michael thought the songs "wouldn't sound like much anyhow" taken out of the show's context, so the collection wasn't completed until two years after his death. It went out of print in the mid 1980's and was finally re-released in 1996. Forty years after the premier of "At the Drop of A Hat", the best comic songs of the 20th century are back in print.
In his forward, Donald claims some music is written exactly as he played it ("Misalliance," "The Armadillo," "The Sloth," and "The Whale"); some had "adaptations to make them easier"; and some are made "as accessible as possible for the clever-but-casual pianist . . . enabling even a learner pianist to have a go." However, even when simplified, Donald's harmonies, progressions, and key changes are still fresh and new, and pianists of all skill levels will be delighted.
Flanders and Swann fans will doubtless turn directly to "The Hippopotamus." As a piano player, I'm only a duffer with no formal training, and I suspect "The Hippopotamus" is one of those "made as accessible as possible." I was able to get a performance-ready version of it in a couple of hours. "Ill Wind" was also simplified, so the most technically difficult in the collection are probably "Misalliance" and "The Armadillo," both in the key of e-major (four sharps). For this "clever-but-casual pianist," they will take quite a while.
There are 41 songs in the book. All the songs from the Hats are here except "Je Suis Les Tenebreux," "Satellite Moon," "A Happy Song," "Kokoraki," "Too Many Cookers," "The Youth of the Heart," "Sounding Brass," "In the Desert," "First and Second Law," "Horoscope," "Friendly Duet," and "Sea Fever." Also, most of the Bestiary is included except the "Seahorse," "The Chameleon," "Dead Ducks," "The Duck Billed Platypus," "the Humming Bird," and "The Portuguese Man o' War."
Most of the songs are in the flat keys, but a surprising number are in the sharp keys including "The Gas Man Cometh," "Bedstead Men," "Madeira, M'dear," "The Wompom," and "The Hippopotamus." All songs are in the major except "The Spider" in c-minor.
The binding of the book will not hold up to heavy use on the music desk - the sheets will separate.
Book Description
The first and best known volume of one of the landmarks of world literature. Available separately for those who want to approach Proust carefully!
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Download Description
Swann's Way, the first part of A la recherche de temps perdu, Marcel Proust's seven-part cycle, was published in 1913. In it, Proust introduces the themes that run through the entire work. The narrator recalls his childhood, aided by the famous madeleine; and describes M. Swann's passion for Odette. The work is incomparable. Edmund Wilson said "[Proust] has supplied for the first time in literature an equivalent in the full scale for the new theory of modern physics."
Customer Reviews:
Swann's Way.......2007-07-15
The product and the narration is very well done. Unfortunately, I found that Proust is just not for me.
Hmmm....Will it get any better than this?.......2007-03-07
So i finally made the commitment to reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time. I've been contemplating this for years, and this spring i have the time so i've excitedly decided to forge what will be a memorable relationship with the author and the text.
But geez, am i DISAPPOINTED with the first "installment"!!! I'm usually an avid reader of European classics, and although i wasn't expecting Proust to be thrilling, i guess i didn't realize that the work was completely plotless.
I have to stop and remind myself (lest i give up?) that i am reading for the full experience rather than instant gratification, so i'm going to doggedly push on, and read something "fun" like Waugh or Vonnegut between each of the 6 books of I.S.O.L.T...
On a postive note, Proust's unique style allows the reader's mind to wander with the narrator, so i honestly can't say that i was "bored". It is also interesting that Proust is so often right on target about the human psyche and about society, when he, an invalid, was himself removed from it for much of his life.
Finally, Swann's Way is, let's face it, a moderately thick book. Without plot, you'd think that it would be a slow and dragging read. However, his long sentences somehow propel the reader forward to the next interesting speculation or to the next social event, and once again, his style is such that we become involved in the character's life....what will be the next step in Swann and Odette's relationship?
Although i have mixed feelings about the start of my Proustian journey, I console myself with his notions of time. The way we feel and think about something while we are in the midst of it may differ greatly from the way we feel and think about it once we are removed from it. Perspective is altered by distance (and memory, imagine that...). Perhaps once i finish the work in its entirety the pieces will all come together and there will be a cumulative gain. If nothing else, there will be a sense of accomplishment!
Fabulous Writing But Not A Novel: A Lengthy Narrative On Life.......2007-02-03
In search of Lost Time is regarded by many as a key work of modern literature, bridging ideas from the 19th and 20th centuries. Proust is often compared to Joyce and Kafka.
This is revised translation of the early Moncrieff translation. That was the primary translation for the first 50 years after the first publication in French. The present work includes the later changes to the original French manuscripts made in 1954. These additions and changes were excluded in the first manuscript from Proust. The manuscript was revised in the Pleiade edit of 1954 to include all of Proust's final edits. Those edits, additions, and changes are now translated and revised by Enright.
There are three parts to Volume I:
- Combray (the town)
- Swann in Love (Swann is the family name of the narrator)
- Place-Names-The Name
Here is a question for the average reader: is this a novel? What is it? The present Volume I is 600 pages, and if you continue on after Volume I, you face another 5000 pages or so. It is not a novel and it is not a play or drama as one sees with Shakespeare; instead, it is a seemingly endless narrative. Should we be concerned with what it is? The answer is yes, because some will find Proust to be a tedious challenge while others will love him.
For example, Madam Bovary is a novel. It has a beginning, an end, clear characters who are good, evil, and indifferent. It takes place in 19th century French countryside as does Proust, and unlike Proust it is a gripping tale. The writing by Flaubert is flawless. The structure is perfect. That is a novel. I read all 500 pages of Madame Bovary in one day and was very entertained and impressed.
Proust's Volume I, by contrast, has taken me 12 months to read. Again, as with Flaubert, the prose is faultless and the details described are done exquisitely, but there is no plot, and it is not gripping. It is a series of memories or short sections. Almost by definition, these short pieces do not carry the drama of a well balanced novel. They are weakly linked together plus the writing is complicated by many characters, often relatives of the narrator. If you put the book down and start again you are momentarily lost. Some readers, and that includes myself, wonder why we continue.
Proust is part of our literary education and one can appreciate the interwoven snapshots of life, the beautiful descriptions of rural Combray, the characters of France, and the relatives in his family. It is an endless narrative about a man's life and those pieces of his life. It is a collection of memories. Here in Volume I we see three broad snapshots of one man's life; we escape to 19th century France, and we become part of a seemingly endless tale about the fine details of that life. If that interests you, then you will love Proust.
Only the most patient should read Proust. Be prepared for beautiful prose and French 19th century life.
Beautiful but fatiguing.......2007-01-24
Clearly, Proust has a remarkable gift for perception, as if he is able to see human experience, circumstance, and even plain objects, in exploded detail, and distill them for the reader. Particularly in the first and third parts of the book, he frequently drops gems of absolute truth, in much the same way that Shakespearean couplets remarkably capture the essence of love or revenge. To me, this is the reward of reading the book, and what makes the challenge worth undertaking.
At first, you may be overwhelmed by his very complex sentences, as others have noted. It is important to Proust to express an entire thought in one sentence; a lofty objective with sometimes dire consequences, but Proust adheres to it admirably. You soon learn to maintain the subject of the sentence in your head while Proust explores two or three tangents to the original thought before he comes back to it. What works in the reader's favor is that Proust is very regular with his sentence structure, so once you develop a feel for it, it ceases to intimidate.
The book is divided into three parts: The first and third parts recount experiences of Proust's early childhood, while the second part details the love affair of Charles Swann. To me, the first part is the most beautiful, followed by the third part. You will be able to tell within the first 50 or so pages whether or not Proust will suit you. The second part of the book becomes plodding and monotonous, as Proust narrates even a simple set of circumstances in many layers of redundancy, each recounted in exhaustive detail, in his complex style which begins to feel formulaic, wordy, and indulgent. Here's the subject of the sentence, tangent number one, the tangent to tangent number one, tangent number two, and then it ends with yet another metaphor about invalids. The regularity of sentence structure is much easier to tolerate in the first and third parts because Proust flits between several ideas or subjects, whereas in the second part, he drills to the very core of the earth on one or two subjects with a few variations. I found myself feeling pretty burned out, counting down pages to the end of Part 2. My advice is to pick up your reading speed if it starts to become boring or if you lose your concentration.
If Proust were not quite so overly thorough in Part 2, or if he had varied his cadence or sentence structure a bit more, I could recommend this book without hesitation. As it is, it will require an unusual investment of concentration and patience, but I believe it is worth it.
A Must-read.......2006-06-21
I have been planning for some years to read IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME, and finally started in March with Lydia Davis' translation of SWANN'S WAY.
Proust is one of the most empathetic authors that I have ever encountered. To tell the story of his youth, to describe his fears and joys and loves, he turns inward, and in doing so, gives a strikingly accurate portrayal of the human heart, and human folly.
SWANN'S WAY is diveded into four sections, too long to be called chapters: Combray, Combray II, Swann in Love, Place-Names:The Name.
Combray and Combray II tell of the summers of Marcel's youth, his grandmother and great-aunt Leonie (who never got out of her bed), Francoise, the maid, walks with his parents, meeting M. Swann, their neighbor, meeting M. Swann's daughter for the first time and falling in love with her. It is very difficult for an author to write from the perspective of a child and do it convicingly, but Proust succeeds here. I loved little Marcel, a sensitive, naive little boy who absorbs everything around him.
'Swann in Love' tells the story of M. Swann and how he fell in love with one Odette d'Crecy, a woman not of his class who seduces him and then breaks his heart.
In 'Place-Names: The Name' we read about a slightly older Marcel, and his first attempts at winning the heart of Gilberte, the daughter of M. Swann. My favorite image in SWANN'S WAY comes from 'Place Names' - an image of Odette d'Crecy strolling down the Avenue of the Acacias alone, which Proust includes in his diatribe against the death of elegance.
As the purpose of writing IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME was to recover his forgotten memories, Proust's tale is not told as a series of interconnected events, but as a collection of interwoven memories - some of them incomplete. [The short novella, 'Swann in Love', that is contained in the novel is an exception - though still told from an internalized perspective, that of M. Swann.]
In this format, description trumps plotline and dialogue. His descriptions - of tapestries in cathedrals, of a child's longing for his mother, of the beauty of words and the pain of falling in love - are first rate. I found many times that reading this book was a lot like looking at a great painting, or a sunset - soothing, [also with the exception of 'Swann in Love', where I found myself completely aggravated with M. Swann and hating Odette. An author that can calm you but also create characters capable of arousing passionate anger must be great.]
SWANN'S WAY is highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
- Romance Junkies review of THE PRICE OF DESIRE
- Body and Soul Desire
- fine historical erotic romance
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The Price of Desire (Avon Red)
Leda Swann
Manufacturer: Avon Red
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Adult Fiction
| Erotica
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Made for Sin
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Sugar and Spice (Avon Red)
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A Carnal Agreement
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Sin
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What She Craves
ASIN: 0061176443
Release Date: 2007-01-30 |
Book Description
This is Leda Swann's first full–length novel for Avon. She brings all the passion and excitement of her previous novellas to this story about how far we will go for the ones we love.
Caroline Clemens is at her wits end. Orphaned and responsible for the welfare of her four younger siblings, she's certain it's only a matter of time before she losees everything. When she meets Dominc Savage, passions ignite and they soon strike a deal that benefits both parties. But their desire for each other soon outweighs any "business"deal between them and the two lovers suddenly find themselves playing by an entirely different set of rules.
Customer Reviews:
Romance Junkies review of THE PRICE OF DESIRE.......2007-04-10
Caroline Clemons is the daughter of a bankrupt banker who not only left his family without means to support themselves, but who also killed himself and left Caroline to pick up the pieces. Betrothed to Captain Bellamy, Caroline attends a party with the hopes of convincing her fiancé to marry her sooner rather than later. However, the captain has other plans, plans that do not include a penniless wife and her four brothers and sisters. Terribly frantic and out of options, Caroline accepts a scandalous offer from the notorious Dominic Savage. She will enjoy a night of sensual delights with the compelling man before succumbing to a fatalistic end the next day.
Dominic Savage's enigmatic gaze lights upon Caroline Clemons during a lavish party. Knowing that the young widow of a dead banker might be inclined for some company, he begins his blazing seduction only to be told she is engaged and to whom. Letting her know that he will be there for her when she is jilted, Dominic sits back and patiently waits. When he finds her crying quietly, he applies a few touches and fleeting kisses - Caroline is his. Too late, however, Dominic realizes that the widow was in fact a maiden. When she appears to have vanished into thin air the next morning, Dominic will stop at nothing to find her.
THE PRICE OF DESIRE took me on an emotional roller coaster. My feelings for Dominic fluctuated from moment to moment - I was alternately mad at him for bargaining with Caroline, then giddy about his prominent feelings of respect and love. His love for Caroline made their relationship complete. While I didn't always like his methods of bringing Caroline into his life - bargaining and setting a price for her to be his mistress - I couldn't help but be in awe of his ability to love Caroline completely and unconditionally. I expected her feelings to be no less and was not disappointed.
THE PRICE OF DESIRE is a tie-in with the novel SUGAR AND SPICE, also released by Leda Swann. I was treated to another look at characters first introduced in SUGAR AND SPICE and found myself wanting to go back and re-read both books once more for good measure!
***Natasha Smith for Romance Junkies***
Body and Soul Desire.......2007-02-10
The desire to have someone body and soul turns into love in this erotic historical romance tale of the beautiful young and innocent virgin Caroline Clemons who suddenly finds herself and her siblings penniless after the suicide of her prominent society banker father. She is depending on the honor of Captain Bellamy to hold to their engagement agreement. When he breaks the engagement and offers her the position of mistress instead of wife, Caroline is devastated. She sees her father's way as the easy way out. As she sits in the conservatory at a society gathering and plans the taking of her siblings life and herself, the handsome and wealthy Dominic Savage approaches her. He is under the misconception that she is the widow of the now deceased banker. He has desired her for his mistress from the moment he saw her across the room. Thinking this is to be her last evening alive, she gives up her innocence to Dominic with such passion that he wants her body and soul. Later that night, Caroline discovers she cannot go through with her plan and the following morning she and her siblings enter the local workhouse. Once again the evil Captain Bellamy tries to manipulate her to becoming his mistress and arranges it so that she is removed from the workhouse. As she and her siblings are being removed to the streets once again, Dominic steps in to rescue her. Now that she has no other alternative and he appears to be more honest and upfront in his offer, and mostly because she cannot forget the passion and pleasure she experienced when he took her virginity, she takes him up on his offer. He takes her and her family in and provides a home, education and dowries. She in turn is to provide him with every desire and pleasure and he will teach her everything he has learned about pleasure in India. At first Caroline is shy and uncomfortable, but soon learns to make the best of the arrangement. When Dominic takes her on a trip to spend time at a house of pleasure called Sugar and Spice, he comes to realize that he does not want to share Caroline with any other man. He discovers that he not only wants her to belong to him body and soul - he now wants to win her heart. He then begins to court her, but when a strange twist of fate causes him to lose his fortune, he can no longer keep her and she moves to the small estate given to her by Dominic in their original agreement. Caroline is then pursued by numerous gentlemen desiring her pleasures, but it is only Dominic that fills her thoughts and desires. When she finally has no choice but to offer herself up for auction in order to continuing supporting herself and her siblings, one bidder offers "...my love for you, because that is all I have to offer." The Price of Desire is a passionate, moving story of hardship, desire, passion and love that is not only a good sensual story, but well-written with substance. An excellent erotic read.
fine historical erotic romance .......2007-02-03
Her banking father's death leaves Caroline Clemens and her younger siblings in monstrous debt. Her only hope to keep her and her brothers and sisters out of the workhouse is her pending marriage to Captain Bellamy. However instead of her fiancé meeting her, he is courting a different female as the Clemens brood is no longer worthy of his social climbing ambitions. Dominic Savage introduces himself to Caroline and offers her a deal to pay off the debts of her late father Isaac and insure the future of her siblings outside of the workhouse in exchange for her fulfilling his every male desire. Reluctantly seeing no options she agrees to a deal with the handsome devil.
Caroline refuses to wallow in pity or shame as she becomes Savage's mistress. He, in turn, teaches her the pleasure of sex including tough love. As she fulfills his desires with passion and he takes what she offers and much more, she falls in love with her "owner", but knows that soon he will discard her just like Bellamy did as a mistress has short bed cycle. Unbeknownst to Caroline, Dominic fell in love with her from the moment he recognized the beating of her courageous heart.
This Victorian era (it may actually be Regency) erotic romance showcases the choices a poor person had as Caroline must choose between becoming a kept woman or along with her younger siblings go to the workhouse where the destitute work for room and board (think Oliver Twist). The relationship between the lead couple seems realistic for the nineteenth century (some will say today too) though some readers will be turned off as he bought her, pleasure trained her; and forced her to do things she did not want to do. Still sub-genre fans will appreciate THE PRICE OF DESIRE as Caroline's courage and sacrifice make a fine tale.
Harriet Klausner
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Proust: Swann's Way (Landmarks of World Literature)
Sheila Stern
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Proust's Way: A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time
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To the Lighthouse
ASIN: 0521328160 |
Book Description
Swann’s Way, published in 1913, is the first part of Proust’s seven-part novel A la Recherche du temps perdu. The author’s expansion, revision and correction of the work were cut short by his death in 1922, and sixty-six years later editors are still producing variants of the last three volumes based on working notebooks. The novel’s structure was compared by its author to that of a cathedral, and its status is that of one of the greatest literary landmarks of the twentieth century. Sheila Stern’s study begins with a summary of the whole novel and goes on to give an account of the activity of reading as part of its subject-matter. Two chapters are devoted to Swann’s Way itself, with close attention to the opening pages, and to such topics as memory, time, imagery and names. The book’s reception in various Western literatures is discussed, and there is a guide to further reading.
Book Description
Do you dare open the door and enter a place like no other?
In these three historical tales of sensual awakening, nothing that stimulates and titillates is taboo, ecstasy comes in many sizes, and pleasure is its own reward . . . a world of seduction and sensation, where inhibitions are unlaced and desires long corseted are gloriously freed. . . .
Fallen Angel Jess Michaels
London's greatest beauty and most notorious madam employs the services of a disgraced Bow Street Runner to keep her safe from a stalker . . . and satisfied after dark.
Parlor Games Leda Swann
An innocent virgin enters a brothel to escape starvation and receives expert tutelage in the steamy Victorian parlor games that rakish gentlemen indulge in. . . .
Border Lord Julia Templeton
Fleeing an unfaithful fiancé, a nubile young lovely finds herself the prisoner of a lustful Scottish laird and must bow to his every erotic whim. . . .
Customer Reviews:
The First and Third are the best........2007-04-21
I enjoyed reading the Jess Michaels story of the madam and Bow Street Runner. I feel the second story was just okay, but not a necessary addition to the anthology. I enjoyed the final story by Julia Templeton. At first I was skeptical about the time travel storyline, but she made it work well in the story. I would like to read more from both authors. Any suggestions?
If you like lots of steamy loves scenes....but..........2007-01-17
This is a hard review for me. While all three stories provide some romance to varying degrees and plenty of explicit love scenes, something was just not right. Anthologies are a tricky business. Making the romance believable and having multiple love scenes between the H/H in a little over 100 pages is nearly impossible IMHO. Therein lies the problem. You don't really feel the characters falling in love with each other. Its really just lust and kind of a shallow sexual love that's portrayed in these three.
Swann's story is by far the worst. It made me feel like I was watching a cheap porno. It was gross the way her characters behaved. The way they got turned on by watching others do their business. And -EWWW!- they get sprayed by someone else's...uh..love juices? It was just like a really disgusting orgy. There is some really disturbing female abuse too. And the H/H fall in love with each other amidst all of this? Ha! I don't think so!
I did like Templeton's & Michaels stories though. They were more believable. The romance was not bad and the love scenes were very hot.
Just three stories with LOTS of loves scenes and characters obsessed with sex and not much else (character/romance development). A little snickers bar for your libido if that's what your looking for.
Three Luscious and Luring Tales.......2006-08-19
Parlor Games is a highly entertaining trilogy of well-written historical erotica. In Fallen Angel, a Regency era historical, the handsome, dashing, fallen from grace, Bow Street Runner John Valentine is to protect the beautiful Arabella, madam of a house of pleasure, from a mysterious stalker that wants her dead. In the Victorian era historical, Parlor Games, the innocent and sweet Sarah chooses working in a coffee house that offers "parlor games" over starving in the streets. There she meets the handsome rake, Tom Wilde, who at first lusts for her body and pays for a month of her time, only to discover that a month is not a enough. In the Scottish, time-travel historical, Border Lord, Brochan Douglas spirits away with the daughter of his enemy Laird Angus MacLellan. But it is not the beautiful Annabelle MacLellan Brochan steals away, but Terri Campbell from present day Scottish Borderlands, who visits the priory to escape a cheating finance, only to find herself in medieval Scotland a hostage to sex and evenutually love with the manly, gorgeous Brochan. All three stories have well-written sensual scenes, but unlike some romantica, the sensuality does not override the story. Nicely done.
three well written historical heated red romances .......2006-05-25
"Fallen Angel" by Jess Michaels. After falling from grace, Arabella opens up London's most popular brothel with vow that men will service her not the other way around. However, she needs protection from someone who wants her dead. She turns to equally disgraced Bow Street Runner John to keep her safe from her stalker, but soon desires his services 24/7 in and out of bed.
"Parlor Games" by Leda Swann. Sarah entered the coffeehouse brothel so that she can eat, but though her job is to entice men into spending their money, she plans to leave a virgin. Undercover investigator Tom seeks information on a client when he sees Sarah. He buys exclusivity for a month of her while continuing his discrete inquiries.
"Border Lord" by Julia Templeton. Terri went on her Scottish tour for two reasons. To escape a cheating no longer fiancé and because being a romantic she walk where legends speak of lost loves. However, when she enters a room, Terri realizes quickly everything is wrong especially when she becomes prisoner of a highland laird who demands honesty, loyalty and equal lust in his woman. She wants the same in her man, but worries whether a twenty-first century independent female find love and happiness in the arms of a macho medieval Highlander?
These three well written historical heated red romances are fiery fervent fun starring super protagonists in strong storylines in which the erotica is deftly blended into the passionate plots.
Harriet Klausner
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- Tales of Magic Boxed Set (Edward Eager Tales of Magic)
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- The Dying Game
- The Facts In The Case Of The Departure Of Miss Finch
- The Joiner King (Star Wars: Dark Nest, Book 1)
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