Three Before the One

While a week has come and gone since my depressing return to this place called "home," I have not been that lazy.  In fact, ever since my ever so pleasant time in Paris, I have had Marcel Proust on my mind, and since my jet lag was setting in, I decided to make use of my slightly upside down hours to read three books on (not by) him.  I started off with Proust's Overcoat, an entertaining romp through a rich bibliophile fan's seeming luck as it related to the possessions (bed, desk and such) of Proust after his death, eventually finding its way into the public collection of the Musee Carnavalet, followed by author Edmund White's gossipy account of the love life (imagined or otherwise) of M. Proust.  These were small things to whet the appetite, and the third book which I read and just completed, the moving and beautiful first person account (Monsieur Proust) by Celeste Albaret (his housekeeper and so much more for the last years of Proust's life), is perhaps all that one needs to read about Proust- the rest is all glamor, glitz and more likely, the gutter.

Next comes the masterwork by Marcel Proust himself, Remembrance of Things Past, in the original English translation.  It's been a long time coming and I very much look forward to it.