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Paintings In Proust: A Visual Companion To In Search Of Lost Time (2008)

by Eric Karpeles(Favorite Author)

4.29 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0500238545 (ISBN13: 9780500238547)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Thames & Hudson

review 1: Karpeles's book goes miles further than most criticism on Proust by showing us the actual tableaux of the poet's imagination. The first time around with Proust I was so enraptured with his descriptions of women's dresses I actually sought out fashion books to see how he brought his women to life by what they wore: how fabric is "draped at the hips," or what might happen to "meandering maroon." Rereading Flaubert recently I saw what was happening to me, what must have happened to Flaubert and Proust. So that we might extend ourselves into how women's sense of taste is formed at a party, for instance, you can practically feel Flaubert bubbling over with excitement seeing the world through Emma Bovary's eyes in exaggerations like these: sconces that "shine taller", lobster cl... moreaws "hanging over" the rims, the statue of a woman "draped to the chin". Years later I find a book with photographs of the actual women Proust was describing. Yikes are they ghastly! Not physically, of course - we are as we're made - but the disparity between the person and what she is wearing is grotesque. I can totally picture Proust at a salon saying to himself "oh my goodness" as another woman enters with this enormous hat on that threatens to collapse under the weight of its own scaffolding. And then the poet retreating to these masterpieces Karpeles has organized where fashion and the sacred are at last in harmony. As of now I am reading that initial sense of ghastliness I felt as an awareness of how shallow my reading was, the distance closing between how women might be and how they are - which was what these two men were after too, I am hoping. Now if someone would only put together a mix tape of all those "little phrases".
review 2: This luminous book elaborates on the subtle analogies throughout En Recherche du temps perdu to paintings and their artists. All of Proust's allusions cement the relationship between literary and the visual arts. The lucid commentary by Karpeles that ties the extracts to their respective pieces of art, insightfully illustrates their significance. As someone who read the works of Proust without an in-depth familiarity with all the works referenced, this book is useful and pleasing for its straightforward navigability and sleek, rich design. This book is a delight both for the mind and the eyes. less

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