Reviews

Pleasures and Days by Marcel Proust

helgamharb's review against another edition

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4.0

L’amour s’est éteint, j’ai peur au seuil de l’oubli ; mais apaisés, un peu pâles, tout près de moi et pourtant lointains et déjà vagues, voici, comme à la lumière de la lune, tous mes bonheurs passés et tous mes chagrins guéris qui me regardent et qui se taisent. Leur silence m’attendrit cependant que leur éloignement et leur pâleur indécise m’enivrent de tristesse et de poésie. Et je ne puis cesser de regarder ce clair de lune intérieur.

(Love has been extinguished; I am scared on the threshold of forgetfulness; but, appeased, somewhat pale, very close to me and yet faraway and already vague, here are, as in the moonlight, all my past joys and all my healed heartaches, watching me wordlessly. Their silence moves me while their distance and their indecisive paleness intoxicate me with sadness and poetry. And I cannot stop looking at this inner moonlight.)


Pleasures and Days is a collection of philosophical essays and stories about the mind-set of the high society of Paris that touches on the topics of love, lust, time, social conventions, humanity and death.

La vie est une chose dure qui serre de trop près, et perpétuellement nous fait mal à l'âme.

(Life is a hard thing that squeezes too tightly, that perpetually wounds our soul.)


miriamschlundt's review against another edition

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medium-paced

2.0

eliathereader's review against another edition

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2.0

Ö.üme bu kadar yaklaşmış olan Baldassare'ın hala hayattan başka şey düşünmediğini artık kesin olarak anlamıştı.
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Önceden çok severdim ağır betimlemeli, duygu patlamalı, ağdalı yazılmış kitapları. Proust da zaten bunun üstatları arasında yerini korur. Hazlar ve Günler’i okumayı bekletiyordum çünkü ne zaman yazarı özlersem o zaman bu kitabı okurum demiştim. Demek ki o zaman gelmiş. Ufak öykülerinden, anlatılarından çok az da şiirden oluşan bir kitap. Arkasında Kayıp Zamanın İzinde’nin habercisi olduğu söylenmiş ki bu ifadeye katılıyorum kesinlikle yazarın gelişimi satırlarda görülüyor. Sylvanie Vikontu Baldassare Silvande’nin Ö.ümü ve Violante ya da Sosyete Hayatı benim kitapta en çok hoşuma giden 2 bölüm oldu. İlki yaşamın sonunu kabullenmeydi, ikincisi ise arzulardan, alışkanlıklardan kopamamak hakkındaydı. Ancak şunu fark ettim ki kitap ne kadar sade yazıldıysa ben okur olarak o kitaptan o denli keyif alıyorum. Bir dakika gördüğü kişiye körü körüne aşık olma, hüzünden yataklara yatma ve sosyetenin bayık yaşantısını okumak beni cidden bunaltıyor. Proust’un yazdıkları sanat eseri niteliğinde ama karakterleri, anlattıkları gerçeklikten kopuk geliyor. Okuduğumuz her kitapla okurluğumuz değişiyor aslında. Bu kitap da bana bunu gösterdi.

aelumen's review against another edition

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4.75

Pleasures and Days -9/10:

The Death of Baldassare Silvande - 8/10
Violante, or High Society - 8/10
Fragments From Italian Comedy - 9/10
Bouvard and Pécuchet on Society and Music - 8/10
Mme de Breyve's Melancholy Summer Vacation - 7/10
Portraits of Painters and Musicians -7/10
The Confession of a Young Woman - 10/10
A Dinner in Town - 8/10
Nostalgia - Daydreams under Changin Skies - 9/10
The end of Jelousy - 10/10


literarianist's review against another edition

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4.0

“The divine guests that are announced by the voice of the waters, leaves and sky only ever deign to visit hearts which, by dwelling within themselves, have purified themselves.”

To My Friend Willie Heath – 4/5
The Death of Baldassare Silvande – 4/5
Violante, or High Society – 4.5/5
Fragments from Italian Comedy – 3/5
Bouvard and Pécuchet on Society and Music – 5/5
Mme de Breyves’s Melancholy Summer Vacation – 5/5
Portraits of Painters and Musicians – 3/5
The Confession of a Young Woman – 5/5
A Dinner in Town – 3/5
Nostalgia – Daydreams under Changing Skies – 4/5
The End of Jealousy – 5/5

dzengota's review against another edition

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3.0

Occasionally beautiful and nice but do to its short form nature difficult to get attached to in any substantial way. Knowing this is Proust's first work does make me excited to see what he has famously developed in later iterations of his writings.

numbersarereal's review against another edition

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It's somewhat tiring to read since Proust is circling around ideas so consistently that you are reading almost the same story n times in a row. That being said his circling is very good - he writes extremely well. The floridity you would expect but none of the pretence. I think he is at his best when he is writing about nature rather than society which is the obvious minority of the two topics. Highlights (from memory) are, The Confessions of a Young Woman, The story of the retired captain (Nostalgia 7) and In defence of bad music.

jakebittle's review against another edition

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Let's just say I'm glad my love for Proust had become unshakeable by the time I read these stories.

scissorhands's review against another edition

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5.0

bu adamın qələmi sehrlidir sanki.