The small publishing house @editionsducanoe were kind enough to send me two titles from their wonderful catalogue…

The lovely folks at @editionsducanoe were kind enough to send me two books from their wonderful catalogue last week, and I absolutely devoured them! 😛

These are:

💜 1. Lina Lachgar, “Madame Straus: A Proustian Love”, 2022.

In beautifully written prose, Lina Lachgar (1934–2020), who also wrote several books on Max Jacob, recounts the years of friendship and mutual admiration between Proust and Madame Straus, widow of Georges Bizet and mother of Proust’s first love: Jacques Bizet. She was born Geneviève Halévy, a cousin of Daniel Halévy and an agnostic Jew. She was ‘a love of Proust’s’ in the sense of a surrogate mother. But she was also THE epitome of the witty socialite, whose witty remarks were repeated by all her guests. You will have recognised in her the main traits of Oriane, Duchess of Guermantes, to whom Proust does indeed attribute certain witty retorts, her somewhat melancholic elegance and her famous red shoes.

I really enjoyed this little book and I’d highly recommend it! 🥰

🧡 2. Henri Raczymow, “A Season with Luce”, 2022.

I (re)discovered Henri Raczymow (born in 1948) whilst reading the beautiful “Cygne de Proust”, published by @editions_gallimard in the “L’un et l’autre” collection edited by J.B. Pontalis. And I remembered the three volumes I’d bought for €1 during a clearance sale at the Médiathèque des Ursulines in @quimper.bzh 📚✨ see photos 3 and 4 🤓

But let’s talk about “A Season with Luce”: it is a short Proustian novel, in which the author has his main characters – a certain Henri and the aforementioned Luce 💡 – experience one or more adventures inspired by Albertine’s story with the narrator. The story is set in more recent times, almost the present day, and it’s easy to get swept up in the plot, which revolves around a game of attraction and repulsion interwoven with Proustian references. It should be noted that these references are slipped in with self-deprecating humour by the narrator himself, and that this is by no means a scholarly work.

Are you wondering what Albertine’s story would be like if it were set in the present day? Well, here it is: it’s not called “A Summer with Proust”, but “A Season with Luce”!

Thank you @editionsducanoe 💜🧡