As I read Proust’s “Swann’s Way,” I imagined what it must have meant to a friend, who read it when he was dying.
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Tag Archives: death and dying
On Proust and Living Life to the Fullest
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Archaic Torso of Apollo", "Lying in a Hammock", In Search of Lost Time, James Wright, Marcel Proust, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Swann in Love | Comments closed
Reading Proust before Dying
A dying friend decided to read, in his last months, Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time.” As I read it, I’m beginning to understand why.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | Comments closed
Hamlet: Shakespeare Grieving His Son?
In which I explore why O’Farrell’s “Hamnet” opened up wellsprings of grief I didn’t realize were there.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Anne Hathaway, grieving, Hamlet, Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell, William Shakespeare | Comments closed
Finding a Relative in Gaskell’s Novels
Imagining my great-grandmother as heroines in a Gaskell novel brings both her and the novels to life.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South, Victorian families, Wives and Daughters | Comments closed
A Stevenson Poem for My Mother
My remarks and a Stevenson poem at an occasion remembering my mother.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Where Go the Boats", Robert Louis Stevenson | Comments closed
Don’t Mourn, Visit Paris Instead
At my mother’s memorial service Saturday we will hear the same Prévert song we heard at my father’s.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Song of Two Snails on Their Way to a Funeral", Jacques Prévert, memorial service | Comments closed
Immersed in Krook’s Rag and Bone Shop
Going through my mother’s possessions is like a trip into Krook’s Rag and Bone shop in “Bleak House.”
Methought I Saw My Dead Son
After unexpectedly dreaming about a son who died 22 years ago, I thought of Milton’s poem about a similar dream, this one involving his wife.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Methought I saw my late espoused Saint", death of a child, dreams and dreaming, John Milton | Comments closed
O’Connor and Swift on the Death of Others
Friday While losing my mother at 96 is definitely not like Julian losing his mother in Flannery O’Connor’s “All That Rises Must Converge,” I can relate somewhat to his feelings of being adrift once she is gone. In his case, he is entirely dependent upon her, and embarrassed by her, and resentful of his inability […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "All that Rises Must Converge", "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift", Flannery O'Connor, Jonathan Swift | Comments closed