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All book groups meet in the Board Room on the 4th
floor
For more information, please contact Sharon Miller at 415-393-0113
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THE
PROUST SOCIETY OF AMERICA
San Francisco Chapter at the Mechanics' Institute Library |
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The Mechanics' Institute Library
proudly offers the Proust reading group, presented
in affiliation with The Proust Society of
America. The Proust Society of America
was established in 1997 by the Mercantile Library
of New York and its Center for World Literature.
The group is open to both beginning and veteran
readers of "À la recherche du temps perdu"
(known in English as "In Search of Lost Time"
or "Remembrance of Things Past"). The
novel is read and discussed in English; any available
translation of the novel is acceptable.
The group meets on the second and fourth Wednesday
of each month from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. Our reading
schedule can be downloaded according to edition
(.pdf file): Viking/Penguin,
Penguin/Allen
Lane (UK), Modern
Library, or Vintage.
The last meeting of the Proust Society will
be on Wednesday, July 23. The Proust reading group
will resume on Wednesday, September 10., 2008.
The group is facilitated by Dr. Mark Calkins, who
holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and is currently
a lecturer at San Francisco State University, as
well as webmaster and editor-in-chief of TempsPerdu.com.
The group is open to members of the Mechanics' Institute
and to the public. Fees for the book group are $65
for members and $90 for the public per semester
(ten meetings). Participants in the group are also
eligible to attend meetings and events held at the
New York and Boston chapters of the Proust Society
of America.
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FICTION
YOU WISH YOU HAD READ
Meets third Tuesday of the month @ 12:00 NOON |
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Tuesday,
June 16
Chéri
and
The Last of
Chéri, Colette |
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Colette's
Chéri
together with The
Last of Chéri is a classic story
of a love affair between a young
man and a charming older woman, set in the
demi-monde before World War I. Lea de Lonval,
an ageing, 49-year old
courtesan, has been training the handsome
and athletic Frederic Peloux
(the Chéri of the title), 30 years her junior,
in the arts of love. Chéri's mother is also
a courtesan and she has ambitions to marry
her son well. When a potential bride comes
on the scene, Lea's function is over. She
and Chéri must part company. Separated,
Chéri and Lea pine for each other and, against
all common sense, each considers "throwing
it all away" to build a future together.
The strength of the book lies in
the fabulous characters and the irony and
unsentimentality of the style. |
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Tuesday,
July 21
The Scarlet
Letter,
Nathaniel Hawthorne |
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This
novel, written in 1850, is
regarded not only as his greatest accomplishment,
but often as the greatest novel in American
literary history. Set in 17th-century Puritan
Boston, it is a novel in which, in terms
of action, almost nothing happens.
Hawthorne's emotional, psychological
drama revolves around Hester Prynne, who
is convicted of adultery by
the civil and Puritan authorities. She is
condemned to wear the scarlet letter "A"
on her chest as a permanent sign of her
sin. The narrative describes the effort
to resolve the torment suffered by Hester
and her co-adulterer, the minister Arthur
Dimmesdale in the years after their affair.
Throughout the novel, Hawthorne
explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.
He was masterful in the use of symbolism,
and the scarlet letter "A" stands
as his most potent symbol, around which
interpretations of the novel revolve, such
as adultery, America, and allegory.
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Tuesday,
August 18
Appointment in Samarra,
John O'Hara |
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O’Hara’s
debut novel centers around the rapid descent
and demise of Julian English over the course
of three days due in large part to the complicated
social order and manners that drive the
small town, Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, where
he lives. He was born into a privileged
lifestyle and is a member of Gibbsville’s
elite society, residing at the most coveted
address in town: Lantenengo Street, where
he and his wife, Caroline, lead supposedly
charmed lives. Appointment depicts
the way in which one must abide by certain
rules in order to gain acceptance or maintain
one’s social standing. A small infraction
could be perceived as completely unacceptable
and topple the entire social order of Gibbsville’s
elite, letting unspoken truths and feelings
rise to the surface.
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FORGOTTEN
CLASSICS
Meets quarterly on THURSDAYS @ 6:00 PM |
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Thursday, August 27
Le
Père Goriot,
Honoré de Balzac
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Le Père Goriot,
written in 1835, is included
in the Scènes de la vie privée
section of his novel sequence La Comédie
humaine. The novel is widely considered
as Balzac's most important novel. Set
in Paris in 1819, it follows the intertwined
lives of three characters: the elderly doting
Goriot; a mysterious criminal-in-hiding
named Vautrin; and a naive law student named
Rastignac. The novel takes place during
the post-1814 Bourbon Restoration, which
brought about profound changes in French
society. The struggle of individuals to
secure upper-class status is ubiquitous
in the book. Balzac analyzes, through Goriot
and others, the nature of family and marriage,
providing a pessimistic view of these institutions.
Rastignac, Vautrin, and Goriot represent
individuals corrupted by their desires.
One of the main themes in Le Père Goriot
is the quest to understand and ascend
society's strata. |
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Thursday, November 5
Kristin Lavransdatter:
The Bridal Wreath, The Mistress of Husaby
and The Cross,
Sigrid Undset
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Kristin Lavransdatter
is part of the body of work that won Sigrid
Undset the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1928 for her powerful depictions of Northern
life during the Middle Ages, with historical
and ethnological accuracy. The trilogy of
over one thousand pages follows the life
of the strong-willed and impetuous title
character, a fictitious Norwegian women
who lived during the 14th century. Kristin
experiences conflicts in her relationships
with her parents and her husband. She finds
comfort and conciliation in her Catholic
faith and eventually dies at peace with
her world. The novel is full of romantic
intrigues, political schemes, and spiritual
debates, but is fundamentally a novel about
one woman's life. Sigrid Undset makes us
understand Kristin's love for her sons and
husband, and the hard work of living in
the 14th century. The author provides rich
details concerning dress and manners as
well as social and historical events. |
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