Maybe we don’t take madeleine cakes enough with weak black tea. I’ve only had the proper French version of these little cakes once but I can see why the French novelist Marcel Proust (1871–1922) rated them so highly in his massive seven volume novel In Search of Lost Time ( À la recherche du temps perdu). In the first volume of the novel, Swann’s Way (Du côté de chez Swann) (1913), the central character, Marcel, experiences what’s known as involuntary memory when he tastes one of the cakes dipped into his tea. It opens his memory to scenes of his childhood which begin the epic and apparently sprawling work that is the longest novel in any language. I’m currently on the third volume The Guermantes Way (Le Côté de Guermantes) (1920/1921) – I’m reading it on my Kindle in the English Moncheiff/Hudson/Kilmartin translation but also, from time to time, comparing the text with the original French which is, sadly, above my reading abilities. I hope to finish this self-imposed but highly enjoyable project by the end of the year.

If you’d like to read my poem, here’s the link:

http://www.musepiepress.com/fibreview/colin_bell1.html

The Raising of Lazarus, c. 1609 by Caravaggio.  Museo Regionale, Messina

The second Fibonacci poem is Lazarus. It is also about my memory of a vivid moment. Lazarus was the man Jesus brought back from the dead in one of his most dramatic miracles. I had often wondered what it must have actually felt like to find yourself relaunched into life in such a startling way. The thought returned to me once when I was being discharged from hospital after a serious illness. Here’s a link to my poem:

http://www.musepiepress.com/fibreview/colin_bell2.html

My thanks, once more, are due to Mary-Jane Grandimetti, the editor of The Fib Review, for choosing to publish my work yet again. I have had poems in this publication  thirteen consecutive issues. I’m now putting my mind to writing some more poetry in this style where the syllable or word count has to correspond to Fibonacci’s sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34. Maybe you should have a go too.

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STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley’s%20Summer%20Of%20love

The post Marcel Proust’s rudeness and Lazarus’ shock are the themes for my two newly published Fibonacci poems. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

I’ve taken to my bed with the ‘flu and, mostly, it’s been an unpleasant affair and I’ve not been nearly as productive  as that most famous bed-loafer, Marcel Proust (1871-1922)  who lay propped up in bed all day writing  the later sections of his seven volume novel À la recherche du temps perdu.

It doesn’t do for neat writing as you can see in Proust’s bedroom style – messy. He might have had even worse handwriting than mine. I’ve done some writing in my notebook but I may not be able to read my handwriting when I recover.

I started out in this bedroom exile with just some drugs and a glass of water but as I’ve begun to feel better, it’s felt right to use my bed-ridden state the Proustian way and to continue my reading of his massive novel on my Kindle (In Search of Lost Time translated by Monchrieff/Kilmartin/Enright, 1992).

I think Proust got up in the evenings for some gentle socializing so, continuing in Proustian style, well, I have to get into the spirit of the book, the last couple of evenings, after finally finishing one of his extremely long sentences, sentences that can meander along with many sub-clauses for page after page, after  finding a final and much needed paragraph ending, I’ve descended to the bottom of the house for some other medicine, discovering that a fine full-bodied red wine in front of a log fire can produce all sorts of pleasant sensations.

I hope that this style of recuperation will work and that I  shall feel better long before I get to the end of Proust’s 4215 page epic.

The post I’ve taken to my bed like Marcel Proust appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.