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 ittle
by little, Kraft is recording his readings of every book in the Personal
History. As he completes chapters, I will make mp3 samples available
here and on the chapter pages, and as each book is completed, I’ll make
it available by mail.
Mark Dorset, Webmaster, Audio Engineer, and Shipping Clerk
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stiffly and askew . . . Marcel Proust would read to us, each night, Du
Côté de Chez Swann. These sessions added to the . . .
disorder of the room a chaos of perspectives, for Proust would start anywhere,
would mistake the page, confuse the passage, repeat himself, begin again,
break off to explain that the lifting of a hat in the first chapter would
reveal its significance in the last volume, and he would titter behind
his gloved hand, with a laugh that he smeared all over his beard and cheeks.
“It’s too silly,” he kept saying, “no . . . I won’t read any more.
It’s too silly.” His voice once more became a distant plaint, a tearful
music of apologies, of courtesies, of remorse. . . . And when we had persuaded
him to continue, he would stretch out his arm, pull no matter what page
out of his scrawl and we would fall headlong into the Guermantes or the
Verdurins household. After fifty lines he would begin his performance
all over again. He would groan, titter, apologize for reading so
badly. Sometimes he would get up, take off a short jacket, run his
hand through the inky locks that he used to cut himself and that hung down
over his stretched collar. He would go into a closet, where the livid
light was recessed into the wall. There one would catch sight of
him standing up, in his shirt sleeves, a purple waistcoat on the torso
of a mechanical toy, holding a plate in one hand, a fork in the other,
eating noodles.
Jean Cocteau
“On Measurement and Marcel Proust” in The Difficulty of Being (translated by Elizabeth Sprigge) |
Inflating a Dog
(Click a chapter link to hear a sample.)
More than NINE HOURS of listening
pleasure!
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| Herb ’n’ Lorna
WE’RE WORKING ON IT (Click a chapter link to hear a sample.)
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I'll bet you wish you could do something
to keep the Personal History going and growing!
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Copyright © 2001 by Eric Kraft Inflating a Dog is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, dialogues, settings, and businesses portrayed in it are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. Picador USA will publish Inflating a Dog in the summer of 2002. For information about publication rights outside the U. S. A., audio rights, serial rights, screen rights, and so on, e-mail Kraft’s indefatigable agent, Alec “Nick” Rafter. The illustration at the top of the page is an adaptation of an illustration by Stewart Rouse that first appeared on the cover of the August 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions. The boy at the controls of the aerocycle doesn’t particularly resemble Peter Leroy—except, perhaps, for the smile. The drawing of Peter Leroy wearing headphones is by Carol Bokuniewicz;
it appeared on the cover of the Warner Books edition of The Static of
the Spheres.
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