Wonderful news! Then you will be able to read Proust en Francais, something I’ve always planned to do but never brushed up my French enough to be able to do! But there’s plenty of time; as Gore Vidal believed, “No one under thirty should read Proust.” He meant (I think), give yourself time to encounter all of the people of whom you will be reminded so forcibly when you meet them as characters in A la Recherche. I may have been about forty when I read it (Perseid edition). I will be so interested in following your reading and writing; please keep posting.

I am! The P&V cover of Anna Karenina is horrible but it’s worth it. For a little while because of these books I was thinking about studying Russian at Princeton but now I’m leaning more towards French/German.

Thanks, Mrs. Johnson! Turner and I used to love to talk about Confederacy of Dunces during Chemistry. It probably explains why we both go 2’s on the AP exam

I’m crazy about A Summons to Memphis! How neat that your father knew him! And I was so happy to be able to feature this Peter. Thank you so much for being in touch, John! Xo

So glad you are setting this course for yourself. Are you reading the translations by Pevear and Volokhonsky? These are superb!

I’m actually planning on a multi-year re-read of a Russian classic every summer. This year I read Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov, and Anna Karenina all for the first time. Next summer, I think I’m going to read War and Peace and re-read Brothers Karamazov. There’s just so much in those novels spread throughout that I can’t imagine not revisiting them.

It is not, unfortunately, just a little lake in Cordillera Real, but we are going to Lago Titica in May when we wrap up our program. I’m very excited.