Ratings50
Average rating4.1
The first epic novel in Proust's epic series
Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is one of the most entertaining reading experiences in any language and arguably the finest novel of the twentieth century.
Swann’s Way is one of the preeminent novels of childhood: a sensitive boy’s impressions of his family and neighbors, all brought dazzlingly back to life years later by the taste of a madeleine. The first volume of the work that established Proust as one of the finest voices of the modern age—satirical, skeptical, confiding, and endlessly varied in his response to the human condition—Swann’s Way also stands on its own as a perfect rendering of a life in art, of the past recreated through memory.
Series
7 primary books11 released booksÀ la recherche du temps perdu is a 12-book series with 7 primary works first released in 1913 with contributions by Marcel Proust.
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“The places we have known do not belong solely to the world of space in which we situate them for our greater convenience. They were only a thin slice among contiguous impressions which formed our life at that time; the memory of a certain image is but regret for a certain moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fleeting, alas, as the years.”
This is probably one of those books you should read at least twice; once to get the overall arc, and then again to appreciate every last detail. Incredible writing. I was surprised at how much Proust's words made me recall my own secret memories of childhood, a world that, looking back at it, seemed extra-real, saturated with meaning and color.
I struggled a bit to get through it, especially near the end, but I'm very glad I read it.
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Second reading: read most of this in a week. Very helpful to read it more quickly, to see the parallels between Swann In Love, and “Place Names: the Name” - the narrators budding attachment to (obsession with) Gilberte
Focused on different things this time around - the anguish of love, the desire to possess someone (which can never be realized) and the madness it can inspire
Really want to finish the whole series