After the relative intimacy of the first two volumes of "In Search of Lost Time," "The Guermantes Way" opens up a vast, dazzling landscape of fashi...
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Jan 15, 2012
karen
rated it: 
how can a sociopath love society so much??
because, make no mistake, that is what we are dealing with here.in this third installment, our dear narrator graduates from being a feeble child, from being a lovesick adolescent into a manipulating, stalking, social climbing creature who learns a lesson in disillusionment. cheers.
for all his bookish intelligence, his overthinking, his lofty words, at the end of the day, he is just a pale sticky thing masturbating in society's sta More...
because, make no mistake, that is what we are dealing with here.in this third installment, our dear narrator graduates from being a feeble child, from being a lovesick adolescent into a manipulating, stalking, social climbing creature who learns a lesson in disillusionment. cheers.
for all his bookish intelligence, his overthinking, his lofty words, at the end of the day, he is just a pale sticky thing masturbating in society's sta More...
158 comments
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(54 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
Elizabeth
rated it: 
I read No Exit in high school, when I was a pretentious teen and I thought existentialism was cool, not because I understood it, because it seemed like an excellent way to irritate my friends who hadn't heard of it at all. All grown up now, I read the mighty Proust because Virginia Woolf loved him. (It inspired my favorite, Mrs. Dalloway). But I've spent most of the hundreds of pages of this volume thinking it might be more enjoyable, certainly easier, to read No Exit again, instead of the hell
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127 comments
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(39 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
brian
rated it:
in the strange world that us readers writers book-report-makers and reviewers inhabit, proust is considered one of - if not the - best. so we really must hold him to the highest standard, eh? his sentences. unassailable? well, when marcel gets rolling on one of those proustian digressions, there really ain't much better. they're not necessarily my thing -- i prefer the more modern, clean, spare sentence -- but if you dig this kinda thing, proust is the john holmes of the sentence: he shoves 'em
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49 comments
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(22 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
Manny
rated it: 
In the first two volumes (I argue, anyway, in my review of A L'Ombre Des Jeunes Filles En Fleurs), Proust was most interested in putting romantic relationships under the microscope. He returns to that theme later on in the series, but in the third book he is primarily concerned with picking apart the concept of wit, more exactly, ésprit, something that has always been terribly important to the French upper classes. If you want an easier tour of the subject, you might like to check out Leconte's
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14 comments
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(14 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
Greg
rated it:
After being a little disappointed in the second volume of Proust, this one returns to the absolute wonderfulness of Swanns Way. I noticed that another reviewer commented on the addictive quality of Proust and I have to agree. A few weeks ago when I started Swanns Way I figured I'd read one of his books, and then maybe next summer go into the next one and leisurely through the remaining years of my thirties read one Proust book a year and enter into my forties being able to say that I'd read Pr
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30 comments
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(14 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
Thomas
rated it:
When I was younger, I loved to think about the books I was reading when I went to bed each night. My favorite book character to think about as I drifted to sleep was Nancy Drew. She was so bad ass, and the cliffhangers Carolyn Keene/ghostwriters used to end each chapter--Nancy, spinning around to see the source of the sound, felt something hard hit her in the head, and everything went black; Nancy and Bess sprinted to catch the door before it locked shut, but it was too late: they were trapped;
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2 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
Robin
rated it:
Proust would both love and hate social networking -- Facebook, Twitter, etc. It would be the answer to his prayers (and would not have necessitated the writing of this opus):
Each of our actions, our words, our attitudes is cut off from the “world,” from the people who have not directly perceived it, by a medium the permeability of which is infinitely variable and remains unknown to ourselves; having learned from experience that some important utterance which we eagerly hoped wouldMore...
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Jul 20, 2011
Geoff
rated it:
The third volume of In Search of Lost Time is the most Parisian of them all up to this point; that is to say, all of the events, with the exception of a brief jaunt to Doncieres to visit Robert de Saint-Loup at his barracks, take place within Paris, and more specifically, within the drawing rooms of the Faubourg St. Germain, the highest of the high of fin de siecle Parisian social circles. More so than the earlier volumes, The Guermantes Way is about the language of a society, about the customs
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5 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
Nina
rated it:
The first two volumes of this novel blew me away. This third novel was admittedly tougher for me personally. I got halfway through it the summer before grad school, put it down the day before math camp, and didn't pick it up again until two months after I graduated. Losing my momentum made it very hard to get back into it two years later. Furthermore, this entire novel was about Parisian high society, their parties, and the narrator's fascination with them. And what segment of the populatio
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Jul 20, 2011
Andy
rated it:
Well, it's not as good as "Swann's Way," but better than "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower." Comparing them is kind of ridiculous, though, since Proust is one of the best writers I've ever read. Here's an Emily Dickinson poem:
A Thought went up my mind today -
That I have had before -
But did not finish - some way back -
I could not fix the Year -
Nor where it went - nor why it came
The second time to me -
Nor definitely, More...
A Thought went up my mind today -
That I have had before -
But did not finish - some way back -
I could not fix the Year -
Nor where it went - nor why it came
The second time to me -
Nor definitely, More...
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Jul 20, 2011
Bram
rated it:
Proust was a genius. The intra- and inter- human workings that he describes are universal, and yet he presents them in such a way that they are inarguably sui generis and revelatory, offering each reader an intimate tête-à-tête. In other words he's constantly telling you things you know but didn't know you knew or things you know but could never articulate--even to yourself. If this sounds miraculous...good. It is. To be able to contemplate and savor feelings and ideas that may never have e
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0 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
I've just finished watching the BEST Proust movie. It's called Little Miss Sunshine. I won't spoil it by saying another thing.
EXCEPT:
As it happens, by complete coincidence the night before I watched A Single Man which doesn't mention Proust but is absolutely also a Proust movie. The similarities are hilarious.
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It was suggested to me the other day that my 'will be regretted on my deathbed' subset needs another subset. At the moment it is More...
EXCEPT:
As it happens, by complete coincidence the night before I watched A Single Man which doesn't mention Proust but is absolutely also a Proust movie. The similarities are hilarious.
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It was suggested to me the other day that my 'will be regretted on my deathbed' subset needs another subset. At the moment it is More...
Jul 20, 2011
Patrick
rated it: 
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I liked Swann's Way and Within A Budding Grove. The first half of the book was pretty good, and had some very funny parts, but the second half really dragged on forever, as 300+ pages of it consisted of the narrator's being present at this incredibly snobbish and boring dinner party. I'm guessing that Proust's intent in wirting the interminable dinner party scene was to point out all the absurd foibles of the social elite of Paris's Faubourg-Saint-Germain, b
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Jul 20, 2011
David
rated it:
Despite my initial reluctance to pick up where I left off by reading a new translation, I was very relieved to find out that the new version is actually very good. I'm planning to read the next volume in the new translation as well, but I'll finish off the remaining two with the good old Moncrieff version.
In addition to having some wonderfully amusing scenes and commentary about the society and salons of the narrator's Paris, this volume also contained a couple of my favorite sectio More...
In addition to having some wonderfully amusing scenes and commentary about the society and salons of the narrator's Paris, this volume also contained a couple of my favorite sectio More...
Jul 20, 2011
As I neared the end of this volume, I was able for the first time to feel, rather than simply be aware of that fact that this is one long work rather than 7, to the point that it is pointless and maybe not possible to chose favorites. But compartmentalization, analogies and categories are inherent bound to life in our generation, so I will have to say that, by the pound, I liked his observations better in the first 2 volumes. However, I remember that it wasn't until I had finished the 2nd volume
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Sep 17, 2011
David
rated it:
OMG! With sections of this book reading like a high brow version of Gossip Girl, its no wonder people have found it difficult to finish. It starts of well and is good (ie not as nearly as good as Swann's Way or as good as Within a Budding Grove) for about 350 pages, of which very little happens, but what do you expect its Proust. The next 200 pages are dull, very very dull. Page upon page of text on people or characters that are unimportant, or at the very least will never be mentioned again
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Sep 16, 2011
Frankie
rated it:
Great book. I feel it's better than the first two. Maybe it's the collective impression I'm getting from the epic so far. This one felt heavier, and seemed to affirm the character's doomed perfectionism and naivete. I loved the structure, the first part building his introduction into society, the central event which matured him, and the second part his actual introduction. Mme de Villeparisis' salon as a dress rehearsal for Mme Guermantes salon (which is hinted to lead to Princesse Guermantes' i
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Jul 28, 2011
I've learned two things from this book. First, I need to read-up on the Dreyfus Affair - I had no idea it was so thoroughly divisive for the French. Second, I have a much better understanding of why Robespierre felt obligated to separate the aristocracy from their heads - what an annoying group of people!
Though the topics are boring, the manner in which Proust weaves his tale is absolutely incredible. He could narrate paint drying and keep the readers attention.
This third volume of the " More...
Though the topics are boring, the manner in which Proust weaves his tale is absolutely incredible. He could narrate paint drying and keep the readers attention.
This third volume of the " More...
Oct 11, 2011
Jon Marc
rated it:
Maybe not quite as great as "Swann's Way," but still fantastic. As always Proust gives more than just detailed modernist insight into character and situations. He also, as in the quote below, defends literature as a privileged way of seeing the world:
"People foolishly imagine that the large-scale dimensions of social phenomena provide an excellent opportunity to penetrate further into the human soul; they ought, on the contrary, to realize that by sounding the depths of More...
"People foolishly imagine that the large-scale dimensions of social phenomena provide an excellent opportunity to penetrate further into the human soul; they ought, on the contrary, to realize that by sounding the depths of More...
Feb 09, 2012
David
rated it:
Le Côté de Guermantes requires more effort from the reader than either of the previous two volumes of Proust's novel. It is longer, and several of the scenes could stand as smaller novels in their own right. The longest involves events that are mostly external to Marcel and his internal ruminations. This more outward concern with public life -- with the Dreyfus Affair in particular -- sets Guermantes apart from the immediacy of Marcel's experience that is characteristic of the first two volumes.
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Jul 20, 2011
Leonard
rated it:
More than a commentary on Swann’s jealousy or M. Charlus’s homosexuality or the frivolity of the Guermantes’ sorties, Marcel Proust’s monumental work In Search of Lost Time paints the unsuccessful reconstruction of a forgone world and a lost existence from fickle memories, which like morning mists would fade with the rising sun. The narrator Marcel, longing for a past that didn’t exist but must be created, sought to experience Bergson’s continuous time rather than the fragmented and still-framed
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Jul 20, 2011
Steve
rated it:
I think this has been the weakest volume of the series so far simply because so much of what it concerns itself with feels alien to a modern reader in a way that the other volumes have not. Still, elements of the social landscape he spends so much time in remain comprehensible to us and yield some very interesting insights and moments, and some of non society obsessed moments in the book -- most notably the stroke and death of the grandmother reach that ideal mix of intelligence and emotion tha
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Nov 26, 2011
Barry
rated it:
Part I - 2/5-2/10, 4/18-5/4, and 8/8-8/30
Part II - 9/25-10/1
part 3/16 of my Last 16 Weeks of 2011 Project
10/1 - Part II, Chapter 2: This was incredible. All of Part I's seemingly increased sophistication resulting in perspective shifts on the first couple books' objects of affection has now in Part II become a quickening spiral down into full on disillusionment with the reality of all the fantasies that had occupied his inner life thus far. (Or am I just projecting?)
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Part II - 9/25-10/1
part 3/16 of my Last 16 Weeks of 2011 Project
10/1 - Part II, Chapter 2: This was incredible. All of Part I's seemingly increased sophistication resulting in perspective shifts on the first couple books' objects of affection has now in Part II become a quickening spiral down into full on disillusionment with the reality of all the fantasies that had occupied his inner life thus far. (Or am I just projecting?)
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Jul 20, 2011
Jonathan
rated it:
A name fixes what it labels, even if the thing that's named refuses to be fixed (I think tangentially of grasping a snake only to have it twist away, shedding its molt in my hands; I could say: "This was a snake" knowing that the snake itself still is). The letters of the name retain their arrangement, as do the sounds voiced once the name is read aloud. But these iterations are fleeting, always before or after our record, never wholly concurrent. We can mark their echo or their timbre
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Jul 20, 2011
Chris
rated it:
I've discovered why I like Proust so much. It's the way he paints metaphors around beautiful moments in time, conjuring abstract visions in my imagination. Often times metaphors build upon one another, so that the tapestry of the writing yields a universal marvel at such artistry. Unfortunately The Guermantes Way didn't have anywhere near the amount of these than in Young Girls In Flower. Most of this volume is set at tedious dinner parties in high class Parisian society. Our protagonist is
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Jul 20, 2011
Karl
rated it:
The Guermantes Way details Marcel's journey through Parisian high society. Again we have phenomenal reflections on the nature of death, memory, love and society. We get introduced to some memorable characters like the Duchess de Guermantes, whose wit is sparkling but ultimately hollow, and the Baron de Charlus who is by turns infatuated and infuriated with the narrator. And the narrator passes through these shades of understanding of the vapidness and emptiness of these social circles so imperce
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Jul 20, 2011
Bob
rated it:
L'Affaire Dreyfus, which divided French society for over a decade, is one of the dominant themes of this volume - quite fascinating to get a view of some of the subtleties around its impact. One could be reminded of some of the stereotypes currently perpetuated and tolerated around Islam in the name of national security.
The narrator, as several generations of scholars have no doubt discussed, is an elusive character - sometimes quoting himself directly in conversation, more often offering More...
The narrator, as several generations of scholars have no doubt discussed, is an elusive character - sometimes quoting himself directly in conversation, more often offering More...
Jul 20, 2011
Paul
rated it:
In my quest to read a book every week over the course of 2010, Guermantes Way presented me with my first roadblock. It took so long to get through it’s seemingly tedious examination of salon life in fin de siècle Paris. Needless to say, this book took me over a month to read and I wasn’t set back in my yearlong goal only because my reading began at such a torrid pace in January and February.
However, the quality of this book was exposed in the closing 50 to 100 pages. The narrator’s o More...
However, the quality of this book was exposed in the closing 50 to 100 pages. The narrator’s o More...
Jul 20, 2011
Brenda
rated it:
This volume seems to be primarily focused on young Proust's first entrances into society. Each salon or dinner he attends is described in depth—for 100 pages or more. I actually enjoyed these bits more than others, because, as an outsider to high society, his observations of it are especially keen. It's very much a window into that time/society—almost a history book.
The Dreyfus case becomes a common topic in this volume, as people start filtering their social circle based on their op More...
The Dreyfus case becomes a common topic in this volume, as people start filtering their social circle based on their op More...
