The greatest novel I've read, if not the greatest ever conceived.

By the end Proust has introduced us to more expansive and beautiful minds than one can find anywhere in the rest of literary art. He has made us laugh and made us cry and made us richer people for finding people who change in their understanding of the world around them, but also in their understanding of themselves.

Francoise, Charlus, Oriane, Basil, Swann, Odette, Albertine, Saint Loup and the narrator himself stand out as the most profoundly rich and believable characters on any page. I cried my eyes out when I finished this book and realized I would never learn anything else about them, never know anything about their lives, when I realized that they are all dead now, that our time together was over and that I could never share in the richness of M's nameless ruminations, dreams and observations. This is the richest of art in that it has made me see many aspects of my life from many new angles. It's wrapped up in what it means to be alive, love, learning, jealousy, anger, loss, friendship, time and memory. I can not recommend a book more highly.