Patrick's review
In Search of Lost Time, Volume III: The Guermantes Way (Modern Library Classics) by Marcel Proust
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, but I think that nearly all of Proust's points will be lost to the modern reader who isn't familiar with the high society of fin-de-siecle Paris.
Also, to anyone planning on reading this book, it would worth you time to familiarize yourself a bit with the various issues of the Dreyfuss Affair, as this is a key topic mentioned throughout the book that separates the many characters and marks their views of and their relations with each other.
Only recommended if you are trying to read all of ...more
Also, to anyone planning on reading this book, it would worth you time to familiarize yourself a bit with the various issues of the Dreyfuss Affair, as this is a key topic mentioned throughout the book that separates the many characters and marks their views of and their relations with each other.
Only recommended if you are trying to read all of ...more
