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Swann’s Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1)

Marcel Proust,

C.K. Scott Moncrieff (Translator)

Start date: January 1, 2024

Finish date: March 31, 2024

Discussion: Old School Classics, Pre-1915

Why we're reading this: 2024 1st Quarter Long Read
[close] 2024 1st Quarter Long Read

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What Members Thought

Aug 07, 2020 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: proust-and-related-books

What to say.... This was not at all what I expected, I'll begin with that.

Proust seemed to bring around a whirl of emotions while reading. Fascination at some of the most beautiful descriptions, recognition in many of the feelings and thoughts surrounding love, lust, the wrong person, etc.., irritation at the snobbery and rudeness of many of the characters, dislike of Odette and her cunning behavior, the desire to slap Swann senseless and tell him to just make a run for it...

I had to edit my r What to say.... This was not at all what I expected, I'll begin with that.

Proust seemed to bring around a whirl of emotions while reading. Fascination at some of the most beautiful descriptions, recognition in many of the feelings and thoughts surrounding love, lust, the wrong person, etc.., irritation at the snobbery and rudeness of many of the characters, dislike of Odette and her cunning behavior, the desire to slap Swann senseless and tell him to just make a run for it...

I had to edit my review, as I realized I stopped reading before the end. I entirely missed "Place-Names..." to my detriment, as this really was a wonderful section. I loved the beginning with Prousts details on the city, it was a nice change of pace from towers and flowers. ; ) Then I was rather horrified, as now little Marcel is falling into the same trap that Swann was in regard to Gilberte. Ughhhhh. I thought finally that drudgery was over as the fool married that woman, but no...now Marcel is in love with the girl. And, the ad nauseam will probably continue. As Gilberte really seems an "Apple doesn't fall far from the tree" type of gal, and rather too much like her mother.

The ending was beautiful and brilliant however, and wrapped it up and left me with such warm fuzzies, that I can't not move on to the next book.

Sometimes I struggled reading this, and actually switched to audio toward the end to move things along (this is the first book of 7, so I needed to keep it moving). It can be wordy, and Proust is very descriptive. At times it can seem like overkill, but at times it can so perfectly describe something; a moment, a thought, a feeling, an object, that I was left in awe.

All in all, I liked the book. Perhaps when I retire and I'm a "lady of leisure" I'll have more time to revisit the book, and read it giving it the proper time and attention it deserves. In the back of my mind this is my plan - to eventually reread the tome. Although I still have 6 more volumes to go now, so perhaps that's ambitious thinking before I've barely made a dent in this session.

At any rate...I'm on to