From the Bookshelf of The Year of Reading Proust…

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

Marcel Proust

Start date: January 1, 2013

Finish date: February 24, 2013

Discussion: Swann's Way, vol. 1

Why we're reading this: Alternate translation.
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Swann's Way, vol. 1

Through Sunday, 6 Jan.: Swann's Way
By Kris · 373 posts · 819 views

last updated Mar 29, 2025 09:41AM

Through Sunday, 24 Feb.: Swann's Way
By Kris · 142 posts · 381 views

last updated Feb 27, 2015 10:45AM

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What Members Thought

Feb 12, 2013 Garima rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: my-2-cents, we-reads, to-re-read, moments-of-huh

OVERTURE

For a long time I used to read really bad books. I have mentioned this before but it’s more like a reminder for me about how much 'bad' bad can get and how much 'good' reading good books feels like. DAMN GOOD! I owe my knowledge of all those good books entirely to goodreads. So as far as I was concerned, the last quarter of 2012 was all about reading Infinite Jest, about David Foster Wallace and about reading and loving him. But there was another name that was doing the rounds of this ha
OVERTURE

For a long time I used to read really bad books. I have mentioned this before but it’s more like a reminder for me about how much 'bad' bad can get and how much 'good' reading good books feels like. DAMN GOOD! I owe my knowledge of all those good books entirely to goodreads. So as far as I was concerned, the last quarter of 2012 was all about reading Infinite Jest, about David Foster Wallace and about reading and loving him. But there was another name that was doing the rounds of this happening corner of our beloved Goodreads. Proust. Proust what? Yes! The level of my ignorance was so baffling that I started my questions with what instead of who. A quick look at the reviews gave me a fair idea that Proust is someone I should have read a long time ago but right place, right time and all that jazz made me join the Proust Group (Great Group) and reading it is what I did.

SLEEPVILLE

So, this is what it feels like. When almost all your friends highly praise a book but when you get around reading it you can’t understand what the fuss is all about and the emotion one experience is something close to envy, envying the fact that you can’t appreciate something as much as others do. Proust basically made me sleep. The brilliance of his prose is so evident that one can’t ignore it even deliberately but I had a hard time getting myself interested in what he was saying. Each turn of the page was usually marked by this long, eye watering yawn and left me embarrassed at my own insensitivity. I was bored, I was restless and I freaked out at the idea of reading more than 600 pages of something I was not exactly beginning to 'love'. I started reading all the negative reviews (Paul Bryant never disappoints) to find some solace in them. I laughed at the 'cookie' jokes too and the biggest problem: I wasn’t looking for any motivation to read it. I found the group too intimidating with sooo much information around that I gave up the idea of even going through any of the ongoing discussions but then I’m a lousy group reader anyway. However, there was no question of abandoning this book because like I mentioned, the writing is to die for. I briefly considered stalling it for future read but I was waiting for somebody to fall in love.

GARIMA IN LOVE (?)

But sometimes the motivation is found in the most unlikely circumstances and when you’re least prepared for it. A lazy weekend, a movie and a quote:

Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap-high school and everything-just skip it.
Frank: You know Marcel Proust?
Dwayne: He’s the guy you teach.
Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he’s also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh… he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, ’cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn’t learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you’re 18… Ah, think of the suffering you’re gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don’t get better suffering than that.

A change in perspective is what followed next and this was at a time I was about to begin with 'Swann in Love' part. Among all the adjectives at my disposal, I went with Serendipity because what else could it be? These small sentimental things does happen because they does matter and soon I found that Proust was finally talking to me. He was speaking my language about which I greatly cared for. I felt for him because he gave voice to the emotions I have experienced myself. It was so easy to say that this man couldn't be anything else but a writer. And I was finally in love, too. I marked quotes after beautiful quotes but not including any of them here because this is more like a whining article for most part than a proper review. Proper and awesome reviews are written by Kalliope, Aubrey, Fionnuala, Sven, Ian and many others. So here’s the deal I have done with myself: To carefully read this volume again before moving to other volumes and appreciate the beauty of not only the words but what they signify and have a nice French vacation in Proust Land. I won’t give sleep much of a chance and will rather spend my time in literary sightseeing. And then, I’ll post a review this book truly deserves.
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Jan 01, 2013 Richard Shea rated it it was amazing

I'm going to need a while to come to terms with the first volume, but here are some initial thoughts:

1.) It isn't as long or as difficult as it is rumored to be. Sure, there are digressions, asides, long sentences, complex structures, minute details, more clauses than a legal contract, and countless allusions to art and history. It's a book for grown-ups, so I don't see a problem with that.

2.) It's more complex and difficult than it is rumored to be. It's about time. It's about the way we experi ...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Paul added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

There are some fairly large sections of this volume that I had difficulty getting through. The causes for that could be anything from lack of adequate concentration, to flaws in the English translation, to a simple lack of interest in a few of the subjects Proust touches on. My point is, despite those passages, I found Swann's Way enormously compelling, and it's only the beginning. So many fantastic observations, bringing architecture, flora, tastes, smells, and of course memories to life in a w ...more

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Aug 12, 2017 Bill rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-novel

Is this the greatest novel of the 20th C? After finishing the first installment (Swann's Way) I am thinking it probably is. It is completely unlike anything else I have read, and is as close to poetry as as prose can get. Proust engages all the senses throughout, while at the same time evoking thoughts and emotions that are almost inexpressible. The structure is quite odd - three disparate sections, and in each time is either compressed or stretched in unusual ways. Whole seminars could be const ...more

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Dec 30, 2012 twrctdrv rated it it was amazing

read #3, in lydia davis translation again. my original copy, margins full of line drawings of swann and self-important memories of high school, is gone now, donated somewhere in miami, likely trashed. i’m still sad about it. i’ve added new line drawings to this volume as well

it’s easy to forget how great a book this is. i couldn’t go on about that, but elsewhere. bloch won’t use an umbrella because it’s bourgeois, and i won’t write a review in the same way. no one would read it. read proust inst ...more

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