Why is the world the way it is? At the opening of the novel, Marcel is seeking solace from this melancholy in recollections of a time past, a better time in Combray with his parents, but the memories are mere shadows – “Dead forever? Possibly.” Then, unbidden, come a flood of Combray memories, triggered by the taste of a piece of madeleine dipped in tea, connecting present and past experiences, transcending time and space:And suddenly the memory appeared.
Is it a series of Proust’s philosophical musings disguised as a novel? Or the inverse? An autobiography disguised as a novel? All the above? Call it what you will, but boring and uninteresting? Quite the opposite.Summing up SWANN’S WAY properly, I would say: The unnamed narrator of undefined age (though clearly old enough to reflect back on his childhood) – call him Marcel – is facing a very real and common human affliction, particularly of those of us of later age, a world-weariness, a discontent, dissatisfaction for the way life has turned out. For a novel about which many detractors have said ‘Nothing happens’ it was engaging, imaginative, full of philosophical ideas, and, as the saying goes, was hard to put down. Book 1 of À la recherche du temps perdu UPDATED: Summarizing Proust has a long history, most hilariously shown in the Monty Python sketch “Summarizing Proust Competition” in which contestants attempt to summarize all seven volumes of ‘In Search of Lost Time’ within 15 seconds:Having just finished SWANN’S WAY, my summary takes this condensed haiku form:Madeleine in teaBrings memories of lost timeMarcel is left sadNow for something completely different.SWANN’S WAY, the first of Proust’s seven-volume novel, is a joy to read. ⭐Latest English translation from French, 2002. Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:
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