Review: Marcel Proust’s “Swann’s Way (In Search of Lost Time, Book 1)”

I attempted this under the misapprehension that it was on KAM’s mega-list, or one of the other lists I’m wandering through, and alas, it was not (although it does appear in culturally diverse list). Somebody should be around to blame for that. In two volumes, Swann’s Way is the first of the seven volumes which make up In Search of Lost Time. It is too much of a gimme to relate my opinion of this work to two words in the series title – but I just did it. After over 450pp, half way through volume 2, I just couldn’t pretend to care any more about Swann’s rambling affair, or the tragedy of being of the upper classes and so horribly bored in Paris at the end of the 19^th century. It’s hypnotic, momentarily comic, and overwhelmingly aimless. An end to it, I say, “classic but overrated”.

PS It IS on KAM’s list. Thank goodness at least I get those stripes.

Where it came from: Library
Time and manner of reading: A couple of weeks’ worth of samplers and sits
Where it went: Home
Reminds me of/that: Being a classic is no excuse for being boring
Who I’d recommend it to: Peak-bagging classics die-hards
Also reading: Being Alive edited by Neil Astley