138 of 140 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the great pleasures of middle age, August 10, 2001
Fortunately, I was never assigned Proust in school and, prior to picking up Swann's Way, knew of Proust mainly through a Monty Python sketch. I thus came to the book with almost no preconceptions. It was, without exaggerration, one of the best reading experiences I have ever had. Proust is unlike any other novelist, somehow looking at life with both incredible analytical detachment and, at the same time, a neurotic coloring that is all his own. But, to fully appreciate this work, you have to take it at the right time. That time, for me at least, is middle age, when you begin to accept your own neuroses, when your own life consists of 50% memories, and when you can appreciate the relentless dissecting of the immortal "types" who inhabit every society. I have gone on to read the next two novels in Proust's series and now have to force myself not to consume the remainder too hastily. Even if Proust turns you off the first time around, wait ten years and try again.
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56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the great masterworks of world literature, April 24, 2003
We apply "classic" and "masterpiece" too liberally, but regardless of how loosely or strictly we deploy the terms, Marcel's Proust's extraordinary novel belongs to the shortest of short lists deserving such description. At the risk of hyperbole (though I do not thing it is hyperbolic), Proust is the one writer of the 20th century who perhaps belongs to the ages more than to his own time, who belongs with Shakespeare and Dante and Homer.
Many are put off Proust by not understanding the structure of his work and his writing strategy. The book, to many, seems to have no point and no plot. The novel actually does have a plot, albeit a simple and not easy to discern one: Will the narrator (usually termed "Marcel") become a writer? Through seven long volumes, we watch Marcel variously resolve to write and then forsake his resolve, we see him even forget for enormous lengths of time his intent to write. Through love affairs, through events with his friends, through reflections on all matter of subjects and experiences of every kind, Marcel finally comes in the final volume to rediscover his vocation and the subject of his work.
This first volume in the series contains many of the most famous episodes in all of Proust. The famous passage in which the Narrator tells of his not being able to fall asleep as a child is found in the first pages. The most famous section in all of Proust, that of his eating as an adult a madeleine that first creates an inexplicable sense of joy and then engenders a plethora of involuntary memories of his childhood, is also found in this volume. The second half is the remarkable story of "Swann in Love," in which family friend Charles Swann falls in love, much to his surprise, with the courtesan Odette.
This first volume glitters for the same reason that subsequent volumes do: Proust's remarkable sentences, in which he heaps phrase upon apt phrase on top of a carefully concealed central idea; Proust's extraordinarily complex, interesting, believable, and brilliant characters (I personally think he handles character better than any other author); and the wonderful passion and sensibility that permeates every page.
I will end with a piece of advice: Proust, more than any writer I know, gives back as much as you point into him. If you expend a great deal of effort in working through his masterpiece, you will be comparably rewarded. If, on the other hand, you pick up SWANN'S WAY casually, expecting a relaxed, entertaining read, you will be profoundly disappointed. But if you approach him with an open mind, a great deal of patience, and a willingness to work your way carefully through each sentence, you just might believe this to be the most remarkable thing you have ever read.
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54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Stop! beware!, June 14, 2008
Amazon has really confused things here. I am reviewing this Kindle e-book:
In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past, Volume 1: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust. This is nothing more than the old, public-domain translation from the 1920s, yet it dishonestly appropriates the cover of the recent Penguin-Viking translation and links to another fairly recent updating of the 1920s translation, copyrighted by Random House / Modern Library. Stay away from this cheating publisher!
If you want the public-domain translation in Kindle format, you can get it here without cost:
Swann's Way. It's also available free on the Gutenberg Project, which is almost certainly where this 'publisher' ripped off his text.
If you want a really good modern translation in Kindle format, then buy the Modern Library edition:
In Search of Lost Time, Volume I: Swann's Way. It costs nine bucks, but it's far more enjoyable, and you're not dealing with bandits.
For more about the modern translations, see this Kindle short take:
The Fourteen-Minute Marcel Proust: Everyone's guide to the greatest novel ever written. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford
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