Remembrance of Things Past / In Search of Lost Time - Vol.1 Swann's Way

By Proust, Marcel

Book Id: WPLBN0100750509
Format Type: PDF (eBook)
File Size: 4.12 MB.
Reproduction Date: 1/18/2025

Title:	Remembrance of Things Past / In Search of Lost Time - Vol.1 Swann's Way
Author:	Proust, Marcel
Volume:
Language:	Malayalam
Subject:	Fiction, Drama and Literature, French Classics
Collections:	Authors Community
Historic Publication Date:	2025
Publisher:	Maruthoor Purushothaman

Member Page:	Maruthoor Purushothaman
Citation APA MLA Chicago Proust, M. (2025). Remembrance of Things Past / In Search of Lost Time - Vol.1 Swann's Way. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Remembrance of Things Past / In Search of Lost Time follows the narrator's recollections of childhood and experiences into adulthood in late 19th-century and early 20th-century high-society France. Marcel Proust began to shape the novel in 1909; he continued to work on it until his final illness in the autumn of 1922 forced him to break off. Proust established the structure early on, but even after volumes were initially finished, he continued to add new material and edited one volume after another for publication. The Novel is considered, by many scholars and critics, to be the definitive modern novel. It has had a profound effect on subsequent writers. Virginia Woolf wrote in 1922: "Oh if I could write like that!" Edith Wharton wrote that "Every reader enamoured of the art must brood in amazement over the way in which Proust maintains the balance between these two manners—the broad and the minute. His endowment as a novelist—his range of presentation combined with mastery of his instruments—has probably never been surpassed." The novel had great influence on twentieth-century literature; some writers have sought to emulate it, others to parody it. For the centenary of the French publication of the novel's first volume, American author Edmund White pronounced it as "the most respected novel of the twentieth century."

Summary
Swann's Way tells two related stories, the first of which revolves around Marcel, a younger version of the narrator, and his experiences in, and memories of, the French town Combray. Inspired by the "gusts of memory" that rise up within him as he dips a Madeleine into hot tea, the narrator discusses his fear of going to bed at night. He is a creature of habit and dislikes waking up in the middle of the night not knowing where he is. He claims that people are defined by the objects that surround them and must piece together their identities bit by bit each time they wake up. The narrator traces the roots of his inclination to become a writer back to Combray. His grandparents and friends encourage him to read and introduce him to Bergotte, who becomes his favorite author. Marcel is awestruck by the overpowering beauty of the landscape around Combray, especially the hawthorn blossoms that line the path to Swann's house. He loves to fall asleep in the shade of these blossoms and then walk around the outskirts of Combray, where he can admire the town church. The novel now carries the reader back fifteen years to relate the second story—that of the love affair between Swann and Odette. Swann does not know that Odette has a terrible reputation and, thinking she will be harder to seduce than she really is, takes up an interest in her. He finds her only vaguely attractive, however, until one day when he realizes that she resembles Botticelli's beautiful rendering of Jethro's daughter in his painting Zipporrah. Idealizing Odette through the intermediary of the painting, Swann respects her beauty with all his heart and starts to obsess about her day and night. Nevertheless, Odette quickly begins to tire of Swann, who in turn is hopelessly in love with her. He suspects that she is cheating on him because she is such an awful liar, but his obsession for her runs so deep that he ignores the truth about their failed romance until there is no turning back: he must suffer the tormenting pangs of unrequited love. The Verdurins grow suspicious and jealous of Swann's famous friends, including the Prince of Wales, and begin to push him out of their social circle. Odette begins to cheat on Swann with Forcheville, another of the Verdurins' guests; Swann discovers this infidelity by reading one of Odette's letters to Forcheville. One of Swann's closest friends, Charlus, tries to turn Odette back toward Swann but ends up sending him an anonymous letter about Odette's history of infidelity. Swann finally confronts her and learns the truth about her torrid sexual escapades. Dumbfounded, Swann retreats back into the high society of aristocrats and royalty that he had enjoyed before meeting Odette. His suffering soon diminishes, and he gets used to seeing her only rarely. One day, after realizing the extent to which he had based his vision of Odette on the idealized version of a Botticelli figure, Swann exclaims disbelief at having experienced the greatest love of his life for a woman who wasn't his "type."