Proust, Proust, and more Proust

[Proust71]

Hello, everyone, I am a newcomer around this absolutely magnificent site, and I have a inquiry to ask. Is Proust worth reading after Swann's Way? I am currently in Swann in Love; this book has deeply enthralled me with its amazing expression of delineation I have never before seen in any other work I have read. Are the other volumes of In Search of Lost Time worth the read and have similar characteristics in prose as Swann's Way? Thank you.

[JBI]

The whole thing is worth reading. And even re-reading.

[Proust71]

Excellent news! Thank you very much.

[chasestalling]

Marcel's grandma's death shouldn't be missed which you will if you stop after Swann's Way. You'll be also depriving yourself of one of Proust's most unforgettable of creations, the Baron de Charlus, not to mention Proust's exegis on art which is as interesting as anything that he ever wrote.

[curlyqlink]

Yes, the whole work is definitely worth reading. Within A Budding Grove is not to be missed, nor (as chasestalling pointed out) is the Baron.

It's astonishing that this long, long work, that confines itself to such a narrow horizon, never becomes repetitive.

[loe]

The whole thing is worth reading. And even re-reading.
and re-reading and re-reading and re-reading... ;)

[Inderjit Sanghe]

I have always viewed 'In Search of Lost Time' as being one of those books in which you can turn to any page, literally any page, and find something brilliant in it.

My favourite passage have to be the description of the Madeline, his first meetings with the principle characters (Swann, Saint-Loup, Charlus, Odette (lady in pink), Gilberte and Albertine) mainly because you can go back to them and read them in context with Proust's latter meetings and musings witht he characters and see how either they or the narrator's perceptions of them have changed over time. In terms of importance, the first 30 pages are problably the most important. I also felt that one or two of the more important scenes dragged on a little-for example the revelation of the homosexual relationship between Charlus and Jupien, it was all a little surreal.

[loe]

My favourite passage have to be the description of the Madeline,
Oh yes, I totally agree with you. :)
I guess everyone of us knows this way of remembrance but only Proust was able to write such an ingenious description without using any theoretical explanations.

It's quite a pity that Proust died too early so that from Sodom and Gomorra onwards La Recherche remained more or less a fragment. How many pages would we have more to read if Proust could have finished his work? ;)