The Guermantes Way

Marcel Proust remains precise in depicting every nuance of relationships. Life in high circles is rich and full of theatricality… I was sitting next to some vulgar people who did not know who the regular seat-holders were but were anxious to show that they were capable of identifying them and were nam......more

how can a sociopath love society so much?? because, make no mistake, that is what we are dealing with here.in this third installment, our dear narrator graduates from being a feeble child, from being a lovesick adolescent into a manipulating, stalking, social climbing creature who learns a lesson in......more

Si Swann et les Jeunes filles en fleurs exploraient respectivement l’enfance et l’adolescence du Narrateur, avec Le côté de Guermantes, nous entrons dans l’âge adulte. Proust, dans les deux premiers volumes de la Recherche, avait exploré avec une minutie prodigieuse les fluctuations du sentiment amo......more

In the first two volumes (I argue, anyway, in my review of A L'Ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs), Proust was most interested in putting romantic relationships under the microscope. He returns to that theme later on in the series, but in the third book he is primarily concerned with picking apart th......more

The last time I read Proust I got bogged down in this part and the same thing nearly happened again this time. Given how otherworldly brilliant Proust can be it's extraordinary how bloody boring he can also be. Much of this volume is dedicated to anatomising French high society with whom he's garrul......more