This, volume 1 of a new(ish) edition of Proust’s magnum opus In Search of Lost Time, is slow-moving but totally immersive. So slow-moving that even the event that arguably kick-starts the whole extended novel, the famous episode where the narrator’s childhood memories bubble up after tasting a madeleine, doesn’t happen until about 40 pages in. And even then he spends a couple of pages struggling to remember before the memories start appearing.
In the course of the novel we get to know the (nameless) narrator, as well as Charles Swann, who cuts quite the society figure. Swann is the most compelling character here – he is a sympathetic figure, if a bit of a fool for love. I did get a bit exasperated with him in the A Love of Swann’s section, where he amply demonstrates that love is blind.
Proust’s famously long-winded sentences somehow seem appropriate to his subject matter, which concerns people’s interior lives – thoughts, motivations, memory. Lydia Davis, the translator, has tried to preserve the feel of the original French in her version – I have not read the original but this book definitely takes you into the world of French society 100 years ago. As usual, the translator’s notes are fascinating. The other 5 volumes in this edition are all translated by different people – hopefully they’re all as good as Davis. I still think Swann’s Way is a better English title for the first volume though, even if Proust himself didn’t like it.