Articles about novels

This is the third volume of In Search of Lost Time, in which our hero (I’ll call him Marcel even though that’s probably not his name) enters the world of high society, basically by stalking Mme de Guermantes until he falls in with her social set and gets invited to her salons. In the meantime, a lot happens (relatively speaking; this is not The Three Musketeers). He hangs out with his friend Robert de Saint-Loup, who inexplicably thinks very highly of him. At one point Saint-Loup and friends have a long discussion of military strategy – I thought of that late chapter of War & Peace where the novel suddenly turned into a field marshal’s manual.

In Search of Lost Time continues. The narrator is now an adolescent, so this book is largely concerned with his newfound fascination with young ladies. The first half of the book continues on from the last book, featuring Swann and his wife Odette and more pertinently, their daughter Gilberte. In the second half, he spends the summer in the seaside town of Balbec, trying to meet girls. (Actually he spends most of time thinking about trying to meet girls.) After much foreshadowing, he finally meets the young Albertine who will play a large part in his life and this novel. I really enjoyed this part.