84 - Marcel Proust's Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time #1)

No more searching is necessary. It’s time. It’s time to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, that is. And we here at Books of Some Substance will be doing just that, starting off with this episode on the first volume, Swann’s Way.
Listen in as David, Nick, and Nathan begin this long journey by attempting to summarize the actual events in the book (likely to be a recurring challenge); by scratching the surface of the concepts of remembering via the senses, attempting to slow down the passage of time, and the tension between the world of the material vs. the world of idea; and by simply getting lost in passage after passage of beautiful prose.
If you enjoy this episode, know that there will be five more on their way. We’ll be releasing a Proust episode every two months as we continue reading this masterpiece. If you’ve always had In Search of Lost Time on your to-read pile, now is as good of a time as any to dig in and join us. Come for the madeleines, stay for the memories.
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Marcel Proust was born on July 10, 1871 in the Paris suburb of Auteuil.
Swann’s Way, the first volume of In Search of Lost Time, was published in November 1913 and was headed for a fourth printing when World War I broke out.
The novel's main themes are time and memory and the power of art to withstand the destructive forces of time.
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[@angelacraw2907]

Another amazing dicussion. Thank you for recording it for us. Your deep thoughts on the book are illuminating. I loved the book even the wonderful passages on the impressions of countryside, but when one of you described it as 'tree, tree, treey branches, green' I cracked up, hilarious. And there is a lot of humour in the book. My favourite is the scene when in Swann's jealousy he returns to Odette's house to see who she is with and on seeing a lighted window and hearing a man's voice he raps on the shutter and finds, to his horror, it is the house next door! I laughed out loud at that section.

[@booksosubstance]

Thank you for listening. Proust will hit you with deep, universal emotions of jealousy, guilt, longing, and then throw in a a comedy bit to ground you. Genius.