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A review by david_rhee
Time Regained by Marcel Proust
4.0
It took me a couple years, but I finally finished the 7-volume In Search of Lost Time. I'm not big on milestones, but it's difficult to ignore the satisfaction felt at closing the last back cover on Proust's enormous masterpiece. The last volume, Time Regained, immediately impresses as a distinct book apart from the others. The focus of the early part of it is the effect of the World War upon the aristocratic circle of Proust, and the spotlight fixes upon M. de Charlus due to his pro-Germanism. To some characters, the war is nothing but a topic of conversation. To others, it reaches for their very lives and snatches them away. Proust reflects in his own familiar fashion upon the enthusiasm generated by wartime and the hatred it spawns.
The focus shifts rather abruptly to the topic of aging. As a reader, it is difficult to determine how much time has passed throughout the 7 volumes, but by the 7th it is surprising just how old everyone has gotten. The meandering thoughts of the narrator dwell upon the phenomenon of aging itself and the overtaking of the younger generation over the older along with its manifold effects. Naturally, the lives of many characters from previous volumes are revisited and the reader is thereby updated on the going's-on of a few forgotten souls.
The third major topic which occupies the narrative thought of Proust is the subjective life of a novelist. This is the most enjoyable section for its insight into Proust's own reflections concerning the writing of the very book the reader is enjoying. It is a sort of "preface" but one which is curiously located at the end of the book.
As for the whole work itself, would I ever revisit it? Due to its sheer length, I probably will not. Perhaps it is best to leave it at that...to look back upon it through the aqueous layer of time and memory and to enjoy its curious refraction through my imperfect recollection. Much like the other lost things of a past life, its beauty is thereby magnified or the form of that beauty will undergo the most unexpected of transitions.
The focus shifts rather abruptly to the topic of aging. As a reader, it is difficult to determine how much time has passed throughout the 7 volumes, but by the 7th it is surprising just how old everyone has gotten. The meandering thoughts of the narrator dwell upon the phenomenon of aging itself and the overtaking of the younger generation over the older along with its manifold effects. Naturally, the lives of many characters from previous volumes are revisited and the reader is thereby updated on the going's-on of a few forgotten souls.
The third major topic which occupies the narrative thought of Proust is the subjective life of a novelist. This is the most enjoyable section for its insight into Proust's own reflections concerning the writing of the very book the reader is enjoying. It is a sort of "preface" but one which is curiously located at the end of the book.
As for the whole work itself, would I ever revisit it? Due to its sheer length, I probably will not. Perhaps it is best to leave it at that...to look back upon it through the aqueous layer of time and memory and to enjoy its curious refraction through my imperfect recollection. Much like the other lost things of a past life, its beauty is thereby magnified or the form of that beauty will undergo the most unexpected of transitions.