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A review by blueyorkie
O Tempo Reencontrado by Marcel Proust
5.0
The moment I dreaded so much has finally arrived; this morning, after having laid my eyes for the premiere on the side of Swann's, I finished reading the seventh volume of the incredible masterpiece by Marcel Proust. Finally, everyone gets off at the terminus, the journey is over, and we have found the lost time.
Thus, time regained is the volume that closes the Research series. In a Paris overthrown by the First World War, the author reviews all the characters we have encountered throughout our reading. Some, like the charming Marquis de Saint-Loup, are dead; others are always the same; others have changed a lot, or maybe the world has changed. Oriane, the beautiful Duchess of Guermantes, has started associating with artists and becoming a new Marquise de Villeparisis. The new generations no longer know that she has long been the most famous woman. Most sought after in the capital, Madame Verdurin ("that insufferable old shrew" as I have often surprised myself calling her) has succeeded in marrying the Prince de Guermantes. Finally, what appears to be a stroke reduced the terrible Baron de Charlus to an almost childish state. In a word, war and time swept away the tremendous Parisian salons.
Now, when it comes time to give you my opinion on this volume and Research more generally, I feel that no praise is enough. I am still young, and after reading such a work, I fear being bored in my following readings, even with the most significant authors, as my father, who experienced it before me, predicted it for me.
Besides the extreme beauty of the sentences, by which one lets oneself easily be lulled, never during my readings, however already numerous, I had never met characters with such well-developed psychology. We are far from the stereotypical characters that we often encounter in novels. Each one here has its qualities and faults, evolving over the volumes.
This marvellous escapade in the salons of the end of the 19th century has often made me regret not having been born 150 years earlier than I would have liked to know this world!
Dear Mr Proust, I have only one word: Thank you!
Thus, time regained is the volume that closes the Research series. In a Paris overthrown by the First World War, the author reviews all the characters we have encountered throughout our reading. Some, like the charming Marquis de Saint-Loup, are dead; others are always the same; others have changed a lot, or maybe the world has changed. Oriane, the beautiful Duchess of Guermantes, has started associating with artists and becoming a new Marquise de Villeparisis. The new generations no longer know that she has long been the most famous woman. Most sought after in the capital, Madame Verdurin ("that insufferable old shrew" as I have often surprised myself calling her) has succeeded in marrying the Prince de Guermantes. Finally, what appears to be a stroke reduced the terrible Baron de Charlus to an almost childish state. In a word, war and time swept away the tremendous Parisian salons.
Now, when it comes time to give you my opinion on this volume and Research more generally, I feel that no praise is enough. I am still young, and after reading such a work, I fear being bored in my following readings, even with the most significant authors, as my father, who experienced it before me, predicted it for me.
Besides the extreme beauty of the sentences, by which one lets oneself easily be lulled, never during my readings, however already numerous, I had never met characters with such well-developed psychology. We are far from the stereotypical characters that we often encounter in novels. Each one here has its qualities and faults, evolving over the volumes.
This marvellous escapade in the salons of the end of the 19th century has often made me regret not having been born 150 years earlier than I would have liked to know this world!
Dear Mr Proust, I have only one word: Thank you!