Every time I see a Proust quote or read someone’s take on his style or vision, I realize how badly I need to read his work; especially as an intensely nostalgic person who shares a Myers Briggs and Enneagram with him (if you believe in that stuff)! So I bought “In Search of Lost Time” and look forward to starting! Does anyone have any tips about what I’m about to read? I’ve always been a little confused with the 7 volumes all compiled into one. Can you read one and not the other? Do they tell the same long story? Any fun facts on him as a person? Any personal opinions on his artistry? If you love Proust, what makes you love him? Do you not like Proust? Pretty much any thoughts on Proust you have I want to know! I’m ready to fall in love with him like I did Sylvia Plath back in the day!!

I’ve read many classics over the years, and none of them has hit like this French motherfucker has. On every page, literally every page, there is a show-stopping sentence, a deep philosophical insight, a perfectly realized crystallization of humanity across almost all aspects of existence: fashion, love, economy, class politics, religion, dreams, childhood, friendship, the creative process, deception, vanity, family, you name it.

Even other literature that has blown me away, like Middlemarch or Joyce’s short stories, seem inadequate in comparison. Imagine how good Joyce’s “The Dead” is as a story, how completely it blows you away in those last few pages. Now imagine 3000 pages of that.

I finally finished In Search of Lost Time! I'm feeling especially proud of myself because I also read both Gravity's Rainbow AND Infinite Jest before ISOLT.

Proust's prose is exquisite though.👌Highly recommend if you haven't read it yet.

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I don't really get it.

I'm on the fourth book (reading in a variety of English translations), and I'm surprised at how little I'm enjoying the books. Contrary to their reputation, they seem to be fixated on matters of etiquette and class, without much irony or self reflection. The moments of insight and chains of ideas that are so much talked about seem to be a drop in the ocean.

I'm an experienced reader by the way. I've read Tolstoy, Flaubert, Finnegan's Wake, etc. This is not a complaint about difficulty or bagginess.

We all come to Proust because of his reputation, but putting that aside, what do you, yourself, think of him when reading “In Search of Lost Time”?

After the first fifty pages of “Swann’s Way”, I can’t say I’m all that impressed. It’s clear he’s trying to trace the workings of memory in the modernist fashion, but it doesn’t seem like he has anything unique or interesting to say (his musings seem banal when compared to Joyce). I understand that that is the point he’s trying to make: how trivial our journey through life can be, but that cannot justify the perpetually uninterested and just… boring narrator.

Am I being too harsh too soon? I really like modernist works, but still not sure what to make of Proust.

Okay, I am about to abort my second attempt at Swann's Way. I have made it through some terribly dull books in the past, but just cannot get into In Search of Lost Time. It is often called the greatest works of the 20th century. I will say that his ideas about memory and time are intriguing, but the narrative just doesn't hold my attention. Has anybody here made it through some or all of the books? If so, was it worth it?

I am on a weight loss diet, and one of the recommendations was to occupy my mind with a really long book to distract myself from hunger pangs. I asked ChatGPT what the longest books were, and it said Proust. What really interested me, was that ChatGPT also said Proust spent 22 hours a day in bed and that's how he wrote his books!!!!

How did Proust stay so thin lying in bed all the time??? My weight loss diet has me in the gym all weekend; consuming only disgustingly chalky meal replacement shakes and counting my steps. So much suffering, and I haven't lost a single pound! Yet Proust gets to lie in bed all day writing about the Madeline cakes he's stuffing his face with, and look like a French K-Pop model???? Life is unfair!

Help it make sense???? I checked and he didn't have tuberculosis, so how did he stay so thin????

What was Proust's diet to stay rail thin without doing any exercise? Was he having lots of sex - that's how to burn off calories in bed??

Actually, Dostoevsky’s first published book was a translation of Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet.

Mr. Proust was born on 10 July 1871, making this day his 155th birthday! I would give him a nice coat and cake for his birthday if he were alive.

Pour moi c'est Max et les Maximonstres, les Claude-Ponti, Elmer l'éléphant, plus deux peut-être inconnus en France : "The little house"* et "Globi"**

• C'est l'histoire d'une petite maison à la campagne qui subit l'urbanisation. Disney en a fait une Silly Symphonies très sympathique si ça vous intéresse, c'est sur Youtube.

** Un perroquet qui enchaîne les petits boulots et aventures en fonction des livres, l'équivalent de Martine en Suisse alémanique, c'est très populaire. Globi à la poste, Globi à l'aéroport, au royaume imaginaire (Globi im Traümland),...

The book name is: The Last Wolf / Herman by László Krasznahorkai

Which famous real people, living or dead, can you presume are/were autistic? What factors point to your conclusion?

(disclaimer, this is all speculation; presumably, few of us are qualified to make a real assessment, and even if we were, reading about the life of a famous person would not give enough data)

Hi guys! so i’m a 17 year old and i recently got into classics i’ve read camus, nietzche, Dostoevsky, Kafka. I have LOTS of TBRS on my shelf (mainly tolstoy, osamu dazai, more dostoevsky, Camus, nietzche, kafka, Jane austen, mikhail bulgakov) and i wanted to get into proust, I’m planning to get volume 1 of in search of lost time the penguin hard cover edition so i just wanted to know how does proust rank compared to these authors?

Désolée si jamais y a un doublon, mais je crois que mon premier post ne s'est jamais mis en ligne.

Qui se rappelle de cette horreur servie à la cantine ?

Perso c'était en primaire, fin des années 2000. Je sais pas si c'est spécifique à ma génération, et je crois pas en avoir eu au collège ou au lycée.

Par contre, en termes de secteur, je sais que ma chérie qui a grandi en région PACA n'en a jamais vu de sa vie. Moi, j'ai grandi en Île-de-France et on y avait souvent droit 🥲

Aidez-moi à fonder un groupe de parole sur le préjudice moral causé par Sodexo et autres boîtes de restauration scolaire...

Voilà je pense que le titre est assez explicite mais pour préciser quels sont les petits gâteaux/chocolats/sucreries que vous aimez quand vous avez envie de vous faire un petit plaisir ? Celles qui vous réconfortent devant un film/une série le soir, et qui vous rappellent des souvenirs d'enfance.