Readers have responded with encouragement for those sceptical of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, highlighting its humour, sexual content, and profound insights.
Personal Experiences with Proust
Bill Gaver from London read all seven volumes over nine months. He notes that beyond the famous madeleine incident, the novel includes the advent of electric lighting, motorcars, and aeroplanes, alongside endless romances and social intrigues. Gaver recalls that every hundred pages of tedium would yield five to ten pages of revelatory reading. He deems the effort totally worth it, though he would probably not do it again.
Sally Burch, also from London, read most of the work in French on the Métro during her year abroad in Paris in the 1960s. She found being buried in a book a good way to deter unwanted male attention. Burch emphasises that Proust is not inaccessible and that a great variety of sex appears throughout. She praises Proust's descriptive powers, from a blossoming May tree to the voice of a telephonist, and his masterful analysis of psychology and social structures.
Claire Chandy from Bristol has read the translation three times and points out that the novel is very funny in places, with surprising plot developments.
Anthony Burton from Stroud, Gloucestershire, took a volume of Proust while filming in India. The crew doubted he was reading it and moved his bookmark; they were impressed when he complained about losing his place.
John Prescott Thomas from Bristol recommends the bande dessinée version published in six volumes by Delcourt, calling it accessible, highly entertaining, and surprisingly faithful to the original.
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