{"id":30762,"date":"2025-12-24T16:12:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T20:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=30762"},"modified":"2026-05-01T12:55:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:55:32","slug":"marcel-proust-in-search-of-lost-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2025\/12\/24\/marcel-proust-in-search-of-lost-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Search of Lost Time<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
by Marcel Proust (1913 – 1927)<\/span>
translated from the French by C.K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin and Andreas Mayor, with revisions by D.J. Enright (1992)<\/span>
Modern Library (2011)<\/span>
4832 pp<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time, every New Year\u2019s Day brought to me the same quiet resolution: this would be the year I finally read In Search of Lost Time<\/i>. That thought returned faithfully, and just as faithfully slipped away. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in late 2024, when a friend on Instagram floated the idea of #Proust2025, something shifted. For the first time, I knew I\u2019d actually start it and I knew I\u2019d finish it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have learned, slowly and still imperfectly, that for a reading project like this there is no perfect reading day coming on the horizon. The decision to start and to stick with it is made inside ordinary days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, this week, after reading a little every single day since January 1, buoyed by friends reading alongside me, offering insight, humor, and patience, I found myself reading the final words of Time Regained<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll be processing what this year-long reading has been for a long time, and I now understand why people return to this sometimes agonizing book. What I know already is this: In Search of Lost Time<\/i> was more beautiful, more moving, and more profound than I expected. And while I\u2019d heard warnings about long stretches and seemingly interminable parties, no one warned me how unsettling and troubling it often is, particularly in its examination of what the narrator so often mischaracterizes as \u201clove.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been a full experience, one I suspect will continue to unfold for me for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“For a long time. . . ” And then suddenly I find myself having read the final pages of Time Regained<\/em>. Here are some brief thoughts upon finishing Proust’s In Search of Lost Time<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[800],"tags":[1018,1468,1064,962,956,1521,1409,970,955,1068],"coauthors":[505],"class_list":["post-30762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-1910s","tag-1468","tag-1064","tag-962","tag-1920s","tag-1521","tag-1409","tag-970","tag-955","tag-1068"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/In-Search-of-Lost-Time-Featured-Image.jpg?fit=700%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-80a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30762"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31012,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30762\/revisions\/31012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30762"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=30762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}