In their inaugural episode of Proust Curious, hosts Emma Claussen and Hannah Weaver begin their plunge into Proust with the first volume of the Recherche, Swann’s Way. Proust’s humor can often be lost in the haze of canonization, but that’s where our curiosity turns today. We talk about psychedelic lime blossoms, seeing people through paintings, and the original deeply feeling kid. We consider the unity of this frequently-excerpted volume. Finally, we engage with Proust’s careful misdirection about the nature of time at the end of the volume, which he wrote in a letter was “the opposite of [his] conclusion.” Plus, we’ll answer the question, If not yourself, who would you be? Join us as we search for lost time and remember things Proust.

Resources:

Proust Questionnaire

In Search of Lost Time (trans. Moncrieff, Kilmartin, and Mayor; rev. Enright)

Emma and Hannah discuss this volume further

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