This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit grandhotelabyss.substack.com

Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2026 season is here. The 2024 and 2025 archives are here. This episode, of which the first 15 minutes are free, is about Within a Budding Grove, the second volume of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. (The Invisible College covered the first volume, Swann’s Way, in an episode last year.) We consider Proust’s complex reflections on art and artistic genius, his ambivalent portrayal of Jewish and queer characters as outsiders akin to the artist, his ironic survey of the meeting between aristocracy and bourgeoisie, his aesthete’s skepticism about both friendship and sexual desire as against art, his discomfiting tribute to the eros of adolescence, his gentle oscillation between demystifying and mythifying aesthetic modes, and much more. Please like, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall: