Remembrance of Things Past: Volume III - The Captive, The Fugitive, & Time Regained (Remembrance of Things Past #3) Paperback | Pages: 1152 pages

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Original Title:	Remembrance of Things Past: Volume III - The Captive, The Fugitive, & Time Regained
ISBN:	039471184X (ISBN13: 9780394711843)
Edition Language:	English
Series:	Remembrance of Things Past #3, À la recherche du temps perdu #5-7, A la busca del tiempo perdido #3 , more

Narration To Books Remembrance of Things Past: Volume III - The Captive, The Fugitive, & Time Regained (Remembrance of Things Past #3)

Others have reviewed this work far more eloquently than I can, but I still wanted to put a few words into the ether:

*** This a review of the entire book, not just this "chapter." And it is a "review" in the loosest possible terms: Consider this stream-of-consciousness rambling:***

To avoid that night without a Dawn:

In my life I had been like a painter climbing a road high above a lake, a view of which is denied to him by a curtain of rocks and trees. Suddenly through a gap in the curtain he sees the lake, its whole expanse is before him, he takes up his brushes. But already the night is at hand, the night ... which no dawn will follow.


People, places, smells, feelings, memories: The swirling vortices of time that we try to cling to, fade and die, only to return in a person or place from which we have come.

Do we end at the beginning or start with the end? How can a story begin without an ending or does it begin at all?

The "ways" (Guermantes and Swann's) combine into a single point, a new life blooming out into a new future, while those who brought that life forward rot on their feet.


The Narrator guides us through these threads, and though his prose is rich and layered, descriptive and deep, filled with ever-expanding descriptions of events, feelings, thoughts, and smells, we still feel as if we walk through a dream. To me, there was a constant fog pervasive over every dinner party, Balbec, Combray, the War, and all those involved; was it because the Narrator is never named (except in those snippets where the fourth wall breaks, and these I'm convinced, had Proust lived, would not be in the final cut)? And in the final chapter, the fog clears a little, letting us see new faces: Except they aren't new. They are people we know, but who have aged. Once unrecognizable strangers resolve into friends with whom we've dined only recently, but "recently" being many decades prior.

It is thus that Time works its decay. It leaves us people in their places, places with their people, and bright memories that are in stark contrast to the dullness that remains.

This has been a very personal journey, in which I often found myself looking in a mirror. When asked "what is that book about?" I often find it hard to offer a concise reply, because The Search is different for everyone, and has its own varying meanings for each reader. As such, I find it hard to write any sort of traditional review for anyone, apart from the feelings and memories that are invoked by this sprawling narrative.

In order to properly answer the question, "what is this book about?" I must recall the madeleine scene and return the question with: Have you ever walked by a building and caught the whiff of some savory aroma; and had said aroma carry you back to your college days, wherein those memories flash vivid, bright, but only for a second (though you've re-lived four solid years in seconds)? Or, have you bitten into a Christmas cookie, and had childhood pass before your eyes: memories of being dandled on a long-dead relative's knee, the smell of the brandy on his breath, and the sounds of Bing Crosby playing in the background? Multiply this feeling by an entire lifetime, and you can begin to brush fingers against the skein of this intricate, masterful, multi-sided book.

Reading The Search is an endeavor that engaged all my senses and spoke to deep memories within my heart; it was such a personal experience, that I hope I've given it enough justice with my rambling.

List Epithetical Books Remembrance of Things Past: Volume III - The Captive, The Fugitive, & Time Regained (Remembrance of Things Past #3)

Title	:	Remembrance of Things Past: Volume III - The Captive, The Fugitive, & Time Regained (Remembrance of Things Past #3)
Author	:	Marcel Proust
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 1152 pages
Published	:	August 12th 1982 by Vintage (first published 1927)
Categories	:	Fiction. Classics. Literature. Cultural. France

Rating Epithetical Books Remembrance of Things Past: Volume III - The Captive, The Fugitive, & Time Regained (Remembrance of Things Past #3)

Ratings: 4.56 From 770 Users | 60 Reviews

Commentary Epithetical Books Remembrance of Things Past: Volume III - The Captive, The Fugitive, & Time Regained (Remembrance of Things Past #3)

It took me a year to read all three of the books of "Remembrance of Things Past." I limited myself to reading ten pages a day, which is the only way one can read Proust and remain interested. Some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read was in these books, and also some of the most boring. On the whole, I gave the books five stars because the beauty outweighed the boredom enormously.

It's hard to overpraise Proust, yet superfluous. What I found most important and impressive was the way that he caused me to re-experience the passage of time in my own life. I was reading over a six month period, and the passage of time itself during the reading was shaped by the book, but Proust's genius is also to evoke one's own memories. It's a cliche of criticism that no two readers read exactly the same text; Proust's method makes that profoundly the case.

A hard slog through 3500 pages in all 3 volumes - I set aside a summer when not working to get through them. That was in the early 1980s. The last page makes the effort worth it. So far, I am the only person that I know that has read it completely. Even one of my English profs gave up part way through.

Others have reviewed this work far more eloquently than I can, but I still wanted to put a few words into the ether:*** This a review of the entire book, not just this "chapter." And it is a "review" in the loosest possible terms: Consider this stream-of-consciousness rambling:***To avoid that night without a Dawn:In my life I had been like a painter climbing a road high above a lake, a view of which is denied to him by a curtain of rocks and trees. Suddenly through a gap in the curtain he sees

What a wonderful conclusion to a truly singular work of literature. Though most say this last volume bears the indelible stamp of being the volume of works that Proust himself didn't oversee (in terms of publication) I must say I found it to be the most enjoyable, editorial mishaps aside.Between the turbulent and tragic relationship of the narrator and Albertine and the incredible cavalcade of sense-memories in the final volume Time Regained, this is Proust at his finest and literature at its

Originally published on my blog here between June and October 1999.The CaptiveWith the seventh volume of Remembrance of Things Past (both The Guermantes Way and Sodome et Gomorrhe being originally published as two separate volumes), a distinct change is apparent. This is the first part that was edited and published by other hands after Proust's death, and to me the missing final polishing seems to make itself clear in several ways.The immediate sign that The Captive is unfinished is that is

Yes, I really have read the whole thing, after more than 30 years. I started reading Proust in the old Moncrieff translation with the tiny print. And after the first few volumes. I would take a break. But I love "Swann in Love" so much that every time I would go back to Proust I wanted to start from the beginning... Anyway, it's worth the effort. And once you finish it, you'll probably want to go back to the beginning and start all over again..