Marcel Proust's master-work is about nothing less than memory itself. But it is far more than this, and his topics range from
love (and how we impart our own wishes on others),
time and its irregular flow, Habit (and how it can protect and destroy us). Proust charts his life from early childhood in the 1870's to after the Great War, and dives without restraint into deep introspection. We are taken on a fantastic journey through rural France, Paris and beyond; encountering the peoples of the chattering
classes and salon culture of the time, and the working classes (none of whom escape Proust's perspicacious eye). More than just a
novel (and running at about one million words and 3,700 pages) it is a meditation on the nature of the self; and with a bewildering array of characters (including the reptilian Mme. Verdurin, his tragic love Albertine, and the snooty yet fragile M. de Charlus) he manages to lay open to us the many types of personalities that make up our confusing
world - while at the same time rationalising and understanding. His unique style - which not only gives us access to his internal world but also that of others - has never been surpassed; and led to this book been described by Somerset Maugham as: "the greatest novel of this century." A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (its French title) describes this novel better than any summary ever could, literally: "In Search Of Lost Time."
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