It's fascinating the way Proust prompts so many curious memories. One that surfaced for me was being aware, a lifetime ago - perhaps when I was 4 or 5, that my father was somehow confined to his chair for what seemed an eternity by a strange force. He was reading Proust (in French). I have no idea how I knew that it was Proust nor how he managed to read Proust in French but the volumes had plain white paper covers. Quite unlike these wonderfully accessible Penguin volumes.

When encountering so many wonderful passages in the 5th volume of this epic journey, I found myself writing them out by hand as way of hanging on to them. Hard to know what I could possibly say about In search of Lost Time or indeed this 5th volume that wouldn't detract from its many dimensions. Even to quote now somehow reduces the journey to something quite trivial. But I'll do it anyway:

It seems that events extend further than the moments in which they happen, and cannot be completely contained within them. Certainly, they spill over into the future through the memories we retain of them, but they also demand space in the time that precedes them. Certainly you will say that at that time we do not see them as they will actually be, but are they not also changed in our memory of them? p.371

- the fact that the intellect is not the most subtle, powerful and appropriate instrument for grasping the truth is only one more reason in favour of starting with the intellect rather than with the intuitions of the unconscious or with unquestioning faith in our premonitions. It is life which little by little, case by case, allows us to realise that what is most important for our hearts or our minds is taught to us not by reason but by other powers. And then it is the intellect itself, which, recognising their superiority, uses its reasoning in order to abdicate in their favour and accepts the role of collaborator and servant. p.391

( )

My detailed reviews of the individual works are found at:

The Captive
The Fugitive, or The Sweet Cheat Gone ( )

Whatever you want to call this volume of Remembrance of Things Past, whether it be "The Prisoner" or "The Captive", it is also for obvious reasons called "The Albertine Novel." In the beginning of "The Captive/Prisoner" Albertine is the narrator's mistress. As soon as she wants to visit friends he (as narrator finally named Marcel at times) bribes Albertine with furs and jewels to make her stay in his family's Paris apartment. There he keeps a close eye on her. Despite this possessive nature, he (Marcel) soon grows tired of Albertine but cannot completely let her go, hence the title of prisoner or captive. He becomes progressively more jealous, possessive, obsessive to the point of borderline psychotic worrying and wondering about who Albertine is with, male or female. Her confession of a friendship with lesbians forces Marcel to stoop to spying to see if she has relationships with other women. As usual, Proust has his finger squarely on the pulse of human nature. Albertine is the epitome of freedom while Marcel embodies jealousy and rage. ( )

I'm almost done with this book. All I have left is the last volume. It's long. Makes some long series look easy. On thing I picked up more than the other volumes is he talks a lot about anxiety. I think he mentions it 20 times. Proust actually had it himself and I think he's one of the few writers to write about it well that doesn't come off as a crazy person. ( )

Video for The Captive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnopID4eXq8
Video for The Fugitive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKfiHqMlMO0 ( )