Reading Proust: Madam Swann At Home
One of the many interesting puzzles about In Search of Lost Time involves the age of the narrator or, rather, narrators. In Swann’s Way there is clearly an older, overarching narrator augmenting the narration of a young boy. In Within A Budding Grove , the second book of the novel, the narrator begins as a slightly older boy, though of undetermined age. Meanwhile, the overarching narrator (possibly multiple older narrators of various ages) is present throughout to provide details that the boy/teenager does not yet comprehend. The book is divided into two lengthy parts. “Madam Swann At Home” consists of about 300 pages while “Place-Names: The Place” becomes the longest section of the novel thus far weighing in at about 400 pages. The reader is uncertain of the amount of time that actually passes in Part One. Though two separate New Year’s Days are mentioned, the story reads as if a longer period of time has passed than it may seem. The boyish narrator is more sophisticated t