“Life is too short, and Proust is too long,” wrote Anatole France in 1913 after the publication of In Search of Lost Time’s first volume – at a time when the remaining six volumes weren’t even on the horizon. Nobody, not even the author himself, had the slightest idea what the agonizing, drawn-out search for the meaning and essence of art would spawn: a literary universe that tackled or anticipated nearly all the philosophical and psychological questions of his time. The novel deals with the subjective nature of experiencing reality; with the power of the unconscious; and with love, jealousy, sickness, war, homosexuality, pederasty, the transience of life, and death – or merely the creative potency of a childhood memory. Proust remains unmatched in the obsession and attention to detail with which he illuminated every single aspect of human existence. This makes for a lengthy voyage, and you are likely to run out of steam at times. But to dive deeply into Proust’s universe is well worth your effort – and certainly not time lost.

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