Oh, don’t forget to glimpse through these foundational ideas on Personal Development later.Ĥ3 Moments of Genius, Compassion, and Human Understanding From Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time, previously known as Remembrance of Things Past) Hope you devour these wholesome grains of wisdom as vigorously as I did. (Not a bad idea, huh?) So I will, for now, be gratified with this piece on Proust’s profound insight into humans and the other one of his quotes I shared above. Truth be told, if I have to share the brilliant sentences from the entire book, I may have to start another blog dedicated to the one and only Proust. So we are merely talking about 180 pages out of the 490 (as my Kindle states). It is with moroseness I say, that my notes below are only from Section 1 and Section 2 of Swann’s Way – In Search of Lost Time Volume 1. (But I won’t be surprised if I’m to be found pouring through them soon enough.) Before succumbing to pneumonia at the age of 51 (suffering from asthma throughout his life and maybe having severe anxiety of getting separated from his mother), Proust had left behind seven heavy volumes of his memorable novel In Search of Lost Time, originally called “ A la recherche du temps perdu”, and at a point, “Remembrance of Things Past.” And irrespective of how much joy and learning I’ve found from this volume, I’m scared to pick up the subsequent pieces. Though I shouldn’t be too joyous because I have only read the first volume. (These two are part of the list of books that changed how I think about life.)
I’ve benefited from his writing and understanding of human emotions as much as I have gained from Rabindranath Tagore ( Gora specifically) and Leo Tolstoy ( Anna Karenina), and now the three join hands as my teachers on human complexities and realistic writing.
No matter how late to the party, I feel fortunate to finally discover Proust in all his abundant vulnerability, passion, tenderness, anxiety, and vigor.
But in today’s world of ever-fleeting focus, we shouldn’t be surprised that titles as heavy, long, complex, and volumed as Proust Swann’s Way (and In Search of Lost Time books) have been run over by Instagram and Tik-Tok. After all, a plethora of articles, textbooks, reviews, essays, and biographies draw on Proust’s grandiose contributions to literature, including How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain De Botton (which I will read soon). Swann’s Way (and I’m sure the following six volumes) are full of such long (really long and semi-coloneated) lines full of deep wisdom about human composition, our inherently corrupt and compassionate nature, the everlasting misery of love and desire, and the sweetness of life. The writing is so ingenious I wonder why don’t I run into Proust’s work more often.
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