Rating: 
Summary: LIFE-TIME Reading!
Review: Along with all the superlatives written by other people - let me add something else - what a sly sense of humor he has! Imagine conversing with an aristocratic dowerger, her very "modern" daughter in law, and a rather naive, poorly educated girl who confuses "Have you seen the Vermers?" (paintings by Vermere) with some live people. Proust notices the spittle spraying out with the dowerger's enthusiastic conversation, and polite comments that are really attacks on one another's views. Proust is a master of interaction between people, a group of people venting their opinions and looking each other over! TIMELESS. Fashions may be different today. We still interact with fears and prejudice pretty much the same. Some of Proust's philosophy is pretty dark. A religious person might be shocked because he is so down to earth. I am bouyed up by his poetry, his vivid insights, his reality. Unfortunatly I can't live long enough to read enough, and read again.
Rating: 
Summary: seriously over-rated
Review: Pretentious, boring, obscure, obscene (though definitely NOT erotic - no matter what your sexual orientation is), and self-glorifying, (or self-delusional). And extrememly poor insight into the motives of other people. Other than that it is a pretty good book.His endless recounting of the incredible (to me anyway) attentions and flattery lavished on him by the "upper crust" leave me feeling the descriptions are not true - the only question being if he was deluded or if he was lying. His explanations of the motivations of others aren't consistent with the facts and events actually described. And the motivations that he ascribes to people are amazingly uncharitable and "catty". As I read it I just had to keep going to myself "miaou! ". On the plus side the landscape descriptions are terrific. Unfortunately his word choices frequently seem unnecessarily obscure (is the use of 'syncope' instead of 'faint' really necessary ? ). The lack of notes by the editors frequently leave one baffled by references to minor french historical figures and events. I fault his editor for this rather than Proust since the events and persons he refers to were probably well known to an educated person in the time period the novels were written.
Rating:
Summary: A New World
Review: Is Proust better in the original French? Perhaps. My lack of language skills prevents me from embarking on an experiment. At any rate, it may not matter. The English translation is one of the most powerful, beautiful, astounding works of literature of the last century. Because every novel is, in a sense, a memory made concrete (that the memory is of fictional events is no matter), memory itself is a wonderful subject for fiction--in a sense, when an author takes memory (or time, because in life they are inevitably interwoven, indistinguishable perhaps) for his theme, as Proust does, he embraces all of experienced reality as his subject matter. Through memory, Proust manages to convey the actual texture of experience, and the truth of the insights makes the constant recursive analysis of motive, perception, and the act of remembering anything but tedious. On another level, Nabokov's insight that the great writers are fantasists, creators of worlds, and master illusionists is on display here--forget, for a moment, how accurately and profoundly Proust captures what it is like to be alive. His creations, perhaps transfigured from his real life, are glorious and "better than life." The Baron, Odette, Swann, Bergotte, Elstir, Bloch, "Rachel when from the Lord", Albertine, the woman at the WC, and the whole population of this other reality are an improvement on, if not reality, at least out dim perception of it. Is there in life such an "invert" as the Baron, or has there been such a Baron? And, slow-paced as they are, the events also are wonders and marvels--the Arabian Nights are a recurring subject of the narrator's wondering mind, for good reason--the stories here are as nested and impossible as those of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Paris in the early parts of the last century is as strange and eternal as the City of Brass or Baghdad of old--and some of the musings of the narrator in Venice suggest even stranger cities, the territory just east of Borges. To enter the pages of these (this) seven (one) novels (novel) is to enter an enchanted realm, and to return ensorcelled forever, carrying the suspicion that the world around us may also be magical and true and impossible as well.
Rating:
Summary: A magnificent cathederal to love.
Review: This book has been the most incredible artistic experience that I have undergone.There aren't enough stars or superlatives for this downright incredible book.This book weaves a magic spell as it explores in the most exquisitely wrought prose you will ever read (even in translation) the journey of the heart through the vagaries of love and obsession.In this respect it is incredibly human and universal.There really is nothing like it though I would feel that you need to read it twice-though nothing will ever compare to the first time you complete this masterpiece.The only negative thing I would say is that there are longeurs but even here beauties abound.My advise is leave your job (as I did!) for three months and forget about the rest of the world and immerse yourself (slowly mind as this book just can't be rushed)in this magnificent,beautifully lit cathedral of a book,If you can't manage that just read Swann in Love-a self contained masterpiece in itself.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book...
Review: I admit I've only read the first part of A La Recherche (Remembrance of Things Past, In Search of Lost Time, depending on the translation) but it is an utterly stunning novel. I've read it once, and still went back several times to reread section because they were so well written and impossible to understand completely on fist reading. I can't wait to tackle the 6 volumes I have still to go...
Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: A work of staggering beauty and moment by moment insight.There are passages in this work you just have to go back and read again and again,such is the perfection of prousts writing.When a man has locked himself away in a cork lined room for twenty years to complete this masterpiece the least we owe him is a couple of years to read it. Probably the finest book ever written.
Rating:
Summary: The best novel ever written. Period.
Review: Attempting a review of "In Search of Lost Time" is comparable to being a mediocre art critic trying to critique the Sistine Chapel: one feels unworthy of the task of dissecting a work which transcends criticism and imbues the reader with a vision so profound and compelling, it will change how he sees himself, his past, his relationships, and the world around him. And so,in lieu of a typical review, here's a bit of advice for anyone thinking of devoting time to this monumental book: read the whole thing, then read it again, read a couple of pages for the rest of your life
Rating:
Summary: Accepting death.
Review: Reading "A la recherche..." took me some of the better years of my youth. It was not a waste of time. Each one of the seven volumes was a priceless experience. At 31, i am more prepared to live, and more prepared to die than i would be without having read this book. It is not an easy work, but the same applies to life. I would also like to say that, although i have read it in french, it seems a bit snobish to pretend that it cant be translated. And if you read proust in depth you will also find that there was never a more merciless critic of snobery. My grandmother is 75 now, i know that i will loose her within the next few years. And knowing this, i remember everyday the last pages of "A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs". Please read them.
Rating:
Summary: A world unto itself
Review: This is the ultimate novel. The best. Too bad we only have a five-star limit. This one deserves a solid 10 stars. This novel's beauty, depth and impact will stagger the patient, persistent reader. I read the first volume, Swann's Way, about 25 years ago and was totally taken by it. Ten years later, I finally got around to the rest of the book when I ordered the wonderful Random House boxed set. I read it all summer, totally hooked to the point where I would drop duties and social invitations just to keep reading and reading. There were a few points, like the long section about "Name Places" that tested my patience, but the rest of it, oh my God! Like streams and rivers that trickle, run and rage to the vast ocean. Its sensuous details involve all the senses, its characters you will know better than people in your own life, the obsessive mental and emotional meanderings of the characters become hypnotic. The weather, the scenery, the rooms, the bee-hive hum of conversation, the loves and betrayals, it's all there and then some. It's a complete world, infinitely imagined and re-imagined, unto itself. There is nothing whatsoever like it in all of literature. As someone here said, it's THE book to take to the desert island. I am so glad I read it and hope to live long enough to read it again. More than any other book, it's the one worth re-reading. Please read it! Please FIND the time to read it! You will be forever grateful you did.
Rating: 
Summary: Great characters and stories, but some slow parts
Review: I'd give 5 stars except that there are parts that are hard to get through. Compare this book to a great restaurant with exorbitant prices. The cost has to affect the rating. Minus one point for the slow, boring parts of this 3,000 page book. Marcel has a philosophy about love. He believes love is kindled by pain. No pain, no love. If he is free to take a girl for granted, he'll never love her. But if she's unavailable and he misses her intensely, or if she goes to another lover and breaks his heart, then he's in love. I'm not suggesting this as a workable philosophy. It's just a clue to Marcel. The love of his life is Albertine. His jealousy is constantly inflamed. She has roving eyes for other women, and this drives him to distraction. Since pain equals love to him, he's in love. Marcel is afraid to tell her he loves her, thinking if she knew she'd step all over him. Albertine is a lot more conservative, in her heart, than Marcel thinks she is. She yearns to give up her promiscuous life and marry him. Her fear is that he will never forgive her past, and will never propose. So what we have here is a failure to communicate. There's no room to mention all the other great characters, or even to say any more about Marcel and Albertine. The bottom line is that I'm really glad I read this book.
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