Finished Swann's Way...Help Me Choose My Next Big Read!
I finished Swann’s Way! Now I need your input on what to read next.
Some reflections for context:
This is such a dense and rich book. Beautifully written, with a lot of layered imagery, literary and artistic references, extended metaphors, and interwoven story arcs…
Time itself seems to dilate and contract as one read: some parts of the prose are so rich in imagery that I had to slow down and reread several times, while others flow effortlessly with the stream of thought.
It is peak stream-of-consciousness: less about the actual childhood memories, more about the act of thinking and remembrance.
Proust literally teaches us how to read his book. He invents the fictional writer Bergotte, celebrated not for his narrative alone, but for his “flow of melody, old-fashioned phrases, and idealist philosophy,” which reveal sublime images of the world, so beauty is within reach of the ordinary readers. This is Proust’s artistic motto, and he accomplishes exactly that.
That said, I’m not swept away by these marvelous tangents. I am more drawn to the psychology of the characters and the dynamics of young love. Sometimes Proust’s metaphors feel a bit too literary, verging on pretentious (though very much in character for Proust).
Still, the images of the madeleine soaked in tea and pink hawthorn flowers shall stay with me long after I close the book.
Now, this is exactly what I’m looking for. It reminds me of Stendhal’s The Red and the Black in the way it methodologically dissects love and infatuation and almost destroys the illusion of “romance”.
I was reminded of a popular meme:
Yet for all their talk of love, the way they over-analyze love makes me think French authors are the least likely to “die for love”.
“When Odette ceased to be for him a creature always absent, longed for, imaginary, when the feeling he had for her was no longer the same mysterious disturbance caused in him by the phrase from the sonata, but affection, gratitude, when normal relations were established between them that would put an end to his madness and his gloom, then no doubt the actions of Odette's daily life would appear to him of little interest in themselves…”
- Swann in Love by Marcel Proust
“Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar's vile tongue be cut out! Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love!”
- The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
So, what should I read next?
Continue reading Proust’s In Search of Lost Time: The later books dive into Proust’s own infatuation with Gilberte, Albertine etc.
Read My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgard: a six-book autobiographical series often compared to In Search of Lost Time in its exploration of private pleasures, dark thoughts, commonplace needs and pursuit of higher arts, but plainer in style and meant to be read more quickly. Especially, A Man in Love and Boyhood, explore childhood and young love I’m most interested in.
Read something shorter, non-fiction: perhaps Love and Limerence? Open to other suggestions.
Read some light-hearted fiction: open to suggestions. Ideally experimental and intergenerational narrative.
What should I read next?
In Search of Lost Time (Vol 2)
My Struggle
Short, non-fiction - open for recs
Light-hearted fiction - open for recs
Others - please comment
Voting ended onSep 21, 2025
