I’ve been a fan of Marcel Proust and the madeleine in lime blossom tea for some time. When you first think of reading Proust, it can be daunting - 7 books, 4000+ pages and some incredibly dense text. But I did it, and love it.

It’s been over 10 years since I first read In Search of Lost Time … so it was time to pick up the books again.

As part of my preparation - I knew I had to make the transition from short form fiction and graphic novels and reading sporadically - so I started looking out for longer books and challenging myself to read a book (or more) every week. Which was all well and good.

So I started mid-February and now I’m on to the last book; it’s taken me less time than I planned - good.

Familiar scenes like the madeleine have been great to read again and started to see some of the text in a new light. Of course, there are some pages that seem to vear off track, without a full stop.

On the surface, It’s hard to imagine Marcel / the Narrator as a real person with unlimited wealth and nothing to do except to manipulate and control his love (who he keeps saying he is not in love with). But it’s the other characters - Odette, Charlus, and the society events which are much more enjoyable this time round.

First Published: Tuesday, May 12, 2020 Last updated: Apr 21, 2023

Meet the author

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Damien Saunders
An experienced management consultant and business leader interested in digital transformation, product centred design and scaled agile. If I'm not writing about living with UCTD (an autoimmune disease), I'm probably listening to music, reading a book or learning more about wine.