A Short Summary of the Novel?

I had thought when I began writing this short piece that I would have to supply a summary of the novel for those who have not read it in its en­tirety. But as the Monty Python spoof "The All-England Summarise Proust Competition" demonstrates, such a short summary of Proust's master­piece is impossible. Many attempts at this have been made, but ultimately, it seems to me, they fail.¹⁰ The following will have to serve as that short, if insufficient, summary.

À la recherche du temps perdu tells the story of Marcel's life–not Marcel Proust, but the central character, whose name happens to be the same as the author's.¹¹ The story is told in retrospect–remembered with the aid of involuntary memory, but told with the help of voluntary memory and the intellect.

It begins in Marcel's childhood bedroom in Combray, where his family often visits, and ends with Marcel's epiphany–many years later–and recovery of his "belief in the world and in people" while attending an afternoon reception. This epiphany enables him to accept his vocation as a writer and to begin writing the novel that the reader has almost–by that point–finished reading.

In order to experience the full impact of the novel, one must read the whole work. Without this whole reading one will not experience the exis­tential impact that the novel can exercise on its readers.

The entire reading initiates an imaginative-participatory reenactment in one's self to embrace Marcel's life of suffering, divertissement, and guilt from his early experi­ences in Combray; his misguided, pathological, and failed attempts at love (first with Gilberte, Swann's daughter, and then with Albertine); his love for the Duchesse de Guermantes, Oriane, a member of the hereditary aristocracy and his successful attempts to be invited to parties given by the Duc de Guermantes, Basin, and the Duchesse and thus be included in high society; the pathos of his acquaintance the Baron de Charlus and his cruel treatment at the hands of his lover, Morel, and the Verdurins, who have established themselves in society with the salon of their "little clan"; his friendship with the Marquis de Saint-Loup-en-Bray, Robert, and later the husband of Gilberte; his love for his grandmother and later his suffer­ing and guilt over his treatment of her; and, in the final volume, his joyful recognition and acceptance of his vocation as a writer.

What Exactly is Lost?

As the title indicates, Marcel's story is the search for lost Time. The primary question that the reader must ask upon approaching the novel is, What exactly is lost?

Yes, we know that Time is lost, but we want a better answer. Crucial to understanding Marcel's search–what he experienced in childhood, who he was as a child, what he lost as he grew into young adulthood, and the various activities, "love affairs" and "socializing," in which he engaged as divertissements–are what he calls, in Le temps retrouve, diverses impressions bienheureuses (various happy or blessed impressions).¹²

The most famous of these "happy impressions"–also referred to as resur­rections of the past, remembrances, reminiscences, and moments–is, of course, the resurrection of the "whole of Combray" from the petite madeleine dipped in a cup of tea. Eleven to thirteen of these resurrections, depending on how one reckons the avalanche of impressions that come to Marcel before he enters the Princesse de Guermantes's afternoon re­ception, reappear to him.

It is through the reappearances of those blessed (or happy) impressions that he comes to understand his life and to recog­nize his vocation as a novelist. This understanding comes to Marcel after he has spent a long time in a sanitarium–following years of socializing–and after his decision to reenter society by attending the party where all of his friends of the past will be present. He has not seen these social acquaintances in a long time, and he fails to recognize them because age has so changed them.

Thus, we conclude that Marcel himself is at least middle-aged and probably late middle-aged when he recovers his "time­less" self and accepts his vocation. The key to understanding both what Marcel lost and what he recovered is to be found in the diverses impressions bienheureuses, and his meditations on these chance occurrences.

This concludes my summary-sketch of the novel, but before I proceed to my reflections on Time lost and regained, I will briefly survey several philosophical symbols apropos the reading of literature that are central to Voegelin's work.