Now, our dear narrator lives in a sanatorium. I have to admit, this volume wasn't as compelling as the others. I did spend an awfully long time reading it - try most of Saturday night. I finally finished it on Sunday Afternoon...Now I have moved on.
Characters:
My favourite character in this volume was Saint-Loup. I know what you're going to say - but it was only because the narrator has the most contact with Saint-Loup in this volume. This proves him to be a very three dimensional character capable of emotions we never thought were possible in the other volumes.
Themes:
The theme of memory was an interesting one here. It seems our narrator enjoys lamenting over Albertine, whilst still trying to move on. We have extremely familiar characters such as Guermantes and Gilberte. They seemingly represent the past - as WW1 represents moving into the future.
Storyline:
The storyline is based around the act of communication. Writing letters is extremely important in this volume and whatever is in those letters comes to shape what we understand about our narrator. It is compelling - I thought it was probably just a little underwhelming.
Verdict:
I give this volume an 8/9
2/3 for characters: Albertine wasn't in it much. Only mentioned really.
100% for themes: I love the theme of memory and nostalgia. It seemed to fit so perfectly with the time scale.
100% for storyline: Past, present and future. This book was pretty amazing in content.
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