After the Swann in Love section, I'd go straight to the section immediately after it called "Place Names, the Name". It has a magnificent plot twist that you'll both see and not see and then, when it arrives, it is somehow thrilling even though you've come to expect it.
It's short section, the shortest section of any of the volumes of the novel. Ironically, it would have been much longer if it had been up to Proust but, because he self-published, this was all he could get for his money. It's better for being shorter. I know this is a terribly disrespectful thing to say, but À la recherche du temps perdu would have been even better if Proust had had a good editor forcing him to write shorter.
Unfortunately, all the stuff that would have been in section three of Volume 1, appears in the first part of Volume 2. There is a lot of good stuff there but there is also a lot that would have been better left on the cutting room floor. I'd skip that first section it tells of Marcel's fruitless pursuit of Gilberte and his interest in her parents. You don't need it to figure it out. By the way, many good editions come with a synopsis of events making this sort of skipping easier.
The place to go next is part 2 of Volume 2, also called Place Names, the Name. It tells the story of Marcel's visit to the seaside town of Balbec with his grandmother. It's magnificent.
It's short section, the shortest section of any of the volumes of the novel. Ironically, it would have been much longer if it had been up to Proust but, because he self-published, this was all he could get for his money. It's better for being shorter. I know this is a terribly disrespectful thing to say, but À la recherche du temps perdu would have been even better if Proust had had a good editor forcing him to write shorter.
Unfortunately, all the stuff that would have been in section three of Volume 1, appears in the first part of Volume 2. There is a lot of good stuff there but there is also a lot that would have been better left on the cutting room floor. I'd skip that first section it tells of Marcel's fruitless pursuit of Gilberte and his interest in her parents. You don't need it to figure it out. By the way, many good editions come with a synopsis of events making this sort of skipping easier.
The place to go next is part 2 of Volume 2, also called Place Names, the Name. It tells the story of Marcel's visit to the seaside town of Balbec with his grandmother. It's magnificent.
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