Swann's Way

Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time (or Remembrance of Things Past, translated more literally from the French title) contains two intertwined stories. The first involves the narrator and young Marcel growing up in Combray, a fictional village in France. This story is interlaced with the narrator's present day reflections on his childhood as he looks back over his life during an evening walk in Paris. Marcel loves climbing up to the top of buildings to take in the city's many views, but he also fears falling from great heights. From this vantage point, Marcel keeps an eye on his neighbors' houses and remarks upon their lives. As summer comes to an end and then winter, many of Combray's residents are soon buried under several feet of snow. But when spring arrives, so does a sense of rebirth for Marcel when his father finds him a nanny to take care of him while his parents are away from home.