Time Regained

Marcel Proust · 1871–1922 · France

Originally Le Temps retrouvé (French)

Why it matters

Decades on, a tripped paving stone unlocks the same involuntary memory as the madeleine, and the narrator finally grasps that the novel he's lived is the one he must now sit down to write. The cathedral's capstone: art redeeming lost time.

At a glance

A long closing meditation on memory and art demands the whole cycle held in mind at once.