Au Revoir Marcel Proust

Well, I've done it! This evening I have finished the last of the seven volumes of Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". It has been a marathon read. I started it in 2011 with the intention of reading one volume a year, but Proust engendered in me a strange compulsion and I have read the last after reading two volumes last year I have had a massive Proust-fest this month and read the remaining four volumes! And all this despite my love / hate relationship with Marcel Proust. He is so critical of others but has a brutal honesty about his own feelings and motives. He is very snobbish about the society he enjoys but sometimes he can stand apart from it and see how ridiculous it all is. He is cruel but sentimental. He is self absorbed but loves nature. He goes on and on about his favourite old topics but suddenly will write something really brilliant which takes your breath away. In fact he is a mass of contradictions and I suppose that is what makes him human and interesting. What a guy. Au revoir Marcel but not Adieu.