In the beginning, the novel disorienting: the sentences are impressively long and highly sought vocabulary. (I only read the word "sickly" in "In Search of Lost Time"). Even more difficult, it does not really tell a "story", but rather consists of fragmented memories and sensations.
The author seeks to approach the reality of things and beings by analyzing each visible facet of the objects observed. The reader accompanies this research. He then immerses in a crushing but fascinating universe whose interminable sentences reflect the infinity of appearances and possibilities.
The narrator even more carefully studies his inner perceptions that the outside world. In this work, he focuses on the fleeting impressions and chimeras, for example when it is Parma 'compact, smooth and soft purple. " It leads us to remember the times when we have had similar feelings. For this work, far from being purely intellectual, brings us to intimate and forgotten impressions. Never introspection has been pushed so far.
