I was a bit worried at first because the first section I found a bit tedious, although according to the intro it is not always included in published versions of the book. I'm glad it was if only for some things that are important for later references. But once the book breaks through into the first World War and afterwards it is back to everything I want from Proust. In the last half, another party that somehow goes on for two hundred pages, but without causing frustrating, I wondered if Proust was maybe being too tidy in telling us what happened to every single person who had appeared over the seven volumes. I think a few short sections could have been dropped. But ultimately it is a powerful reflection on aging and the ways people and our perceptions of them change, and of the specter of death.

I do wish I could rate the series as a whole separately, because I'd give it 5 stars. Proust's prose has been like a comfy blanket every time I settled into another volume, and I'm grateful to have experienced the full set in all of its best and worst parts.