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Quotation from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

“Swann's love had reached that stage at which the physician and (in the case of certain affections) the boldest of surgeons ask themselves whether to deprive a patient of his vice or to rid him of his malady is still reasonable, or indeed possible.”

Marcel Proust (spoken by Narrator)

Swann's Way, Swann in Love, trans. C. K. Scott Moncrieff (1922)

Portrait of Marcel Proust

Proust describes Swann's jealous love as a disease grown into the patient's whole life.

Citation: "Swann's love had reached that stage at which the physician and (in the case of certain affections) the boldest of surgeons ask themselves whether to deprive a patient of his vice or to rid him of his malady is still reasonable, or indeed possible." — Marcel Proust, Swann's Way, Swann in Love, trans. C. K. Scott Moncrieff (1922). (id proust-swanns-way-q5)

Portrait: Marcel Proust 1895, Otto Wegener, Public domain.

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