{"product_id":"2940012375490","title":"SWANN'S WAY","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     OVERTURE\u003cbr\u003e     COMBRAY\u003cbr\u003e     SWANN IN LOVE\u003cbr\u003e     PLACE-NAMES: THE NAME\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOVERTURE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out\u003cbr\u003emy candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to\u003cbr\u003esay \"I'm going to sleep.\" And half an hour later the thought that it was\u003cbr\u003etime to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book\u003cbr\u003ewhich, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I\u003cbr\u003ehad been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just\u003cbr\u003ebeen reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own,\u003cbr\u003euntil I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book:\u003cbr\u003ea church, a quartet, the rivalry between François I and Charles V. This\u003cbr\u003eimpression would persist for some moments after I was awake; it did not\u003cbr\u003edisturb my mind, but it lay like scales upon my eyes and prevented them\u003cbr\u003efrom registering the fact that the candle was no longer burning. Then\u003cbr\u003eit would begin to seem unintelligible, as the thoughts of a former\u003cbr\u003eexistence must be to a reincarnate spirit; the subject of my book would\u003cbr\u003eseparate itself from me, leaving me free to choose whether I would form\u003cbr\u003epart of it or no; and at the same time my sight would return and I\u003cbr\u003ewould be astonished to find myself in a state of darkness, pleasant and\u003cbr\u003erestful enough for the eyes, and even more, perhaps, for my mind, to\u003cbr\u003ewhich it appeared incomprehensible, without a cause, a matter dark\u003cbr\u003eindeed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI would ask myself what o'clock it could be; I could hear the whistling\u003cbr\u003eof trains, which, now nearer and now farther off, punctuating the\u003cbr\u003edistance like the note of a bird in a forest, shewed me in perspective\u003cbr\u003ethe deserted countryside through which a traveller would be hurrying\u003cbr\u003etowards the nearest station: the path that he followed being fixed for\u003cbr\u003eever in his memory by the general excitement due to being in a strange\u003cbr\u003eplace, to doing unusual things, to the last words of conversation, to\u003cbr\u003efarewells exchanged beneath an unfamiliar lamp which echoed still in his\u003cbr\u003eears amid the silence of the night; and to the delightful prospect of\u003cbr\u003ebeing once again at home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI would lay my cheeks gently against the comfortable cheeks of my\u003cbr\u003epillow, as plump and blooming as the cheeks of babyhood. Or I would\u003cbr\u003estrike a match to look at my watch. Nearly midnight. The hour when an\u003cbr\u003einvalid, who has been obliged to start on a journey and to sleep in a\u003cbr\u003estrange hotel, awakens in a moment of illness and sees with glad relief\u003cbr\u003ea streak of daylight shewing under his bedroom door. Oh, joy of joys!\u003cbr\u003eit is morning. The servants will be about in a minute: he can ring,\u003cbr\u003eand some one will come to look after him. The thought of being made\u003cbr\u003ecomfortable gives him strength to endure his pain. He is certain he\u003cbr\u003eheard footsteps: they come nearer, and then die away. The ray of light\u003cbr\u003ebeneath his door is extinguished. It is midnight; some one has turned\u003cbr\u003eout the gas; the last servant has gone to bed, and he must lie all night\u003cbr\u003ein agony with no one to bring him any help.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI would fall asleep, and often I would be awake again for short snatches\u003cbr\u003eonly, just long enough to hear the regular creaking of the wainscot, or\u003cbr\u003eto open my eyes to settle the shifting kaleidoscope of the darkness,\u003cbr\u003eto savour, in an instantaneous flash of perception, the sleep which lay\u003cbr\u003eheavy upon the furniture, the room, the whole surroundings of which I\u003cbr\u003eformed but an insignificant part and whose unconsciousness I should very\u003cbr\u003esoon return to share. Or, perhaps, while I was asleep I had returned\u003cbr\u003ewithout the least effort to an earlier stage in my life, now for ever\u003cbr\u003eoutgrown; and had come under the thrall of one of my childish terrors,\u003cbr\u003esuch as that old terror of my great-uncle's pulling my curls, which was\u003cbr\u003eeffectually dispelled on the day--the dawn of a new era to me--on which\u003cbr\u003ethey were finally cropped from my head. I had forgotten that event\u003cbr\u003eduring my sleep; I remembered it again immediately I had succeeded in\u003cbr\u003emaking myself wake up to escape my great-uncle's fingers; still, as a\u003cbr\u003emeasure of precaution, I would bury the whole of my head in the pillow\u003cbr\u003ebefore returning to the world of dreams.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSometimes, too, just as Eve was created from a rib of Adam, so a woman\u003cbr\u003ewould come into existence while I was sleeping, conceived from some\u003cbr\u003estrain in the position of my limbs. Formed by the appetite that I was\u003cbr\u003eon the point of gratifying, she it was, I imagined, who offered me that\u003cbr\u003egratification. My body, conscious that its own warmth was permeating\u003cbr\u003ehers, would strive to become one with her, and I would awake.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47078806520048,"sku":"2940012375490","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012375490_p0.jpg?v=1763568044","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012375490","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}