Combray: Involuntary memory resurrects a forgotten childhood world
Dipping a madeleine into tea unleashes a sudden, vivid sensory resurrection of the town of Combray. Late evenings center on the agonizing wait for a bedtime kiss from the narrator's mother, delayed whenever Charles Swann visits. Two distinct walking paths structure the family's world: the Méséglise way past Swann's estate, and the distant Guermantes way along the river Vivianne. Memory rebuilds people, church steeples, and rooms from the residue of sensation.
