In the first volume, Swann's Way, the series of books, Swann, one of the main characters, is thinking very fondly of his mistress and how great she is in bed, and suddenly, in the course of a few sentences, and these are Proustian sentences, so they're long as rivers, but in the course of a few sentences, he suddenly recoils and he realizes, "Hang on, everything I love about this woman, somebody else would love about this woman.
W tomie pierwszym, "W stronę Swanna", W tomie pierwszym, "W stronę Swanna", tytułowy Swann czule myśli o kochance, i o tym, jaka jest świetna w łóżku. Nagle po w kilku zdaniach ale proustowskich zdaniach, długich jak rzeki, niemniej po kilku zdaniach, Swann wzdryga się na myśl: "Wszystko, co kocham w tej kobiecie, ktoś inny także mógłby pokochać.