Overture Summary

Swann's Way is a series of detailed memories of a man whose name is never given and who will be referred to in these summaries as The Narrator. The Narrator is a deeply-introspective person. At the beginning of Overture, The Narrator is remembering his thoughts as a boy in his Parisian bedroom and how he is dreaming of wakening. He is wondering about time and where it goes when he is asleep.

He remembers his bedroom and describes the lamp at his bedside, the drapes that hang across the windows of his room, and remarks that his bedroom furniture is old and dark. His bedroom does not make him feel cozy and warm and only reminds him that it does not contain his Mother, whom he adores. He is having depressing thoughts about lonely people and experiencing childish terrors contrasting with sexual dreams...