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.
U "Putu k Swannu", prvom dijelu ciklusa romana, Swann, jedan od glavnih likova, s naklonosti razmišlja o svojoj voljenoj i o tome koliko je dobra u krevetu i iznenada, u roku od nekoliko rečenica, a to su prustovske rečenice, dakle dugačke poput rijeka, ali u roku od nekoliko rečenica, iznenada ustukne i shvati: "Čekaj malo, sve to što ja volim na ovoj ženi, može voljeti i netko drugi.