"Reading Proust" will not provide instructions on how to read Proust, but rather offer the opportunity to do so. Numerous examples from texts, including lesser-known ones, all quoted in the original French and in German translation, provide insight into Proust's intense engagement not only with literature but also with music, painting, philosophy, and the society of his time. The focus of the volume is on two early chronicles from the years 1892-94, "Pleasures and Days" (1896), three essays from 1895-96, the novel drafts ("Jean Santeuil") from 1896-1900, Proust's engagement with Ruskin and Sainte-Beuve (1900-09), and finally, using the examples of the overture, the madeleine episode, and the lantern magic scene, the drafts for research that are examined here for the first time, including the example of the church towers of M.