Proust is required reading anyway since the book is referenced by so many. To see what is going on might be near impossible without reading the whole thing six pages a day for a few years to the end because the secret is at the end but won't mean anything without the rest. It certainly helps to read some of Proust's sources.
Well, the complete novel is sitting on my bookshelf. As I've said, maybe one day I'll undertake it again. He sure had a problem with run-on sentences, however.