Swann's Way

Swann’s Way (1913) is the first volume of Marcel Proust’s seven-part novel In Search of Lost Time. Written while Proust was virtually confined to his bedroom from a lifelong respiratory illness, Swann’s Way is a story of memory, history, family, and romance from a master of Modernist literature. Praised by Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, Michael Chabon, and Graham Greene, In Search of Lost Time explores the nature of memory and time while illuminating the history of homosexuality in nineteenth century Europe. For a long time I used to go to bed early.” Alone in his bedroom, the narrator meditates on sleep, dreams, and the passing of time. Spurred into memory by the taste of a madeleine dipped in a cup of lime blossom tea, he recalls his childhood in Combray, a rural village on the outskirts of Paris. Slowly, faces and names from the past come back to him―he recalls a neighbor named Swann, whose promising marriage proved disastrous; his Jewish friend Bloch, who introduced him to literature; and the walks he would take with his parents through the beautiful countryside. As he grows and learns, he begins to recognize the reality concealed by convention: the secret liaisons between lovers; the petty competitions of artists; the fleeting nature of affection and lust alike. Written in flowing prose, Swann’s Way is a masterpiece of twentieth century fiction that continues to entertain and astound over a century after it appeared in print.

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Marcel Proust (1871-1922) was a French novelist. Born in Auteuil, France at the beginning of the Third Republic, he was raised by Adrien Proust, a successful epidemiologist, and Jeanne Clémence, an educated woman from a wealthy Jewish Alsatian family. At nine, Proust suffered his first asthma attack and was sent to the village of Illiers, where much of his work is based. He experienced poor health throughout his time as a pupil at the Lycée Condorcet and then as a member of the French army in Orléans. Living in Paris, Proust managed to make connections with prominent social and literary circles that would enrich his writing as well as help him find publication later in life. In 1896, with the help of acclaimed poet and novelist Anatole France, Proust published his debut book Les plaisirs et les jours, a collection of prose poems and novellas. As his health deteriorated, Proust confined himself to his bedroom at his parents’ apartment, where he slept during the day and worked all night on his magnum opus In Search of Lost Time, a seven-part novel published between 1913 and 1927. Beginning with Swann’s Way (1913) and ending with Time Regained (1927), In Search of Lost Time is a semi-autobiographical work of fiction in which Proust explores the nature of memory, the decline of the French aristocracy, and aspects of his personal identity, including his homosexuality. Considered a masterpiece of Modernist literature, Proust’s novel has inspired and mystified generations of readers, including Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, Graham Greene, and Somerset Maugham.