In Search of Lost Time: Volume 1: The Way by Swann's

Marcel Proust

Oct 2003 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

One of the greatest, most entertaining reading experiences in any language, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time Vol. 1: The Way by Swann's is published in a new translation from the French by Lydia Davis in Penguin Classics.

The Way by Swann's is one of the great novels of childhood, depicting the impressions of a sensitive boy of his family and neighbours, brought dazzlingly back to life by the famous taste of a madeleine. It contains the separate short novel, A Love of Swann's, a study of sexual jealousy that forms a crucial part of the vast, unfolding structure of In Search of Lost Time. This book established Proust as one of the greatest voices of the modern age - satirical, sceptical, confiding and endlessly varied in his responses to the human condition.

Since the original pre-war translation Remembrance of Things Past by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, there has been no completely new rendering of Proust's French original into English. This translation brings to the fore a more sharply engaged, comic and lucid Proust. As the great story unfolds from its magical opening scenes to its devastating end, it is this Penguin Classics edition of In Search of Lost Time that makes Proust accessible to a new generation.

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) is generally viewed as the greatest French novelist and perhaps the greatest European novelist of the 20th century. He lived much of his later life as a reclusive semi-invalid in a sound-proofed flat in Paris, giving himself over entirely to writing his masterpiece In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu).

If you enjoyed In Search Of Lost Time, you might like James Joyce's Ulysses, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'The latest Penguin Proust is a triumph, and will bring this inexhaustible artwork to new audiences throughout the English-speaking world'
Sunday Telegraph

Ratings and reviews

The literary masterpiece "In Search of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust has enthralled readers for decades. This enormous novel, which spans over seven volumes and thousands of pages, is renowned for its beautiful prose, voluminous symbolism, and in-depth investigation of human consciousness and memory. Famously contemplative, Proust's work explores the characters' deepest feelings, perceptions, and thoughts. As the narrator, Marcel, reflects on his youth, his relationships, and the society he lives in, he deftly interweaves the past and present. Proust explores topics like love, art, social class, time, and the passage of memory through Marcel's astute observations and insights. Proust's depiction of the complexities of life in "In Search of Lost Time" is one of the novel's most striking features.

Even though I was born in the late twentieth century England and not in the Belle Epoque this book evoked many memories of my own childhood, and for that I am thankful. It's a long read but was definitely worth the effort, at times it is beautifully written (translated) and I will at some point in the near future continue with the others in the series

The best book for self-realisation,.. up to a point!

About the author

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) is generally viewed as the greatest French novelist and perhaps the greatest European novelist of the 20th century. He lived much of his later life as a reclusive semi-invalid in a sound-proofed flat in Paris, giving himself over entirely to writing IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME.