Swann's Way

About This Book

Published in 1913, Swann's Way (Du côté de chez Swann) is the first volume of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (1871–1922), one of the most celebrated novels in world literature. The book opens with the narrator's memories of childhood in the village of Combray, triggered by the taste of a madeleine dipped in tea — one of the most famous passages in fiction. The second part, Swann in Love, tells the story of Charles Swann's obsessive and ultimately devastating passion for the courtesan Odette de Crécy. Proust's sentences, some running for pages, unfold with extraordinary precision the workings of memory, jealousy, social ambition, and aesthetic experience. Swann's Way is in the public domain.

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