Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 1 (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

The first volume of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, in Lydia Davis's award-winning translation

Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is one of the most entertaining reading experiences in any language and arguably the finest novel of the twentieth century. But since its original prewar translation there has been no completely new version in English. Now, Penguin Classics brings Proust’s masterpiece to new audiences throughout the world, beginning with Lydia Davis’s internationally acclaimed translation of the first volume, Swann’s Way.

Swann's Way is one of the preeminent novels of childhood: a sensitive boy's impressions of his family and neighbors, all brought dazzlingly back to life years later by the taste of a madeleine. It also enfolds the short novel "Swann in Love," an incomparable study of sexual jealousy that becomes a crucial part of the vast, unfolding structure of In Search of Lost Time. The first volume of the work that established Proust as one of the finest voices of the modern age—satirical, skeptical, confiding, and endlessly varied in his response to the human condition—Swann's Way also stands on its own as a perfect rendering of a life in art, of the past recreated through memory.


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468 pages

Average rating: 9

7 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

E Clou
May 10, 2023
8/10 stars
It took me over 3 months, but I finally finished. I love this book; I hate this book. Proust's writing is sublime but he seems to detest the very concept of plot. I was happiest when reading about Swann's obsession with Odette and I was miserable all the rest of the time. Sadly the portion about Odette was only about a third of the novel and didn't start until about halfway through.

Boston 2017
I can finally use this picture in a review.

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