In Search of Lost Time


In Search of Lost Time, first translated into English as Remembrance of Things Past, and sometimes referred to in French as La Recherche, is a novel in seven volumes by French author Marcel Proust. This early twentieth-century work is his most prominent, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory.
The novel gained fame in English through translations by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin and was known in the Anglosphere as Remembrance of Things Past. The title In Search of Lost Time, a literal rendering of the French, became ascendant after D. J. Enright adopted it for his revised translation published in 1992.
In Search of Lost Time follows the narrator's recollections of childhood and experiences into adulthood in late 19th-century and early 20th-century high-society France. Proust began to shape the novel in 1909; he continued to work on it until his final illness in the autumn of 1922 forced him to break off. Proust established the structure early on, but even after volumes were initially finished, he continued to add new material and edited one volume after another for publication. The last three of the seven volumes contain oversights and fragmentary or unpolished passages, as they existed only in draft form at the time of Proust's death. His brother Robert oversaw editing and publication of these parts.
The work was published in France between 1913 and 1927. Proust paid to publish the first volume after it had been turned down by leading editors who had been offered the manuscript in longhand. Many of its ideas, motifs and scenes were anticipated in Proust's unfinished novel, Jean Santeuil, though the perspective and treatment there are different, and in his unfinished hybrid of philosophical essay and story, Contre Sainte-Beuve.
The novel had great influence on twentieth-century literature; some writers have sought to emulate it, others to parody it. For the centenary of the French publication of the novel's first volume, American author Edmund White pronounced In Search of Lost Time "the most respected novel of the twentieth century".
It holds the Guinness World Record for longest novel.

Initial publication

The novel was initially published in seven volumes:
  1. Swann's Way, published in 1913, was rejected by a number of publishers, including Fasquelle, Ollendorff, and the Nouvelle Revue Française. André Gide was famously given the manuscript to read to advise the NRF on publication and, leafing through the seemingly endless collection of memories and philosophizing or melancholic episodes, came across a few minor syntactic errors, which made him decide to turn the work down in his audit. Proust eventually arranged with the publisher Grasset to pay the cost of publication himself. When published, the book was advertised as the first of a three-volume novel. Du côté de chez Swann is divided into four parts: "Combray I", "Combray II", "Un Amour de Swann", and "Noms de pays: le nom". A third-person novella within Du côté de chez Swann, "Un Amour de Swann" is sometimes published as a volume by itself. As it forms the self-contained story of Charles Swann's love affair with Odette de Crécy and is relatively short, it is generally considered a good introduction to the work and is often a set text in French schools. "Combray I" is similarly excerpted; it ends with the famous madeleine cake episode, introducing the theme of involuntary memory. In early 1914 Gide, who had been involved in the NRF's rejection of the book, wrote to Proust to apologize and to offer congratulations on the novel:
    For several days I have been unable to put your book down ... The rejection of this book will remain the most serious mistake ever made by the NRF and, since I bear the shame of being very much responsible for it, one of the most stinging and remorseful regrets of my life.
    Gallimard offered to publish the remaining volumes, but Proust chose to stay with Grasset.
  2. In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, published on 30 November 1918, was scheduled to be published in 1914 but was delayed by the onset of World War I. At the same time, Grasset's firm was closed down when the publisher went into military service. This freed Proust to move to Gallimard, where all of the subsequent volumes were published. Meanwhile, the novel kept growing in length and in conception. When published, this volume was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1919.
  3. The Guermantes Way was published in 1920 and 1921 and was originally split into two volumes as Le Côté de Guermantes I and Le Côté de Guermantes II.
  4. Sodom and Gomorrah was published in 1921 and 1922 and was also split into two volumes. The first forty pages of Sodome et Gomorrhe initially appeared at the end of Le Côté de Guermantes II, the remainder appearing as Sodome et Gomorrhe I and Sodome et Gomorrhe II. It was the last volume over which Proust supervised publication before his death in November 1922. The publication of the remaining volumes was carried out by his brother, Robert Proust, and Jacques Rivière.
  5. The Prisoner, published in 1923, is the first volume of the section within In Search of Lost Time known as "le Roman d'Albertine". The name "Albertine" first appears in Proust's notebooks in 1913. The material in volumes 5 and 6 were developed during the hiatus between the publication of volumes 1 and 2 and they are a departure of the original three-volume series originally planned by Proust. This is the first of Proust's books published posthumously. Early editions describe La Prisonnière as the third volume of Sodome et Gomorrhe.
  6. The Fugitive, published in 1925, is the second and final volume in "le Roman d'Albertine" and the second volume published after Proust's death. It is the most editorially vexed volume. As noted, the final three volumes of the novel were published posthumously, and without Proust's final corrections and revisions. The first edition, based on Proust's manuscript, was published as Albertine disparue to prevent it from being confused with Rabindranath Tagore's La Fugitive, first published in 1921. The first authoritative edition of the novel in French, also based on Proust's manuscript, used the title La Fugitive. The second, even more authoritative French edition, uses the title Albertine disparue and is based on an unmarked typescript acquired in 1962 by the Bibliothèque Nationale. To complicate matters, after the death in 1986 of Proust's niece, Suzy Mante-Proust, her son-in-law discovered among her papers a typescript that had been corrected and annotated by Proust. The late changes Proust made include a small, crucial detail and the deletion of approximately 150 pages. This version was published as Albertine disparue in France in 1987.
  7. Finding Time Again, published in 1927, is the final volume in Proust's novel. Much of the final volume was written at the same time as Swann's Way, but was revised and expanded during the course of the novel's publication to account for, to a greater or lesser success, the then unforeseen material now contained in the middle volumes. This volume includes a noteworthy episode describing Paris during the First World War.

    Synopsis

The novel recounts the experiences of the Narrator while he is growing up, learning about art, participating in society, and falling in love.
An approximate timeline of the novel was deduced by literary theorist Gérard Genette in his 1980 book, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method.
  • The narrator's birth: 1878
  • Volume I: Swann's Way – 1883–1893
  • Volume II: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower – 1893–1897
  • Volume III: The Guermantes Way – 1897–1899
  • Volume IV: Sodom and Gomorrah – 1899–1900
  • Volume V: The Prisoner – 1900–1902
  • Volume VI: The Fugitive – 1902–1903
  • Volume VII: Time Regained – 1903–1925

    Volume One: ''Swann's Way''

The Narrator begins by noting, "For a long time, I went to bed early." He comments on the way in which sleep seems to alter one's surroundings, and the way habit makes one indifferent to them. He remembers being in his room in the family's country home in Combray, while downstairs his parents entertain their friend Charles Swann, an elegant man of Jewish origin with strong ties to society. Due to Swann's visit, the Narrator is deprived of his mother's goodnight kiss, but he gets her to spend the night reading to him. This memory is the only one he has of Combray until years later the taste of a madeleine cake dipped in tea inspires a nostalgic incident of involuntary memory. He remembers having a similar snack as a child with his invalid aunt Léonie, and it leads to more memories of Combray. He describes their servant Françoise, who is uneducated but possesses an earthy wisdom and a strong sense of both duty and tradition. He meets an elegant "lady in pink" while visiting his uncle Adolphe. He develops a love of the theater, especially the actress la Berma, and his awkward Jewish friend Bloch introduces him to the works of the writer Bergotte. He learns Swann made an unsuitable marriage but has social ambitions for his beautiful daughter Gilberte. Legrandin, a snobbish friend of the family, tries to avoid introducing the boy to his well-to-do sister. The Narrator describes two routes for country walks the child and his parents often enjoyed: the way past Swann's home, and the Guermantes way, both containing scenes of natural beauty. Taking the Méséglise way, he sees Gilberte Swann standing in her yard with a lady in white, Mme. Swann, and her supposed lover: Baron de Charlus, a friend of Swann's. Gilberte makes a gesture that the Narrator interprets as a rude dismissal. During another walk, he spies a lesbian scene involving Mlle. Vinteuil, daughter of a composer, and her friend. The Guermantes way is symbolic of the Guermantes family, the nobility of the area. The Narrator is awed by the magic of their name and is captivated when he first sees Mme. de Guermantes. He discovers how appearances conceal the true nature of things and tries writing a description of some nearby steeples. Lying in bed, he seems transported back to these places until he awakens.
Mme. Verdurin is a very rich and autocratic hostess who, aided by her husband, demands total obedience from the guests in her "little clan". One guest is Odette de Crécy, a former courtesan, who has met Swann and invites him to the group. Swann is too refined for such company, but Odette gradually intrigues him with her unusual style. A sonata by Vinteuil, which features a "little phrase", becomes the motif for their deepening relationship. The Verdurins host M. de Forcheville; their guests include Cottard, a doctor; Brichot, an academic; Saniette, the object of scorn; and a painter, M. Biche. Swann grows jealous of Odette, who now keeps him at arm's length, and suspects an affair between her and Forcheville, aided by the Verdurins. Swann seeks respite by attending a society concert that includes Legrandin's sister and a young Mme. de Guermantes; the "little phrase" is played and Swann realizes Odette's love for him is gone. He tortures himself wondering about her true relationships with others, but his love for her, despite renewals, gradually diminishes. He moves on and marvels that he ever loved a woman who was not his type.
At home in Paris, the Narrator dreams of visiting Venice or the church in Balbec, a resort, but he is too unwell and instead takes walks in the Champs-Élysées. There he meets and befriends Gilberte. He holds her father, now married to Odette, in the highest esteem, and is awed by the beautiful sight of Mme. Swann strolling in public. Years later, the old sights of the area are long gone, and he laments the fleeting nature of places.