num_pages: 512
description: Swann’s Way is the first novel of Marcel Proust’s seven-volume magnum opus À la recherche du temps perdu, or Remembrance of Things Past. Following Charles Swann’s opening ruminations about the nature of sleep is one of twentieth-century literature’s most famous and influential scenes: the eating of the madeleine soaked in a “decoction of lime-flowers,” the associative act from which the remainder of the narrative unfurls. After elaborate reminiscences about Swann’s childhood in Paris and rural Combray, Proust describes his protagonist’s exploits in nineteenth-century privileged Parisian society and his obsessive love for young socialite Odette de Crécy.Filled with searing, insightful, and humorous criticisms of French society, this novel showcases Proust’s innovative prose style, characterized by lengthy, intricate sentences that elongate, stop, and reverse time. With narration that alternates between first and third person, Swann’s Way unconventionally introduces Proust’s recurring themes of memory, love, art, and the human experience—and for nearly a century readers have deliciously savored each moment.
language: English
title: Swann's Way
titlecomplete: Swann's Way (Remembrance of Things Past, #1)
characters: Charles Swann, Françoise de Combray, Cottard, Odette de Crécy, Baron de Charlus, Narrator/Marcel, Gilberte Swann, Mme Swann, Madame Verdurin
genres: France, Philosophy, Novels, Classic Literature, 20th Century, Literature, Unfinished, French Literature, Fiction, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 58236
places: France, Combray, Paris
series: À la recherche du temps perdu
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: French-American Foundation Translation Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Премія «Сковорода»
publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics