Marcel Proust 
Swann’s Way 

‘Swann’s Way’ was first published in 1913 and is the first volume of Proust’s ‘
In Search of Lost Time ‘, a chronicle of the Belle Époque in France (the years preceding World War One). ‘Swann’s Way’ is a novel made up of three different sections:
Combray, where the narrator describes his childhood and illness,
Swann in Love, where we are introduced to his love for a woman named Odette, and
Place-Names: the Name, where the narrator tells us about the journeys he dreams of taking, were it not for his illness.



Proust self-published ‘Swann’s Way’ after it was rejected by a range of publishers, who failed to see the merit of a book “describing how he tosses and turns in a bed before falling asleep”. They would later regret this decision, as ‘
In Search of Lost Time ‘ was greeted with great enthusiasm by Proust’s contemporaries and continues to be read and analyzed to this day.



‘
In Search of Lost Time ‘ is composed by seven magnificent volumes:

– Volume One: ‘Swann’s Way’

– Volume Two: ‘In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower’

– Volume Three: ‘The Guermantes Way’

– Volume Four: ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’

– Volume Five: ‘The Prisoner’

– Volume Six: ‘The Fugitive’

– Volume Seven: ‘Time Regained’