Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" Collection Series

"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"

First published in 1920, "The Guermantes Way" is the third volume of Marcel Proust’s masterpiece, "In Search of Lost Time".  In "The Guermantes Way", our narrator, Marcel, is now a little older (if not much wiser) and still keen to make the acquaintance of any attractive woman who crosses his path. The novel refers to the path that runs past the château belonging to the Duc and Duchesse de Guermantes near Combray and also to the route the narrator takes to make his way into their Parisian salon. He encounters a world of nobles, officers, socialites, and assorted consorts–individuals like Robert de Saint Loup and his prostitute mistress Rachel, the Baron de Charlus, and the Prince de Borodino. The narrator becomes a party to the wit and manners of the Guermantes drawing room, an important playground for Parisian society interested in the latest theatrical triumph and the progress of the Dreyfus case. "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"

Published in 1918, "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower", Volume 2 of Marcel Proust’s giant novel, "In Search of Lost Time", is a joy to read. "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower" tells a story of separation and emergence. It is Proust’s spectacular dissection of male and female adolescence, charged with the narrator’s memories of Paris and the Normandy seaside. At the heart of the story lies his relationships with his grandmother and with the Swann family. As a meditation on different forms of love, "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower" has no equal. Here, Proust introduces some of his greatest comic inventions, from the magnificently dull M. de Norpois to the enchanting Robert de Saint-Loup. It is memorable as well for the first appearance of the two figures who for better or worse are to dominate the narrator’s life—the Baron de Charlus and the mysterious Albertine. "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"

Published in 1921-1922, "Sodom and Gomorrah" is the fourth volume from "In Search of Lost Time". Marcel Proust’s novel takes up for the first time the theme of homosexual love, male and female, and dwells on how destructive sexual jealousy can be for those who suffer it. "Sodom and Gomorrah" is also an unforgiving analysis of both the decadent high society of Paris, and the rise of a philistine bourgeoisie that is on the way to supplanting it. Characters who had lesser roles in earlier volumes now reappear in a different light and take center stage, notably Albertine, with whom the narrator believes he is in love, and also the insanely haughty Baron de Charlus.  "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"

Published in 1923, "The Captive", fifth volume of Proust´s masterpiece "In Search of Lost Time", is the most disturbing of them all. "The Captive" picks up where "Sodome et Gomorrhe" left off, with our narrator Marcel and his partner Albertine now back in Paris, having left Balbec behind. It describes a morbidly possessive love affair. Consumed by jealousy, the narrator entices his mistress, Albertine, to live with him, then keeps her almost as a prisoner, spying on her and relentlessly cross-examining her. He catches her in lie after lie, but he cannot give her up. The cause of the narrator's jealousy is his fear that his mistress is attracted to women - that she is ready at any moment to slip away to a fleeting, anonymous sexual encounter.  "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"

Published in 1927, "Time Regained" is the seventh and final volume of Marcel Proust’s monumental novel "In Search of Lost Time", and follows the narrator as he reaches the threshold of old age and sees how the people around him, as well as society itself, have changed with the passage of time. It is also in this volume that he discovers his literary vocation, discusses the nature of true literature and the role of the artist at length, and grasps the power of involuntary memory to evoke experiences that were buried deep within us, bringing the famous madeleine episode from "Swann’s Way" full circle. "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"

“Mademoiselle Albertine has gone!” These are the words that open Proust´s masterpiece "In Search of Lost Time"'s sixth book, "The Fugitive" (1925). "The Fugitive" picks up seamlessly where "The Captive" left off, with Marcel stunned to find that his hostage lover has finally decided to spread her wings and fly away.  Reading her goodbye letter, the young man struggles to come to terms with his loss, despite the fact that in recent times he was the one hoping for a bloodless end to their relationship.  Left alone with his pain (and his housekeeper…), he struggles to come to terms with Albertine’s decision, wondering how best he can persuade her to return. "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"