In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust is many things at once: a novel of education,

a portrait of French society during the Third Republic, a masterful psychological analysis of

love, a reflection on homosexuality, an essay in moral and aesthetic theory and, above all,

one of the great literary achievements of the twentieth century.That is to say,(French: À la

recherche du temps perdu) is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust.By other words,

the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine." It gained fame in English in

translations by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin as Remembrance of

Things Past, but the title In Search of Lost Time, a literal rendering of the French, has

gained usage since D. J. Enright adopted it for his revised translation published in 1992.

Running to nearly 1.5 million words, it is the longest novel in world literature.

1. Swann’s Way: The first part of this volume describes ‘Marcel’s family vacation at Combray, their country walks along the two ‘ways’; their relationship with various neighbors, including Charles Swann, and ‘Marcel’s fascination with the aristocratic Guermantes. The second part tells the story of Swann’s unhappy love affair with the courtesan Odette de Crecy at the salon of Mme. Verdurin. The volume’s final section describes the friendship between Marcel and Gilberte, the daughter of Swann and Odette – now Madame Swann.

2. Within a Budding Grove: The first half describes ‘Marcel’s adolescence in Paris in two upper middle-class households; that of his parents and that of the Swanns. The second half takes place in Balbec on the Normandy coast where he stays in the Grand Hotel with his grandmother. The Paris section describes hilarious haute-bourgeois pretensions while the Balbec section contains equally hysterical descriptions of provincial bourgeois pretensions. Recovered from his infatuation with Gilberte, Marcel now falls in love with every girl he sees, of which there are many. He makes friends with Robert de Saint-Loup, and his uncle Baron de Charlus.

3. The Guermantes Way: ‘Marcel’s family move next door to the Paris residence of the Duke and Duchess of Guermantes and Marcel becomes obsessed with getting acquainted. He spends weeks at a military academy with their cousin, Robert Saint-Loup whom he had met at Balbec. Eventually Marcel is accepted into the magic circle of the Guermantes and the Faubourg St. Germain.

4. Cities of the Plain: Continuing his social success in the Faubourg St. Germain, Marcel also discovers the hidden homosexual world of the Guermantes’ Baron Charlus. On his second visit to Balbec he becomes part of the ‘little clan’ of the Verdurins, rekindles his love affair with Albertine and discovers the world of lesbianism.

5. The Captive: Marcel brings Albertine to live with him in Paris where he treats her more like a captive. Obsessively jealous, he discards his social circle and alternately tries to please her or to leave her. Above all he tortures himself thinking about, asking about and neurotically thwarting any possible indulgence in her lesbian tastes. Meantime, Charlus’ public behavior becomes increasingly outrageous until he is publicly disgraced by the now influential Verdurins. Albertine leaves without warning and disappears.

6. The Fugitive: Marcel gradually recovers from the departure and subsequent death of Albertine. He rediscovers Gilberte who, with her mother Odette, is now accepted by smart Society while the memory of her father Swann is repressed and destroyed. Marcel visits Venice with his mother and learns by letter of Saint-Loup’s marriage to Gilberte. After his marriage, Saint-Loup becomes an active and promiscuous homosexual.

7. Time Regained: Visiting Gilberte at her home in Combray Marcel learns that Swann’s Way and the Guermantes’ Way are not irreconcilable. The war affects everyone: Robert dies a hero at the front, Charlus haunts the male brothels of wartime Paris. M, still an unsuccessful writer, returns to Paris after the war and is invited to an afternoon party at the Princess de Guermantes. All the novel’s characters, or those still living, are at the party but everyone has changed. Time has destroyed everything. Even the new Princess de Guermantes turns out to be the widowed Mme. Verdurin. Marcel realizes that memory can only be recaptured and Time defeated through great art. With a sense of great joy, in the middle of the party, he realizes that his vocation is to write a great novel and thus to bring the past back to life.