Swann's Way opens In Search of Lost Time with three movements: childhood reveries in Combray; the anatomy of jealousy in "Swann in Love"; and the desire-saturated toponyms of "Place-Names." Proust's long sentences, free indirect discourse, and phenomenology of perception install a modernist epic of consciousness. Set amid Belle Époque salons, the book displaces event with memory, showing how habit muffles experience until an involuntary shock-tea, paving stones-restores time to sensation. Born in 1871, asthmatic and salon-bred, Proust absorbed the Dreyfus convulsions and the rituals of high society. Translating Ruskin sharpened his conviction that attention is ethical; writing at night in a cork-lined room fixed the work's acoustics. Related by marriage to Bergson, he converted durée into narrative method, transforming filial grief and social observation into a inquiry into love, snobbery, and the alchemy of memory. Readers seeking a rigorous exploration of consciousness will find Swann's Way inexhaustible. It rewards patience with a theory of feeling, a cartography of desire, and the comedy-and cruelty-of the Belle Époque. Whether you read it as a self-contained drama of obsession or the portal to Proust's cathedral, it remains indispensable to lovers of Woolf, James, and Mann, and to anyone curious how art rescues time. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable-distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Author Biography · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust, known as Marcel Proust, was an eminent French novelist, critic, and essayist, best recognized for his monumental work 'À la recherche du temps perdu' ('In Search of Lost Time'; earlier translated as 'Remembrance of Things Past'). Proust's writing is lauded for its profound psychological insight and meticulous attention to detail. Born on July 10, 1871, in Auteuil, France, Proust's aristocratic upbringing and struggles with asthma shaped his introspective nature. His magnum opus, written between 1908 and 1922, is split into seven parts, with 'Swann's Way' ('Du côté de chez Swann'), being the first volume, published in 1913. In 'Swann's Way', Proust develops his distinctive narrative technique, the 'stream of consciousness,' immersing readers in the subjective experiences of his characters, most notably the narrator's memories of childhood and the social circles of Parisian high society. The novel is famed not only for its length and complexity but also for its thematic exploration of involuntary memory, time, and art. Although Proust's works received mixed reviews during his lifetime, his reputation as a writer has grown considerably since his death on November 18, 1922, establishing him as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.