Swann's Way Hardcover - 2005

From the publisher

Swann's Way, by Marcel Proust, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classicsseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics

• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.Swann s Way is the first novel of Marcel Proust s seven-volume magnum opus A la recherchee 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 Crecy.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 experienceand for nearly a century readers have deliciously savored each moment.Elizabeth Dalton is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Barnard College. She has published fiction and criticism in the New Yorker, Partisan Review, Commentary, and the New York Times Book Review."