In The Search Of Lost All Time

In January 1909 Proust experienced the involuntary recall of a childhood memory when he tasted a rusk (a twice-baked bread, which in his novel became a madeleine) dipped in tea. In July he retired from the world to write his novel, finishing the first draft in September 1912. The first volume, Du côté de chez Swann (Swann's Way also translated as The Way by Swann's), was refused on several occasions but was finally issued at the author's expense in November 1913. Proust at this time planned only two further volumes.During the war years he revised the remainder of his novel, enriching and deepening its feeling, texture, and construction, enhancing the realistic and satirical elements, and tripling its length. In so doing he transformed it into one of the most profound achievements of the human imagination. In June 1919 À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Within a Budding Grove, also published as In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower) appeared simultaneously with a reprint of Swann. In December 1919 À l'ombre received the Prix Goncourt, and Proust suddenly became world famous. Two more installments appeared in his lifetime and had the benefit of his final revision: Le Côté de Guermantes (1920; The Guermantes Way) and Sodome et Gomorrhe (1921; Cities of the Plain, or Sodom and Gomorrah). The last three parts of À la recherche were published posthumously in an advanced but not final stage of revision: La Prisonnière (1923; The Captive), Albertine disparue (1925; The Sweet Cheat Gone, originally called La Fugitive), and Le Temps retrouvé (1927; Time Regained, or Finding Time Again). The first authoritative edition of the entire work was published in 1954.