In Search of Lost Time

In Search of Lost Time is Proust's one great novel, written over some fifteen years and published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927, the last three after his death. An unnamed narrator looks back on his life, from a sheltered childhood in the country town of Combray to the salons of Belle Époque Paris, through first love, friendship, jealousy, and the slow passing of an aristocratic world.

Above all it is a novel about time and memory: how a taste or a smell can bring back a whole lost season of life, and whether anything can truly win back the years that have gone.

The seven volumes are listed below in reading order. Each has its own page here.