Werke. Frankfurter Ausgabe

With "Swann's Way," published in 1913 at the author's expense by Grasset, Proust's monumental novel begins. The name "Swann" evokes images, scenes, and episodes that have become part of the literary canon yet are still ripe for rediscovery: at the start of the novel, the sleeping, dreaming figure who recalls earlier times; the drama of going to bed in Combray, the madeleine; the hawthorn blossoms and water lilies, three church towers in the evening light, a sunbeam on a rain-soaked red tile roof; Swann's love for Odette, the small circle of the Verdurins, Vinteuil's violin sonata; the games with Gilberte in the gardens of the Champs-Élysées. Memories of people and places, landscapes, thoughts on reading, writing, art and music, love and jealousy, and not least brilliant social satire: all of this forms a literary universe – a mirror of the world and literature.

For the Frankfurt edition, Eva Rechel-Mertens' still-valid translation of "In Search of Lost Time" has been corrected and partially rephrased by Luzius Keller and Sibylla Laemmel. The commentary explains allusions and quotes, highlights important narrative structures, and illustrates the interplay of the individual parts, themes, and stylistic nuances.