The Guermantes Way

An authoritative new edition of the third volume in Marcel Proust’s epic masterwork, In Search of Lost Time

Marcel Proust’s monumental seven-part novel, In Search of Lost Time, is considered by many to be the greatest novel of the twentieth century. This edition of volume three, The Guermantes Way, is edited and annotated by noted Proust scholar William C. Carter, who endeavours to bring the classic C. K. Scott Moncrieff translation closer to the spirit and style of the author’s original text.

Continuing the story begun in Swann’s Way and continued in In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, The Guermantes Way follows Proust’s young protagonist as he advances through aristocratic French society in late-nineteenth-century Paris. A departure from the intimacy of the sprawling novel’s previous two instalments, part three unfolds against a colourful backdrop of Parisian life. Moving from literary salon to opulent social gathering, it provides a biting and satirical commentary on culture, human foibles, the ways of the world, and the irretrievable loss of time.