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Swann in Love

by Marcel Proust

Desire and self-deception in fin-de-siècle Paris

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Desire and self-deception in fin-de-siècle Paris

Drawn from Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, this self-contained novella centers on Charles Swann’s attachment to Odette de Crécy and the jealousy that increasingly shapes his inner life. Their encounters unfold around the Verdurins’ salon, where social ambition and performance sharpen the tensions of Swann’s situation. The book closely tracks the shifts between infatuation, suspicion, and deliberate self-deception, balancing the private turbulence of desire with comic scenes from a status-conscious circle. This Oxford World’s Classics edition also places the text within a scholarly series known for introductions, notes, and bibliographies.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in Proust through a shorter, self-contained work
  • Fans of French classics centered on love, jealousy, and social life
  • Readers seeking an edition with scholarly notes and contextual material

Themes

Infatuation and jealousySelf-deceptionDesireParisian salon societySocial pretension

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Swann in Love is a brilliant, devastating novella that tells of infatuation, love, and jealousy. Set against the backdrop of Paris at the end of the nineteenth century, the story of Charles Swann illuminates the fragilities and foibles of human beings when in the grip of desire. Swann is a highly cultured man-about-town who is plunged into turmoil when he falls for a young woman called Odette de Crecy. The novel traces the progress of Swann's emotions with penetrating exactitude as he encounters Odette at the regular gatherings in the salon of the Verdurins. His wilful self-delusion is both poignant and comic, and his tormented feelings play out in scenes of high comedy amongst Odette's socially pretentious circle.

Swann in Love is part of Proust's monumental masterpiece In Search of Lost Time, and it is also a captivating self-contained story. This new translation encapsulates the qualities that have secured Proust's reputation, and serves as a perfect introduction to his writing.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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