Resources
Works of Marcel Proust
Digitised texts, freely available on Gallica — the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
"In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have perceived in himself."Marcel Proust — Le Temps retrouvé, transl. C. K. Scott Moncrieff
Great novel · 1913–1927
À la recherche du temps perdu
Seven volumes published between 1913 and 1927 — the last four posthumously. A total work of memory and time, it is regarded as one of the summits of world literature. The original editions and manuscripts are gathered in the Gallica selection devoted to la Recherche.
Du côté de chez Swann
Grasset · 1913
Combray, childhood, the madeleine. Swann's love for Odette, and the formative walks along the two ways.
Read on Gallica →À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs
NRF · 1919 · Prix Goncourt
The narrator's adolescence, sojourns at Balbec, and his meeting with Albertine and the little band of girls.
Read on Gallica →Le Côté de Guermantes
NRF · 1920–1921
The narrator's entry into Parisian aristocratic society, the dinners and salons of the Duchesse de Guermantes.
Read on Gallica →Sodome et Gomorrhe
NRF · 1921–1922
The revelation of the "accursed race", the return to Balbec and the narrator's nascent jealousy of Albertine.
Read on Gallica →La Prisonnière
NRF · 1923 · posthumous
Albertine lives with the narrator in Paris. Obsessive jealousy, lies, and constant surveillance.
Read on Gallica →Albertine disparue
NRF · 1925 · posthumous
Albertine's flight and death. The long labour of mourning, forgetting, and the healing of the heart.
Read on Gallica →Le Temps retrouvé
NRF · 1927 · posthumous
The morning reception at the Princesse de Guermantes's, the revelation of involuntary memory, and the birth of the narrator's literary vocation.
Read on Gallica →Other Writings
Published in Proust's Lifetime
Les Plaisirs et les Jours
Calmann-Lévy · 1896
A collection of short stories, prose poems and various pieces — with illustrations by Madeleine Lemaire, a preface by Anatole France, and piano pieces by Reynaldo Hahn.
Read on Gallica →Pastiches et mélanges
NRF · 1919
Articles that first appeared in Le Figaro and other periodicals, gathered and augmented. Notably contains the celebrated pastiches of Balzac, Flaubert, Sainte-Beuve and Michelet.
Read on Gallica →Translations of Ruskin
Proust translated two works by John Ruskin, accompanied by prefaces and copious notes that amount to essays in their own right — testimony to his apprenticeship in art and aesthetics.
La Bible d'Amiens
Mercure de France · 1904
Translation, notes and preface by Marcel Proust.
Read on Gallica →Sésame et les Lys
Mercure de France · 1906
Translation, notes and preface by Marcel Proust.
Read on Gallica →Posthumous Works
Chroniques
NRF · 1927
Articles and chronicles that appeared in various newspapers and periodicals.
Read on Gallica →Jean Santeuil
Gallimard · 1952
An unfinished novel, an early sketch for la Recherche, discovered among the manuscripts. The manuscripts may be consulted on Gallica.
View the manuscripts →Contre Sainte-Beuve
Gallimard · 1954
An essay on Sainte-Beuve's critical method, composed in 1908–1909. The notebooks may be consulted on Gallica.
View the notebooks →BnF · Gallica
The Digital Proust Collection
Nearly all of Marcel Proust's manuscripts — notebooks, drafts, typescripts and corrected proofs — are held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and freely available on Gallica.
This exceptional collection allows one to trace the genesis of the work, from its earliest sketches to the final corrections on proof. The Gallica selection devoted to Proust's work provides an organised and annotated point of access.
Explore the collection on Gallica →