The first volume of the most famous French novel of the twentieth century was published more than a hundred years ago - in November 1913. The novel was called “Towards Swann,” and its author Marcel Proust did not yet suspect that his brainchild would grow into the cycle “In Search of Lost Time,” on which the writer would work until the last hours of his life. The reader will appreciate the brilliant translation of Elena Baevskaya, which refutes the sadly established opinion that Proust is a venerable, intelligent, but boring author.