What do you think?
Rate this book
In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom
'I was at one of those periods in youth--vacant, without any particular love object--when, like a lover seeing his beloved in all things, we desire, we seek, we see Beauty everywhere.'
In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom, the second volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (1913-27), is a novel of exploration and (self-) discovery, continuing the story of the narrator's youth and adolescence. From the enclosed spaces of the fin-de-siècle social world that revolves around Madame Swann, we move to the fictional town of Balbec on the Normandy coast, a place where the social classes intermingle with mutual fascination. Against the ever-changing backdrop of the sea--a constant reminder of beauty, mutability, and the vastness of the world beyond individual human affairs--the narrator encounters individuals who will shape his experience and indelibly colour his outlook on that world. He finds a friend in the aristocratic Robert de Saint-Loup and is perplexed by his enigmatic uncle the Baron de Charlus; he finds a tutelary figure in Elstir, the gifted, idiosyncratic painter; and in Albertine he comes to recognise the blossoming girl who will become the love--and the bane--of his life.
The novel provides a breathaking illumination of what it is to encounter beauty and to seek to understand our relation to it, in people, in experiences, in art, or the landscape around us. An exploration of the thrills of infatuation, the fallibility of perception, and how desire builds and ebbs, the narrative prepares readers for the love affair that will define the narrator's future existence and shape the volumes of In Search of Lost Time to come.
ABOUT THE For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range 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, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom, the second volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (1913-27), is a novel of exploration and (self-) discovery, continuing the story of the narrator's youth and adolescence. From the enclosed spaces of the fin-de-siècle social world that revolves around Madame Swann, we move to the fictional town of Balbec on the Normandy coast, a place where the social classes intermingle with mutual fascination. Against the ever-changing backdrop of the sea--a constant reminder of beauty, mutability, and the vastness of the world beyond individual human affairs--the narrator encounters individuals who will shape his experience and indelibly colour his outlook on that world. He finds a friend in the aristocratic Robert de Saint-Loup and is perplexed by his enigmatic uncle the Baron de Charlus; he finds a tutelary figure in Elstir, the gifted, idiosyncratic painter; and in Albertine he comes to recognise the blossoming girl who will become the love--and the bane--of his life.
The novel provides a breathaking illumination of what it is to encounter beauty and to seek to understand our relation to it, in people, in experiences, in art, or the landscape around us. An exploration of the thrills of infatuation, the fallibility of perception, and how desire builds and ebbs, the narrative prepares readers for the love affair that will define the narrator's future existence and shape the volumes of In Search of Lost Time to come.
ABOUT THE For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range 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, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
- GenresFiction
576 pages, Paperback
Published June 12, 2025
8 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Marcel Proust
2,155 books7,452 followersMarcel Proust was a French novelist, best known for his 3000 page masterpiece À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time), a pseudo-autobiographical novel told mostly in a stream-of-consciousness style.
Born in the first year of the Third Republic, the young Marcel, like his narrator, was a delicate child from a bourgeois family. He was active in Parisian high society during the 80s and 90s, welcomed in the most fashionable and exclusive salons of his day. However, his position there was also one of an outsider, due to his Jewishness and homosexuality. Towards the end of 1890s Proust began to withdraw more and more from society, and although he was never entirely reclusive, as is sometimes made out, he lapsed more completely into his lifelong tendency to sleep during the day and work at night. He was also plagued with severe asthma, which had troubled him intermittently since childhood, and a terror of his own death, especially in case it should come before his novel had been completed. The first volume, after some difficulty finding a publisher, came out in 1913, and Proust continued to work with an almost inhuman dedication on his masterpiece right up until his death in 1922, at the age of 51.
Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century, and À la recherche du temps perdu as one of the most dazzling and significant works of literature to be written in modern times.
Born in the first year of the Third Republic, the young Marcel, like his narrator, was a delicate child from a bourgeois family. He was active in Parisian high society during the 80s and 90s, welcomed in the most fashionable and exclusive salons of his day. However, his position there was also one of an outsider, due to his Jewishness and homosexuality. Towards the end of 1890s Proust began to withdraw more and more from society, and although he was never entirely reclusive, as is sometimes made out, he lapsed more completely into his lifelong tendency to sleep during the day and work at night. He was also plagued with severe asthma, which had troubled him intermittently since childhood, and a terror of his own death, especially in case it should come before his novel had been completed. The first volume, after some difficulty finding a publisher, came out in 1913, and Proust continued to work with an almost inhuman dedication on his masterpiece right up until his death in 1922, at the age of 51.
Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century, and À la recherche du temps perdu as one of the most dazzling and significant works of literature to be written in modern times.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 3, 2025
In lieu of a review, I offer my list of new to me vocabulary:
Tisane - herbal tea
Pas-de-quartre - a dance with four participants
Intaglio - a design created by cutting into a printing plate
Samovar - a metal urn used to make tea
Spume - froth or foam, especially that of waves
Faille - a soft, light-woven fabric with a ribbed texture
Chatelaine - the mistress of a chateau
Tamarisks - a tree with a feathery appearance due to its scale-like leaves on thin branches
Transept - the two parts of a church forming the arms of a cross shaped church, projecting from the nave
Morocco (adjective) - a fine leather from goatskin tanned with sumac
Cheval-glass - a freestanding large mirror, usually with a tilt mechanism
Vetiver - a species of tropical grass
Belvedere - a summer house or open-sided gallery, typically at rooftop level
Cambric - a lightweight cotton or linen fabric
Introit - a psalm sung as the priest approaches the altar
Analgesic - a drug that relieves pain
Zither - a string instrument common in Central European music
Batonnier - the president of a law society
Rince-bouches - a small bowl of perfumed warm water presented to guests at a dinner between courses
Barouche - a horse drawn carriage
Esplanade - a long, open walkway alongside a body of water
Narthex - a vestibule in a church
Pistils - the female reproductive parts of a flower
Ogival - having a pointed, curved shape; the adjective form of an ogee
Portico - a porch leading to an entrance
Custumal - a written account of the customs of a local community
Vicuña - a wild Andean animal related to the llama and the alpaca
Quarterings (heraldic) - a method of joining several coats of arms in one
Pepla - a flared ruffle
Androcephalous - of an animal or beast, having a human head
Valerian - a strongly smelling flowering herb
Cocotte - a courtesan
Lorgnette - opera glasses held by a long handle
Confabulation - an imagined memory
Peri - beautiful, feared supernatural beings in Arabic mythology
Unctuous - pleasingly rich
Predella - the lowest part of an altarpiece, often part of a polytypch
Ataxia - a loss of muscle control
Toque - a hat with narrow or no brim
Zoophyte - an obsolete term for a class of organism thought to be between animals and plants
Diabolo - a circus prop similar to a double sided yo-yo
Corolla - the petals of a flower
Cryptogams - plants which reproduce without seeds
Papilinaceous - related to a family of flowers that resemble butterflies
Tisane - herbal tea
Pas-de-quartre - a dance with four participants
Intaglio - a design created by cutting into a printing plate
Samovar - a metal urn used to make tea
Spume - froth or foam, especially that of waves
Faille - a soft, light-woven fabric with a ribbed texture
Chatelaine - the mistress of a chateau
Tamarisks - a tree with a feathery appearance due to its scale-like leaves on thin branches
Transept - the two parts of a church forming the arms of a cross shaped church, projecting from the nave
Morocco (adjective) - a fine leather from goatskin tanned with sumac
Cheval-glass - a freestanding large mirror, usually with a tilt mechanism
Vetiver - a species of tropical grass
Belvedere - a summer house or open-sided gallery, typically at rooftop level
Cambric - a lightweight cotton or linen fabric
Introit - a psalm sung as the priest approaches the altar
Analgesic - a drug that relieves pain
Zither - a string instrument common in Central European music
Batonnier - the president of a law society
Rince-bouches - a small bowl of perfumed warm water presented to guests at a dinner between courses
Barouche - a horse drawn carriage
Esplanade - a long, open walkway alongside a body of water
Narthex - a vestibule in a church
Pistils - the female reproductive parts of a flower
Ogival - having a pointed, curved shape; the adjective form of an ogee
Portico - a porch leading to an entrance
Custumal - a written account of the customs of a local community
Vicuña - a wild Andean animal related to the llama and the alpaca
Quarterings (heraldic) - a method of joining several coats of arms in one
Pepla - a flared ruffle
Androcephalous - of an animal or beast, having a human head
Valerian - a strongly smelling flowering herb
Cocotte - a courtesan
Lorgnette - opera glasses held by a long handle
Confabulation - an imagined memory
Peri - beautiful, feared supernatural beings in Arabic mythology
Unctuous - pleasingly rich
Predella - the lowest part of an altarpiece, often part of a polytypch
Ataxia - a loss of muscle control
Toque - a hat with narrow or no brim
Zoophyte - an obsolete term for a class of organism thought to be between animals and plants
Diabolo - a circus prop similar to a double sided yo-yo
Corolla - the petals of a flower
Cryptogams - plants which reproduce without seeds
Papilinaceous - related to a family of flowers that resemble butterflies
Read
December 7, 2025“the masterpiece we gaze upon during dinner doesn't give us the same intoxicating joy we can only expect from it in an art gallery, which, by its bareness and lack of any personality of its own, symbolizes much more aptly the inner spaces into which the artist withdrew to create it.”
“it seemed to me that whatever there was that was great and real in this performance would be even more so if the actress superimposed it on work of real value instead of embroidering truth and beauty on a mediocre, common fabric.”
“it seemed to me that whatever there was that was great and real in this performance would be even more so if the actress superimposed it on work of real value instead of embroidering truth and beauty on a mediocre, common fabric.”
September 11, 2025
If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not less dreaming, but more dreaming, nothing but dreaming.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews