In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower

Marcel Proust · 1871–1922 · France

Originally À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (French)

Why it matters

The second volume of In Search of Lost Time, and the one that won the Prix Goncourt: the narrator's adolescence, Balbec, and his infatuation with Albertine. Proust's great anatomy of desire, jealousy, and the disappointments of getting what one wants.

At a glance

Extraordinarily long, subordinate-clause-laden sentences track minute shifts of consciousness.