The first volume of the most famous French novel of the 20th century was published a hundred years ago – in November 1913. The novel was called 'Swann's Way,' and its author, Marcel Proust, had no idea then that his brainchild would grow into the 'In Search of Lost Time' series, which the writer would work on until the last hours of his life. The reader will appreciate Elena Baevskaya's brilliant translation, which refutes the sadly established opinion that Proust was a venerable, intellectual, but boring author.