A la recherche du temps perdu

Grasset & Nrf, Paris 1913-1927, 12x19 cm for the first volume & 13x19.5 cm for the second & 14.5x19.5 cm for the rest, 13 bound volumes

First edition, with all the characteristics of the first printing for Du côté de chez Swann (upper cover with the 1913 date, no table of contents, publisher's catalog at end). The error to Grasset, present only in the very first copies, is here corrected; Proust intervened very quickly at the start of printing to demand the correction of this typographical fault.

First edition on ordinary paper, one of the very rare first copies without edition statement for á l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, of which there were only around 500 copies, the 2000 copies following which had a fictive edition statement on the cover.
This complete collection of In Search of Lost Time thus includes the following titles: Du côté de chez Swann [Swann's Way], Á l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower], Le Côté de Guermantes [The Guermantes Way] (2 volumes), Sodome et Gomorrhe [Sodom and Gomorrha] (3 volumes), La Prisonnière [The Prisoner] (2 volumes), Albertine disparue [The Fugitive] (2 volumes) et Le Temps retrouvé [Time Regained] (2 volumes).

With two handsome and important autograph inscriptions signed by Marcel Proust to the literary critic and publisher at the Nrf, Roger Allard:
- “à monsieur Roger Allard. / Sympathiquement. / Marcel Proust” in Le Côté de Guermantes.
- “à monsieur Roger Allard. / Très sympathique hommage. / Marcel Proust” in Le Côté de Guermantes II - Sodome et Gomorrhe I.

The collection is in an elegant uniform binding by Semet et Plumelle of half red morocco over marbled paper boards, spine in six compartments, gilt dates to foot of spine, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spines preserved, t.e.g.

With a prestigious provenance – the collection of Georges Pompidou with his ex-libris pasted in each volume.

“From his youth onwards, Georges Pompidou spoke to his friend Pujol of his admiration for the author of In Search of Lost Time. At the time, Proust was far from unknown but did not have the same level of fame as today. Even after the war, when Bernard de Fallois wanted to devote his thesis to the writer, still often seen as a society figure, de Fallois was counselled against it, for the subject was not “relevant”. Georges Pompidou, however, was not deceived. “What a fellow,” he wrote to Robert Pujol. “It seems he had a fantastic memory, a heart of gold, a prodigious sense of delicacy with women and a stunning power of observation. He read people's souls.” So we should hardly be surprised that Pompidue treated himself to…the first edition of In Search of Lost Time…” (Étienne de Montety, Dans la bibliothèque de nos présidents: ce qu'ils lisent et relisent, 2020).
Roger Allard devoted a polished account to Sodom and Gomorrha I entitled “Sodom and Gomorra, or Marcel Proust the moralist” in the Nrf of the 1 ^st September 1921. He wrote: “It was in his demonstration of an imperfect satisfaction that it became clear to me that M. Proust possessed all those qualities or rather that charm in which Zola is so sadly lacking….It seems that in every twist and turn of the charming labyrinth into which M. Proust leads us, unexpected mirrors await our gaze, while our impassive guide continues his florid commentary.” This important account, given top billing in the issue, which is to say in the place of the traditional literary text, was undoubtedly written as a result of Proust's sending this copy to the critic at the Nrf. Proust, absolutely delighted at Allard's reception of his work replied to him on the 13 September 1921: “It is a great pleasure to be understood so deeply, down to the smallest details…I am profoundly touched to see that you have turned on my writing an intelligence so deeply searching.”

An exceptional set of La Recherche du temps perdu uniformly bound, with two handsome autograph inscriptions signed by Marcel Proust to Roger Allard.

Provenance: from the collection of President Georges Pompidou.