In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, the second volume of Proust’s novel, was published in 1919 and awarded the prestigious Goncourt Prize. A late version of the manuscript (mostly earlier galley proofs annotated by Proust, set on large sheets by the publisher) was dispersed in a luxury edition in 1920. Proust expressed mixed feelings about this edition, but he recognized the aesthetic quality of the collages, observing – with characteristic self-deprecation and attention to the skill of manual workers – that “the manuscript, in spite of my ugly handwriting […] is lovely, and looks like a palimpsest thanks to the person who put it together with exquisite taste.”

In this fragment, the young narrator pays a visit to Odette, now married to Swann, and their daughter Gilberte. The fragment shows how Proust did not merely correct typesetters’ errors but made extensive revisions and additions to his work, even at this late stage of composition.    

View the full sheet here.

Marcel Proust, Hand-corrected galley proofs for À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [1918], (detail). p FC9 P9478 918aab, Houghton Library, Harvard University. Purchase, 1963.