Du côté de chez Swann

Du côté de chez Swann is presented here in the first edition, published by Bernard Grasset in 1913 (second printing), under the reissue wrappers of the Éditions de la N.R.F. On October 15, 1917, Gaston Gallimard wrote to Bernard Grasset for the first time, “eager to erase, once and for all, the original error” (Assouline, Gaston Gallimard, p. 92). The remaining stock — some six hundred copies of the second printing — was bought back by Gallimard, who replaced the Grasset wrappers with those of the N.R.F.: “these rare copies would fetch very high prices on the antiquarian market after the war” (Boillat, Bernard Grasset et les Lettres françaises, p. 286).

This copy does indeed carry the slip pasted onto the title page over the earlier Grasset imprint, but in a different printing from the one reproduced in Henri Vignes’ bibliography (smaller, and printed on fine Japanese paper).

At the same time, Gaston Gallimard launched production of “his” edition of Du Côté de chez Swann, intended to accompany the publication of À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. The announced deluxe copies (64 réimposés on Lafuma paper) were never printed, being replaced by the réimposé quarto Tellière copies that would constitute the printings of À la Recherche du temps perdu.