# Is "Swann's Way" by Marcel Proust a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (Bernard Grasset, Paris, 1913) is identified by: French true first: Du côté de chez Swann, Bernard Grasset, Paris — printed (achevé d'imprimer) 8 November 1913 and in bookshops 14 November 1913, published at the author's expense. The census claim is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- French true first: Du côté de chez Swann, Bernard Grasset, Paris — printed (achevé d'imprimer) 8 November 1913 and in bookshops 14 November 1913, published at the author's expense
- First-printing points, all of which must agree:
- the title page shows the 'Grasset' type flaw — a bar of type slipped between the 'e' and the 't' of Grasset — corrected in the second printing
- the achevé d'imprimer dated 8 November 1913 sits on the verso of page 523
- there is NO table of contents — Proust had one added after the first impression, which pushed the achevé d'imprimer to page 528, so any copy with a table of contents is a later printing
- yellow wrappers printed in black, the wrapper dated 1913 while the title page is dated 1914
- Publisher imprint reads Bernard Grasset, Paris

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Marcel Proust |
| Publisher | Bernard Grasset, Paris |
| Year | 1913 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | French true first: Du côté de chez Swann, Bernard Grasset, Paris — printed (achevé d'imprimer) 8 November 1913 and in bookshops 14 November… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
French true first: Du côté de chez Swann, Bernard Grasset, Paris — printed (achevé d'imprimer) 8 November 1913 and in bookshops 14 November 1913, published at the author's expense. First-printing points, all of which must agree: (1) the title page shows the 'Grasset' type flaw — a bar of type slipped between the 'e' and the 't' of Grasset — corrected in the second printing; (2) the achevé d'imprimer dated 8 November 1913 sits on the verso of page 523; (3) there is NO table of contents — Proust had one added after the first impression, which pushed the achevé d'imprimer to page 528, so any copy with a table of contents is a later printing; (4) yellow wrappers printed in black, the wrapper dated 1913 while the title page is dated 1914; (5) early copies contain the publisher's grey-green catalogue of works in the press, omitted in later printings. The 17 large-paper copies (5 Japon, 12 Hollande) were pulled after the correction and therefore do NOT show the Grasset flaw — its absence does not demote them.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is correct. The French Grasset 1913 is the true first. In English, C.K. Scott Moncrieff's Swann's Way was published by Chatto & Windus, London, on 19 September 1922 in two volumes — this is the first edition in English and precedes the Henry Holt, New York issue of the same translation later in 1922. Both English editions are collected (Chatto as first in English, Holt as first American). The 1922 Gallimard/NRF reissue of the French text, and all later retranslations (Kilmartin, Enright, Davis/Penguin), are 'first thus' traps.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented. The signature trap here runs backwards from the usual rule: after the first impression sold through, Grasset overprinted remaining first-printing stock with fictitious edition statements — covers reading '2e édition' or '3e édition' (a third-edition mention appears on covers dated 1913 in Roman numerals) — as a sales device. A false edition statement on the wrapper does NOT demote a copy; judge by the title-page Grasset flaw, the absence of a table of contents, and the achevé d'imprimer on the verso of page 523. Conversely, a corrected title page plus a table of contents identifies the second printing regardless of what the wrapper claims.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Swann's Way* by Marcel Proust a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/swanns-way
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.