In November 1913, the first volume of Marcel Proust's novel Towards Swann was published. The publication was made possible thanks to the efforts of friends of an unknown writer, as a complex, autobiographical work did not initially cause enthusiasm among publishers, and later critics and readers. At that time, hardly anyone could have predicted that the cycle “In Search of Lost Time”, the first book of which will be “In the direction of Swann” will eventually be called among the most significant works of world literature of the 20th century. Each novel of the cycle is devoted to some stage of life: "Towards Swann" tells about the childhood of the main character and about the events that preceded his birth; "Under the shadow of maidens crowned with flowers" - about his adolescence, the collapse of his first love and the birth of a new one; "Party of the Germanites" - about his youth . "Sodom and Gomorrah" (the last of the novels of the cycle, published during the life of the author) inherits the themes and plot of "Parties of the Germans": this is a continuation of the story of the secular successes of the young hero. There is also the theme of the hero’s love and relationship with Albertina, referring to the book “Under the shadow of maidens crowned with flowers”. The fourth novel of the series “In Search of Lost Time” after the previous three is offered to the attention of the reader in the translation of Elena Baevskaya, which refutes the sadly well-established opinion that Proust is a venerable, intellectual, but boring author.