Published in 1918, &quot;In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower&quot;, Volume 2 of Marcel Proust&rsquo;s giant novel, &quot;<i>In Search of Lost Time</i>&quot;, is a joy to read.<br /><br />&quot;In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower&quot; tells a story of separation and emergence. It is Proust&rsquo;s spectacular dissection of male and female adolescence, charged with the narrator&rsquo;s memories of Paris and the Normandy seaside. At the heart of the story lies his relationships with his grandmother and with the Swann family. As a meditation on different forms of love, &quot;In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower&quot; has no equal. Here, Proust introduces some of his greatest comic inventions, from the magnificently dull M. de Norpois to the enchanting Robert de Saint-Loup. It is memorable as well for the first appearance of the two figures who for better or worse are to dominate the narrator&rsquo;s life&mdash;the Baron de Charlus and the mysterious Albertine.<br /><br />&quot;<b>In Search of Lost Time</b>&quot; is composed by seven magnificent volumes:<br />- Volume One: &quot;Swann&#39;s Way&quot;<br />- Volume Two: &quot;In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower&quot;<br />- Volume Three: &quot;The Guermantes Way&quot;<br />- Volume Four: &quot;Sodom and Gomorrah&quot;<br />- Volume Five: &quot;The Prisoner&quot;<br />- Volume Six: &quot;The Fugitive&quot;<br />- Volume Seven: &quot;Time Regained&quot;