In Search of Lost Time, also translated as Remembrance of Things Past, is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. It is his most prominent work, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory; the most famous example of this is the "episode of the madeleine", which occurs early in the first volume. Within a Budding Grove describes the first shoots of an astonishing love affair. When Proust's adolescent narrator travels from Paris to the sunny seaside town of Balbec he meets an intriguing set of new acquaintances who provide him with both friendship and entertainment.