12.23.2011
Kirk McElhearn reads Proust in Paris & London
Kirk McElhearn, an American in Paris & London, has written a wonderful essay on re-reading Proust. The pleasures are even greater, the second time around, because you know the characters and you know what's going to happen. Try this page to read his reviews of critical texts, audio books, and biographies.
10.01.2011
Pages for October
10/6 ::The name Simonet (519, 528, 578). Rest before dinner: different aspects of the sea (523).
10/13 :: Dinners at Rivebelle (529). The astral tables (533). Euphoria induced by alcohol and music (534-39).
10/20 :: Euphoria induced by alcohol and music (539-53)
10/13 :: Dinners at Rivebelle (529). The astral tables (533). Euphoria induced by alcohol and music (534-39).
10/20 :: Euphoria induced by alcohol and music (539-53)
10/27 :: Meeting with Elstir (553). A new aspect of Albertine (558-64).
Within a Budding Grove (vol II)
Part 1 MADAME SWANN AT HOME
A new Swann: Odette’s husband (1; cf. 112 sqq.). A new Cottard: Professor Cottard (3). Norpois (5); the “governmental mind” (6); an ambassador’s conversation (8). “ ‘Although’ is always an unrecognized ‘because’ ” (10). Norpois advises my father to let me follow a literary career (13).
My first experience of Berma (15). My high expectations of her, as of Balbec and Venice (17). A great disappointment (20). Françoise and Michelangelo (21). The auditorium and the stage (24; cf. I 100).
Norpois dines at our house (29). His notions about literature (31); financial investments (33); Berma (37); Françoise’s spiced beef (39); King Theodosius’ visit to Paris (41); Balbec church (48); Mme Swann (49); Odette and the Comte de Paris (58); Bergotte (60); my prose poem (62; cf. 35); Gilberte (65). Gestures which we believe have gone unnoticed (67); why M. de Norpois would not speak to Mme Swann about me (70).
How I came to say of Berma: “What a great artist!” (72). The laws of Time (74). Effect produced by Norpois on my parents (75), on Françoise (76); the latter’s views on Parisian restaurants (78).
New Year’s Day visits (79). I propose to Gilberte that we should rebuild our friendship on a new basis (80); but that same evening I realize that New Year’s Day is not the first day of a new world (81). Berma and love (83). Gabriel’s palaces (84). I can no longer recall Gilberte’s face (84). She returns to the Champs-Elysées (85). “They can’t stand you!” (86) I write to Swann (86). Reawakening, thanks to involuntary memory, in the little pavilion in the Champs-Elysées, of the impressions experienced in Uncle Adolphe’s sanctum at Combray (89, 91; cf. I 99). Amorous wrestle with Gilberte (89). I fall ill (91). Cottard’s diagnoses (96).
A letter from Gilberte (98). Love’s miracles, happy and unhappy (99). Change of attitude towards me of Gilberte’s parents, unwittingly brought about by Bloch and Cottard (102). The Swann apartment; the concierge; the windows (103; cf. I 500). Gilberte’s writing-paper (104). The Henri II staircase (106). The chocolate cake (107). Mme Swann’s praise of Françoise: “your old nurse” (110). The heart of the Sanctuary: Swann’s library (111); his wife’s bedroom (113). Odette’s “at home” (114). The “famous Albertine,” niece of Mme Bontemps (116). The evolution of society (117). Swann’s “amusing socio-logical experiments” (128). Swann’s old jealousy (131) and new love (133).
Outings with the Swanns (134). Lunch with them (135). Odette plays Vinteuil’s sonata to me (140). A work of genius creates its own posterity (143). What the little phrase now means to Swann (145). “Me nigger; you old cow!” (149). Consistent charm of Mme Swann’s heterogeneous drawing-room (153). Princess Mathilde (157). Gilberte’s unexpected behavior (161).
Lunch at the Swanns’ with Bergotte (164). The gentle white-haired bard and the man with the snail-shell nose and black goatee (165). A writer’s voice and his style (168). Bergotte and his imitators (169). Unforeseeable beauty of the sentences of a great writer (170). Reflecting power of genius (174). Vices of the man and morality of the writer (181). Bergotte and Berma (183). “A powerful idea communicates some of its power to the man who contradicts it” (186). A remark of Swann’s, prelude to the theme of The Captive (188). Gilberte’s characteristics inherited from both parents (190). Swann’s confidence in his daughter (193). Are my pleasures those of the intelligence? (195). Why Swann, according to Bergotte, needs a good doctor (199). Combray society and the social world (199). My parents’ change of mind about Bergotte and Gilberte; a problem of etiquette (203).
Revelations about love (205; cf. I 129); Bloch takes me to a second-rate house of assignation (205). “Rachel when from the Lord” (207). Aunt Léonie’s furniture in the brothel (208). Amatory initiation at Combray on Aunt Léonie’s sofa (208). Work projects constantly postponed (210). Impossibility of happiness in love (214). My last visit to Gilberte (214). I decide not to see her again (217). Unjust fury with the Swanns’ butler (222). Waiting for a letter (222). I renounce Gilberte forever (224); but the hope of a reconciliation is superimposed on my resolve (226). Intermittence, law of the human soul (227).
Odette’s “winter-garden” (228): splendor of the chrysanthemums and poverty of the conversation: Mme Cottard (234); Mme Bontemps (234); effrontery of her niece Albertine (237); the Prince d’Agrigente (239); Mme Verdurin (239). Painful New Year’s Day (251). “Suicide of that self which loved Gilberte” (255). Clumsy interventions (256). Letters to Gilberte: “one speaks for oneself alone” (259). Odette’s drawing-room: retreat of the Far East and invasion of the eighteenth century (261). New hair-styles and silhouettes (265; cf. I 278).
A sudden impulse interrupts the cure of detachment (271); Aunt Léonie’s Chinese vase (272). Two walkers in the Elysian twilight (273). Impossibility of happiness (274). The opposing forces of memory and imagination (276). Because of Gilberte, I decline an invitation to a dinner-party where I would have met Albertine (277). Cruel memories (278). Gilberte’s strange laugh, evoked in a dream (281; cf. 217). Fewer visits to Mme Swann (283). Exchange of tender letters and progress of indifference (286). Approach of spring: Mme Swann’s ermine and the guilder-roses in her drawing-room; nostalgia for Combray (288). Odette and the “Down-and-outs Club” (290). An intermediate social class (295).
2 WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE: Part 2 PLACE-NAMES THE PLACE
Departure for Balbec (299). Subjectiveness of love (300). Contradictory effects of habit (301). Railway stations (303). Françoise’s simple and infallible taste (309). Alcoholic euphoria (312). Mme de Sévigné and Dostoyevski (315). Sunrise from the train (316); the milk-girl (317). Balbec church (322). “The tyranny of the Particular” (324). Place-names on the way to Balbec-Plage (326).
Arrival at Balbec-Plage (327). The manager of the Grand Hotel (327, 332). My room at the top of the hotel (333; cf. I 8). Attention and habit (333, 339). My grandmother’s kindness (334). The sea in the morning (341). Balbec tourists (345). Balbec and Rivebelle (346). Mme de Villeparisis (349). M. and Mlle de Stermaria (351). An actress and three friends (352). The weekly Cambremer garden-party (355). Resemblances (358). Poetic visions of Mlle de Stermaria (364). The general manager (367). Françoise’s Grand Hotel connections (369). Meeting of Mme de Villeparisis and my grandmother (371). The “sordid moment” at the end of meals (372; cf. 613). The Princesse de Luxembourg (377). Mme de Villeparisis, M. de Norpois and my father (381). The bourgeoisie and the Faubourg Saint-Germain (384).
Different seas (387). Drives with Mme de Villeparisis (387). The ivy-covered church (391). Mme de Villeparisis’s conversation (394, 408). Norman girls (396). The handsome fisher-girl (402). The three trees of Hudimesnil (404; cf. I 254). The fat Duchesse de La Rochefoucauld (416). My grandmother and I: intimations of death (419).
Robert de Saint-Loup (421). My friendship with him (430), but real happiness requires solitude (431; cf. 664). Saint-Loup as a work of art: the “nobleman” (432). A Jewish colony (432). Variety of human failings and similarity of virtues (436). Bloch’s bad manners (442). Bloch and his father (443; cf. 476). The stereoscope (447).
M. de Charlus’s strange behavior (455). Mme de Villeparisis is a Guermantes (456). I recognize him as the man in the grounds of Tansonville (458; cf. I 199). Further weird behavior (463). Mme de Sévigné, La Fontaine and Racine (467). Charlus comes to my room (471).
Dinner at the Blochs’ with Saint-Loup (474). To know “without knowing” (477). Bloch’s sisters (477). The elegance of “Uncle Solomon” (481). Nissim Bernard (482); his lies (485). Bloch and Mme Swann in the train (489). Françoise’s view of Bloch and Saint-Loup (490). Saint-Loup and his mistress (490). My grandmother’s inexplicable behavior (500).
The blossoming girls (503). “Oh, the poor old boy… (508). The dark-haired cyclist: Albertine (510). The name Simonet (519, 528, 578). Rest before dinner: different aspects of the sea (523). Dinners at Rivebelle (529). The astral tables (533). Euphoria induced by alcohol and music (534). Meeting with Elstir (553). A new aspect of Albertine (558).
Elstir’s studio (564); his seascapes (566); the painter’s “metaphors” (567). Elstir explains to me the beauty of Balbec church (573). Albertine passes by (578). The portrait of Miss Sacripant (585). “My beautiful Gabrielle!” (586). Age and the artist (588). Elstir and the little band (593). Nullity of love (596). Miss Sacripant was Mme Swann (600) and M. Biche Elstir! (604). One must discover wisdom for oneself (605). My grandmother and Saint-Loup (608). Saint-Loup and Bloch (609). Still lifes (613; cf. 373). Afternoon party at Elstir’s (615). Yet another Albertine: a well-brought-up girl (619). Albertine on the esplanade: once more a member of the little band (623). Octave, the gigolo (625). Albertine’s antipathy for Bloch (627). Saint-Loup engaged to a Mlle d’Ambresac? (634). Albertine’s intelligence and taste (635). Andrée (636). Gisèle (637).
Days with the girls (643). Françoise’s bad temper (649). Balbec through Elstir’s eyes (651). Fortuny (653). A sketch of the Creuniers (656). The mobile beauty of youth (662). Friendship: and abdication of oneself (664; cf. 430). Twittering of the girls (666). Letter from Sophocles to Racine (671). A love divided among several girls (676). Albertine is to spend a night at the Grand Hotel (695). The rejected kiss (701). The attraction of Albertine (702). The multiple utilization of a single action (707). Straying in the budding grove (716). The different Albertines (718).
End of the season (724). Departure (728).
9.12.2011
Side quotes Archives
How Aunt Léonie was like Louis XIV...
My mother was afraid lest Françoise develop a genuine hatred of my aunt, who was doing everything in her power to annoy her. However, Françoise had come, more and more, to pay an infinitely scrupulous attention to my aunt’s least word and gesture. When she had to ask her for anything she would hesitate, first, for a long time, making up her mind how best to begin. And when she had uttered her request, she would watch my aunt covertly, trying to guess from the expression on her face what she thought of it, and how she would reply. And in this way — whereas an artist who had been reading memoirs of the 17th century, and wished to bring himself nearer to the great Louis, would consider that he was making progress in that direction when he constructed a pedigree that traced his own descent from some historic family, or when he engaged in correspondence with one of the reigning Sovereigns of Europe, and so would shut his eyes to the mistake he was making in seeking to establish a similarity by an exact and therefore lifeless copy of mere outward forms — a middle-aged lady in a small country town, by doing no more than yield whole-hearted obedience to her own irresistible eccentricities, and to a spirit of mischief engendered by the utter idleness of her existence, could see, without ever having given a thought to Louis XIV, the most trivial occupations of her daily life, her morning toilet, her luncheon, her afternoon nap, assume, by virtue of their despotic singularity, something of the interest that was to be found in what Saint-Simon used to call the ‘machinery’ of life at Versailles; and was able, too, to persuade herself that her silence, a shade of good humour or of arrogance on her features, would provide Françoise with matter for a mental commentary as tense with passion and terror, as did the silence, the good humour or the arrogance of the King when a courtier, or even his greatest nobles, had presented a petition to him, at the turning of an avenue, at Versailles.
From Contre Sainte-Beuve:
Perhaps, too, they may grant me that ravishing thing: a pleasure of the imagination, a pleasure of no reality, the only true pleasure of the poet; in a minute of real life they may grant me one of the rare moments that bring no disillusionment in their train. And from this impression and others like it something common to them all is liberated, something whose superiority to our everyday realities, even the realities of thought, and passion, and sentiment, we shall never be able to account for. Yet this superiority is so positive that it is almost the only thing we can never doubt. And when we recognise this thing, this common essence of our impressions, we feel a pleasure like no other pleasure, and while it stays with us we know that death is negligible. And after we have read pages containing the loftiest thought and the noblest sentiments and have remarked, “That’s really quite good,” if, suddenly and without our knowledge why or wherefore, from some seemingly casual word a breath of that essence is wafted to us, we know that this is Beauty.
My mother was afraid lest Françoise develop a genuine hatred of my aunt, who was doing everything in her power to annoy her. However, Françoise had come, more and more, to pay an infinitely scrupulous attention to my aunt’s least word and gesture. When she had to ask her for anything she would hesitate, first, for a long time, making up her mind how best to begin. And when she had uttered her request, she would watch my aunt covertly, trying to guess from the expression on her face what she thought of it, and how she would reply. And in this way — whereas an artist who had been reading memoirs of the 17th century, and wished to bring himself nearer to the great Louis, would consider that he was making progress in that direction when he constructed a pedigree that traced his own descent from some historic family, or when he engaged in correspondence with one of the reigning Sovereigns of Europe, and so would shut his eyes to the mistake he was making in seeking to establish a similarity by an exact and therefore lifeless copy of mere outward forms — a middle-aged lady in a small country town, by doing no more than yield whole-hearted obedience to her own irresistible eccentricities, and to a spirit of mischief engendered by the utter idleness of her existence, could see, without ever having given a thought to Louis XIV, the most trivial occupations of her daily life, her morning toilet, her luncheon, her afternoon nap, assume, by virtue of their despotic singularity, something of the interest that was to be found in what Saint-Simon used to call the ‘machinery’ of life at Versailles; and was able, too, to persuade herself that her silence, a shade of good humour or of arrogance on her features, would provide Françoise with matter for a mental commentary as tense with passion and terror, as did the silence, the good humour or the arrogance of the King when a courtier, or even his greatest nobles, had presented a petition to him, at the turning of an avenue, at Versailles.
From Contre Sainte-Beuve:
Perhaps, too, they may grant me that ravishing thing: a pleasure of the imagination, a pleasure of no reality, the only true pleasure of the poet; in a minute of real life they may grant me one of the rare moments that bring no disillusionment in their train. And from this impression and others like it something common to them all is liberated, something whose superiority to our everyday realities, even the realities of thought, and passion, and sentiment, we shall never be able to account for. Yet this superiority is so positive that it is almost the only thing we can never doubt. And when we recognise this thing, this common essence of our impressions, we feel a pleasure like no other pleasure, and while it stays with us we know that death is negligible. And after we have read pages containing the loftiest thought and the noblest sentiments and have remarked, “That’s really quite good,” if, suddenly and without our knowledge why or wherefore, from some seemingly casual word a breath of that essence is wafted to us, we know that this is Beauty.
8.31.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 522-32)
p 523 | confraternity: a group of men united for some particular purpose, esp Christian laymen organized for religious or charitable service; brotherhood [from Medieval Latin: confraternitas; see confrère, fraternity]
| reliquary: (Ecclesiastical Terms) a receptacle or repository for relics, esp relics of saints [from Old French reliquaire, from relique relic]| predella : (Art) a painting or sculpture or a series of small paintings or sculptures in a long narrow strip forming the lower edge of an altarpiece or the face of an altar step or platform.
| reredos: a screen or wall decoration on the wall at the back of an altar, as a tapestry, painting, or piece of metalwork or sculpture.
p 526 | butterfly signature of James McNeill Whistler; his painting of Lady Meux, titled "Harmony in Pink and Grey."
| What Marcel saw out the window.... click "Photo Gallery" for Grand Hotel (modern) photos. Webcams at Balbec.
p 527 | First mention of Dreyfus! (So the year is maybe summer of 1895?)
p 529 | Cauteries... cautery: Agent or instrument that destroys abnormal tissue by burning, searing, or scarring, including caustic substances, electric currents, lasers, and very hot or very cold instruments.
p 531 | a fortiori: for similar but more convincing reasons.
8.04.2011
Le Cercle de la Rue Royale (p 481)
 |
| Le Balcon du Cercle de la Rue Royale, by James Tissot, 1868 |
p 481 | The Rue Royale was an exclusive men's club, not snooty enough for Saint-Loup's family, whose father had been president of the Jockey Club, since Jews were occasionally admitted (see Charles Haas, far right). From left to right: Comte de La Tour-Maubourg, Marquis de Lau, Comte de Ganay, Comte de Rochechouart, C. Vansittant, Marquis de Miramon, Baron Hottinguer (former owner of the painting), Marquis de Ganay, Gaston de Saint-Maurice, Prince de Polignac, Marquis de Gallifet et Charles Haas (standing on the step, not quite in... Haas was the main model for Charles Swann).
8.03.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 467-81)
p 467 | Monomotapa was a Kafir territory in SE Africa, thought to be mythological, but attested to by Portuguese & Dutch sources from the 16th century onward, and continuing as far northward as beyond the Zambezi. La Fontaine (1621-95) seems to have chosen it as an example of an exotic distant land. [fn 1, re: The Two Friends (VIII, 11), p. 423, The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine, by Jean de La Fontaine, Norman R. Shapiro. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2007} See also Wikipedia for Kingdom of Mutapa.
p 475 | Alfred de Musset (1810 – 57; Académicien): French dramatist, poet, novelist & lover of George Sand. L'espoir en Dieu was a poem published in La Revue des Deux Mondes in 1838.
p 476 | Mme Cornuel: Anne-Marie Bigot, dame Cornuel (1614 (?) - 94), French salonista, aphorist, and wit of the 17th century. She is credited with saying "No man is a hero to his valet."
| ... swallow-tail coat: The front is cut away, leaving just the tails in back. See this page and Wikipedia.
p 478 | ... pepla: variant of peplum (flounce or short, flared flap attached at the waist of a dress, blouse, coat, etc., and extending around the hips).
|... fandangle: variant of fandango (foolish act, nonsense).
|... calumniate: slander
|... rigmarole: foolish or incoherent rambling talk or nonsense; an involved, fussy, time-wasting procedure
p 480 | ...consanguinity: blood relationship, or other close association or connection
| Duke d'Aumale: (Prince) Henri Louis d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (1822–97), 5th son of Louis-Philippe, King of the French & Duc d'Orléans and Marie Amalie of Bourbon-Sicilies, was a leader for the Orleanist cause of a constitutional monarchy in France (Wiki).
| ...Princesse Murat/Queen of Naples: This was Caroline Bonaparte.
p 481| Victoria carriage: French carriage, named for Queen Victoria at least by 1844, and renowned for its elegance. It was first imported into England by the Prince of Wales in 1869, where it rapidly gained popularity. It was usually pulled by one or two horses. The victoria was a low, light, four-wheeled, doorless vehicle with a forward-facing seat for two persons covered with a folding top, or calash, and a removable, elevated coachman’s seat above the front axle. The graceful body curved down from the coachman’s seat to the floorboards, and up again like a gently sloping chair. The Grand Victoria had a rumble seat for two extra passengers. (Brittanica)
 |
| Alfred de Musset |
p 476 | Mme Cornuel: Anne-Marie Bigot, dame Cornuel (1614 (?) - 94), French salonista, aphorist, and wit of the 17th century. She is credited with saying "No man is a hero to his valet."
| ... swallow-tail coat: The front is cut away, leaving just the tails in back. See this page and Wikipedia.
p 478 | ... pepla: variant of peplum (flounce or short, flared flap attached at the waist of a dress, blouse, coat, etc., and extending around the hips).
|... fandangle: variant of fandango (foolish act, nonsense).
|... calumniate: slander
|... rigmarole: foolish or incoherent rambling talk or nonsense; an involved, fussy, time-wasting procedure
p 480 | ...consanguinity: blood relationship, or other close association or connection
 |
| Duke d'Aumale |
| Duke d'Aumale: (Prince) Henri Louis d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (1822–97), 5th son of Louis-Philippe, King of the French & Duc d'Orléans and Marie Amalie of Bourbon-Sicilies, was a leader for the Orleanist cause of a constitutional monarchy in France (Wiki).
| ...Princesse Murat/Queen of Naples: This was Caroline Bonaparte.
p 481| Victoria carriage: French carriage, named for Queen Victoria at least by 1844, and renowned for its elegance. It was first imported into England by the Prince of Wales in 1869, where it rapidly gained popularity. It was usually pulled by one or two horses. The victoria was a low, light, four-wheeled, doorless vehicle with a forward-facing seat for two persons covered with a folding top, or calash, and a removable, elevated coachman’s seat above the front axle. The graceful body curved down from the coachman’s seat to the floorboards, and up again like a gently sloping chair. The Grand Victoria had a rumble seat for two extra passengers. (Brittanica)
7.21.2011
Video Proust
Ronald Bergan on his role in the longest film ever. Okay, this 3-year-old post from the Guardian references this "home video" recording of A la recherche du temps perdu. You can go to this website, type in a page number (9, 24 and other random numbers worked for me; 1 did not), click voir, and watch regular people read a page o'Proust. I will do one too, as soon as I can figure out how. Anyone else?
7.19.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 449-68) Notes for July 2011
p 449 | M. first sees Charlus at Tansonville: “Gilberte, come along; what are you doing?” called out in a piercing tone of authority a lady in white, whom I had not seen until that moment, while, a little way beyond her, a gentleman in a suit of linen ‘ducks,’ whom I did not know either, stared at me with eyes which seemed to be starting from his head; the little girl’s smile abruptly faded, and, seizing her trowel, she made off without turning to look again in my direction, with an air of obedience, inscrutable and sly."
p 450 | "Possessing, by virtue of his descent from the Ducs de Nemours and Princes de Lamballe, documents, furniture, tapestries, portraits painted for his ancestors by Raphael, Velasquez, Boucher, ..."
p 460 | "a ‘modern style’ of decoration, employing Lebourg or Guillaumin."
p 468 |"she regarded Princes as enviable above all other men because they were able to have a Labruyère, a Fénelon as their tutors..."
 |
| by Armand Guillaumin |
 | |||
|
p 460 | "a ‘modern style’ of decoration, employing Lebourg or Guillaumin."
p 468 |"she regarded Princes as enviable above all other men because they were able to have a Labruyère, a Fénelon as their tutors..."
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 449...) French noble titles - Notes for July 2011
From a rather interesting article on French nobility and/or titles over at Heraldica.org:
"The origin of modern titles like duke, marquis, count lie in public offices held under Merovingian kings (6th-8th c.).
"The origin of modern titles like duke, marquis, count lie in public offices held under Merovingian kings (6th-8th c.).
- A duke (Latin dux, literally "leader") was the governor of a province, usually a military leader.
- A count (Latin comes, literally "companion") was an appointee of the king governing a city and its immediate surroundings, or else a high-ranking official in the king's immediate entourage (the latter called "palace counts" or "counts Palatine").
- A marquis was a count who was also the governor of a "march," a region at the boundaries of the kingdom that needed particular protection against foreign incursions (margrave in German).
- A viscount was the lieutenant of a count, either when the count was too busy to stay at home, or when the county was held by the king himself.
- A baron (a later title) was originally a direct vassal of the king, or of a major feudal lord like a duke or a count.
- A castellan (châtelain) was the commander in charge of a castle. A few castellanies survived with the title of "sire."
- duc (duke)
- marquis (marquis)
- comte (earl)
- vicomte (viscount)
- baron (baron)"
7.15.2011
7.14.2011
Biographical essay
Here's a short biographical essay by Charles Matthews at his Proust-reading weblog.
7.06.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 446-49) Notes for July 2011
p 446 | "horseman beloved of Ares" (Greek god of war)
| "shore of Amphitrite" (Greek goddess of the sea, wife of Poseidon)
| "swift-shipped Meniers": probably refers to Henri Menier (1853-1913), a wealthy French yachting enthusiast, but may also include the rest of the family.
p 447| Charles Leconte de Lisle, French poet, 1818-94.
| José-Maria de Heredia, Cuban-French poet, 1842-1905. Académician
| Parnassians: As a reaction to romantic poetry, this 19th century school of mostly French poets emphasized art for art’s sake, strict form & meter, and emotional detachment.
| Suez Canal board (M. de Marsantes)
| Stereoscope: a 3-dimensional photo viewer; special cameras took these pictures.
p 448 | Incarville; Incarville to Cabourg [Balbec]
| Podestà: Italian officials
| Renaissance medals: historical records of events & leading figures of the Quattrocento, intended to be the chief source for posterity for the lives of deliberately glorified individuals. a recent sale; images;
p 449 | violas da gamba, violas d'amore
| Phoenix Club: fictional exclusive club, founded by Charlus & his society friends
| Jockey Club: elite society gathering-place; photo
| Comte de Paris: Philippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris (1838 – 1894) was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French. He was a claimant to the French throne from 1848 until his death.
| "shore of Amphitrite" (Greek goddess of the sea, wife of Poseidon)
| "swift-shipped Meniers": probably refers to Henri Menier (1853-1913), a wealthy French yachting enthusiast, but may also include the rest of the family.
p 447| Charles Leconte de Lisle, French poet, 1818-94.
| José-Maria de Heredia, Cuban-French poet, 1842-1905. Académician
| Parnassians: As a reaction to romantic poetry, this 19th century school of mostly French poets emphasized art for art’s sake, strict form & meter, and emotional detachment.
| Suez Canal board (M. de Marsantes)
| Stereoscope: a 3-dimensional photo viewer; special cameras took these pictures.
p 448 | Incarville; Incarville to Cabourg [Balbec]
| Podestà: Italian officials
| Renaissance medals: historical records of events & leading figures of the Quattrocento, intended to be the chief source for posterity for the lives of deliberately glorified individuals. a recent sale; images;
p 449 | violas da gamba, violas d'amore| Phoenix Club: fictional exclusive club, founded by Charlus & his society friends
| Jockey Club: elite society gathering-place; photo
| Comte de Paris: Philippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris (1838 – 1894) was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French. He was a claimant to the French throne from 1848 until his death.
7.04.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 443-46) Notes for July 2011
p 443 | M. Legrandin (in Combray, engineer & man of letters; in Balbec, Mme de Cambremer’s brother).
| Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808-89), Catholic dandy & polemicist from Normandy who wrote novels of provincial life in a belated Gothic-Romantic and derivatively Balzacian vein.
| Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (1808-89), Catholic dandy & polemicist from Normandy who wrote novels of provincial life in a belated Gothic-Romantic and derivatively Balzacian vein.
p 444 | "... Zeus Kronion. ..." here, and elsewhere, Bloch borrows tags from Leconte de Lisle's poems & translations from the Greek.
| "... black Ker.." female spirit of violent death (Greek).
| Samuel Bernard (1651-1739) Protestant banker who provided important funding for France during the reigns of Louis XIV & Louis XV.
7.01.2011
Pages for July
July 7: Bloch and his father (443; cf. 476). The stereoscope (447). M. de Charlus’s strange behavior (455).
July 14: Mme de Villeparisis is a Guermantes (456). I recognize him as the man in the grounds of Tansonville (458; cf. I 199). Further weird behavior (463).
July 21: Mme de Sévigné, La Fontaine and Racine (467). Charlus comes to my room (471). Dinner at the Blochs’ with Saint-Loup (474). To know “without knowing” (477). Bloch’s sisters (477).
July 28: The elegance of “Uncle Solomon” (481). Nissim Bernard (482); his lies (485). Bloch and Mme Swann in the train (489). Françoise’s view of Bloch and Saint-Loup (490). Saint-Loup and his mistress (490).
July 14: Mme de Villeparisis is a Guermantes (456). I recognize him as the man in the grounds of Tansonville (458; cf. I 199). Further weird behavior (463).
July 21: Mme de Sévigné, La Fontaine and Racine (467). Charlus comes to my room (471). Dinner at the Blochs’ with Saint-Loup (474). To know “without knowing” (477). Bloch’s sisters (477).
July 28: The elegance of “Uncle Solomon” (481). Nissim Bernard (482); his lies (485). Bloch and Mme Swann in the train (489). Françoise’s view of Bloch and Saint-Loup (490). Saint-Loup and his mistress (490).
6.29.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II p 427-37)
p 427 | François-Adrien Boieldieu, French composer, 1775-1834, mostly operas, sometimes called "the French Mozart."| Eugène Labiche, French playwright, 1815-88. Some consider him the equal of Molière; his plays are more complex & less coarse than other French farces. Académicien
| According to The Esoteric Curiosa and other Proust scholars, Robert de Saint-Loup was, at least partially, based on Proust's blond friend Paul Ernest Boniface de Castellane, the Marquis de Castellane. V
p 434 | caravanserais: a large inn enclosing a courtyard providing accommodation for caravans. Scroll down for a look.
| 'lighftboy': Bloch's funny pronunciation of 'liftboy' (with a long 'i'). See p 435-6.
p 435 | corn-chandler: retail dealer in corn, grains, and seeds.
| punter: gambler, esp. one who bets against a bookmaker.
| phalanx: A group of people or similar things forming a compact body or brought together for common purpose.
 |
| William Morris' Kelmscott Press Edition of Ruskin |
 |
| Actual leaf from the Ruskin's notebook, at the Morgan Museum, NYC |
| photo of poppy fields
| “Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for everyone thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.” -- Rene Descartes
| The frequency of the virtues that are identical in us all is not more wonderful than the multiplicity of the defects that are peculiar to each one of us.
| But the variety of our defects is no less remarkable than the similarity of our virtues. p 438
6.27.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 415-25) Notes for June 2011
 |
| Duc de Nemours |
p 415: | The Marquise mentions the Duc de Nemours carrying a package up to her father. He was really Prince Louis d'Orléans, 2nd son of future king, Louis-Philippe.
| The "unfortunate" Duchesse de Praslin had been murdered in 1847, most likely by her husband Charles de Choiseul-Praslin, an event that indirectly affected the start of the 1848 Revolution. Read the sordid story here.
p 416: | The Choiseul family of Champagne.
| Louis the Fat (Louis le Gros) = Louis VI, King of France, 1108-37.
| Louis de Loménie (French scholar & writer, Académicien, 1815–78). |
| Louis the Fat |
| Louis-Mathieu Molé, 1781-1855, French statesman, 18th Prime Minister, Académicien.
| Ximénès Doudan, French writer, 1800-82.
| Joseph Joubert, 1754-1824, writer, see samples translated by Paul Auster.
|"...the materialist position appeared to be crumbling..."
| Joseph Joubert, 1754-1824, writer, see samples translated by Paul Auster.
|"...the materialist position appeared to be crumbling..."
p 420 | Saumur=historic west/central French town that has military training schools.
| Doncières is in Lorraine in northeastern France.
p 422 | Carriage-and-pair
p 425 | Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, 1844-1900.
 |
| Nietzsche |
| Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French philosopher, 1809-65.
5.09.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 386?) Dinner Guests of Mme de Villeparisis' Parents
- CHOPIN, Frédéric (French/Polish composer, 1810-49)
- LISZT, Franz (Hungarian composer, 1811-86)
- LAMARTINE, Alphonse de (French poet, 1790-1869)
- CHATEAUBRIAND, François-René, Vicomte de (French writer & statesman, 1768-1848)
- BALZAC, Honoré de (French novelist, 1799-1850)
- HUGO, Victor (French poet, novelist & playwright, 1802-85)
- VIGNY, Alfred de (French poet, 1797-1863)
- Molé, Mathieu Louis (French judge & statesman, 1781-1855)
- FONTANES, Louis, Marquis de (French man of letters & statesman, 1757-1821)
- VITROLLES, Eugene Francois Augusto d'Arnaud, Baron (French politician, 1774-1854)
- BERSOT, Ernest (French philosopher & journalist, 1816-80)
- PASQUIER, Etienne Denis, Duc de (French statesman & author, 1767-1862),
- LEBRUN, Pierre-Antoine (French poet, 1785-1873)
- SALVANDY, Comte de (French writer & politician, 1795-1856)
- DARU, Pierre-Bruno, comte (French politician & writer, 1767-1829)
- STENDHAL [Henri Beyle] (French novelist, 1783-1842)
- MÉRIMÉE, Prosper (French novelist, 1803-70)
- SAINTE-BEUVE, Charles-Augustin (French writer, 1804-69); information on Sainte-Beuve's ideas about literary criticism and Proust's response to them (Contre Sainte-Beuve)
Dennis Abrams, over at The Cork-Lined Room, notes why it is important to pay attention to Proust's -- and his characters' -- name-dropping.
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 388-94) Notes for May
p 388 | Mme BLANDAIS: wife of the notary from LeMans on holiday at the Grand Hotel. ...
...a young page who attracted the eye no less by the unusual and effective colouring of his hair than by his plant-like epidermis. Inside, in the hall, corresponding to the narthex, or Church of the Catechumens in a primitive basilica...(388)
The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Catechumen, in the early Church, was the name applied to one who had not yet been initiated into the sacred mysteries, but was undergoing a course of preparation for that purpose. 
p 389 | "...like those pupils of Mme. de Maintenon who, in the garb of young Israelites, carry on the action whenever Esther or Joad ‘goes off.’ (389)
Françoise d'Aubigné, Mme de MAINTENON, (mistress, later wife of Louis XIV, 1635-1719)
Boys of humble background might become pages, or apprentice footmen. Unlike the hall boys, who did heavy work, these pages performed light odd jobs and were liveried when the aristocrat was entertaining.
...The arborescent page... (389) arborescent: Like a tree in structure, growth, or appearance; branching. About 1675, from Latin arborescens, present active participle of arboresco (“become a tree”). All one image: he's set on "alien soil" witn a "vegetable immobility."
 |
| Apple tree in bloom "...I sought to carry them back in my imagination to that roadside, to multiply them, to spread them out, so as to fill the frame prepared for them, on the canvas, all ready, of those closest to the outline of which I knew by heart, which I so longed to see—which one day I must see again, at the moment when, with the exquisite fervour of genius, spring was covering their canvas with its colours..." (390) ..."sun radiant" ... ("soleil rayonnant", 390) : quoting Baudelaire's Chant d'automne (Song of Autumn) ... Leconte de Lisle's beautiful image of birds & boats (391), from the Oresteia of Aeschylus.  ...The church at Carqueville, "quite buried in its old ivy" (391-2) is based on the church at Criqueboeuf. Another picture is here.  Mme de Villeparisis paints flowers in watercolor (392), as did Proust's great friend & benefactor, Madeleine Lemaire. She illustrated Proust's book of stories, arranged introductions, and invited him to her salon. |
5.07.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 387-88) Notes for May 2011
But before all this I had drawn back my own curtains, impatient to know what Sea it was that was playing that morning by the shore, like a Nereid. (387)
GLAUKONOME was the Nereid of the "mastering the grey" sea. (cf. Hesiod, Apollodorus)
"...seated beside Mme. de Villeparisis in her barouche..." (A 4-wheel fancy carriage with a fold-up hood at the back and with two inside seats facing each other.)
Saint-Mars le Vêtu ... or Quetteholme (387): fictional towns near Balbec; FÉTERNE. The Cambremer estate near Balbec (388).
THE NEREIDES (or Nereids) were 50 Haliad Nymphs or goddesses of the sea; patrons of sailors & fishermen, who assisted men in distress; goddesses who had the sea's bounty in their care. Individually they also represented facets of the sea, i.e, salty brine, foam, sand, rocky shores, waves and currents, as well as the skills possessed by seamen. The Nereides dwelt with their elderly father Nereus in a silvery cavern at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. Thetis was their unofficial leader, and Amphitrite was the queen of the sea. Together with the Tritones they formed the retinue of Poseidon. In ancient art, they were depicted as beautiful young maidens, sometimes running with small dolphins or fish in their hands, or riding on the back of dolphins, hippokampoi (fish-tailed horses) and other sea creatures.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"...disclose to my wondering eyes the nymph Glauconome, whose lazy beauty, gently breathing, had the transparence of a vaporous emerald beneath whose surface I could see teeming the ponderable elements that coloured it? She made the sun join in her play, with a smile rendered languorous by an invisible haze which was nought but a space kept vacant about her translucent surface, which, thus curtailed, became more appealing, like those goddesses whom the sculptor carves in relief upon a block of marble, the rest of which he leaves unchiselled..."
GLAUKONOME was the Nereid of the "mastering the grey" sea. (cf. Hesiod, Apollodorus)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"...seated beside Mme. de Villeparisis in her barouche..." (A 4-wheel fancy carriage with a fold-up hood at the back and with two inside seats facing each other.)Saint-Mars le Vêtu ... or Quetteholme (387): fictional towns near Balbec; FÉTERNE. The Cambremer estate near Balbec (388).
5.03.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II Pages for May 2011)
May 5: Different seas (387). Drives with Mme de Villeparisis (387). The ivy-covered church (391). Mme de Villeparisis’s conversation (394, 408). Norman girls (396).
May 12: The handsome fisher-girl (402). The three trees of Hudimesnil (404; cf. I 254). The fat Duchesse de La Rochefoucauld (416).
May 19: My grandmother and I: intimations of death (419). Robert de Saint-Loup (421). My friendship with him (430), but real happiness requires solitude (431; cf. 664).
May 26: Saint-Loup as a work of art: the “nobleman” (432). A Jewish colony (432). Variety of human failings and similarity of virtues (436). Bloch’s bad manners (442). Bloch and his father (443; cf. 476).
May 19: My grandmother and I: intimations of death (419). Robert de Saint-Loup (421). My friendship with him (430), but real happiness requires solitude (431; cf. 664).
May 26: Saint-Loup as a work of art: the “nobleman” (432). A Jewish colony (432). Variety of human failings and similarity of virtues (436). Bloch’s bad manners (442). Bloch and his father (443; cf. 476).
4.07.2011
4.01.2011
Within a Budding Grove (vol II Pages for April 2011)
April 7: My grandmother’s kindness (334). The sea in the morning (341). Balbec tourists (345).
April 14: Balbec and Rivebelle (346). Mme de Villeparisis (349). M. and Mlle de Stermaria (351). An actress and three friends (352). The weekly Cambremer garden-party (355).
April 21: Resemblances (358). Poetic visions of Mlle de Stermaria (364). The general manager (367). Françoise’s Grand Hotel connections (369).
April 28: Meeting of Mme de Villeparisis and my grandmother (371). The “sordid moment” at the end of meals (372; cf. 613). The Princesse de Luxembourg (377). Mme de Villeparisis, M. de Norpois and my father (381). The bourgeoisie and the Faubourg Saint-Germain (384).
3.15.2011
Balbec is Cabourg
Map showing Paris to Cabourg; click the + to zoom in.
Balbec is the fictional name of Cabourg, a town near the sea in the Basse-Normandie region of France. Proust spent the summers of 1907 and 1914 in the Grand Hôtel at Cabourg. Random walk site.
 |
| Gare de Dives-Cabourg, Dives-sur-Mer. From Gregory Deryckère |
Train station in Balbec-Plage (right);
Proust in Cabourg (photos and audio);
The Grand Hotel still looks like a great place for les vacances (below)
Getting ready for Balbec
Full text of Place-Names: the Place (at the end of Swann's Way)
Place-names on the way to Balbec-Plage (326).
[p303] Gare Saint-Lazare : Important Parisian railway station
..."certain skies painted with an almost Parisian modernity by ..."Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) and Paolo Veronese (1528–88):
[p308] "... not the enraptured traveller Ruskin speaks of..."
John Ruskin (1819–1900) was an English art critic and social thinker, also remembered as a poet and artist. His essays on art and architecture were extremely influential in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. He was also a great traveller and travel writer; see this Times article.
[p309] Chardin or Whistler
[p310] Marcus Atilius Regulus: Roman general and consul; not sure what text his mother is quoting.
 |
| [p311] Villa Montretout |
[p322] Trocadéro museum, changed from Proust's time, now contains the Musée national des Monuments Français, which is where M. saw the casts of the statues of the church.
[p324] Quimperlé ; Pont-Aven
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