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).
