Sodom and Gomorrah IV pp 625-639

p 625 |  Conservatoire de Paris had been located at Rue Bergère (rue du Conservatoire)  since 1784.

In 1911 le Conservatoire moved to rue de Madrid. Some historic photos are here.

device of Charles V

p 629 |  Plus Ultra Car'lus: Earl Rosenthal, in The Palace of Charles V in Granada  (1985), says the motto is associated with the Pillars of Hercules, which, in Greek mythology, were built by Hercules near the Straits of Gibraltar to mark the edge of the then known world. According to mythology the pillars bore the warning Nec plus ultra (also Non plus ultra, meaning "nothing farther beyond"), to warn sailors & navigators to go no farther. It is believed that the young Charles V adopted Plus Oultre as his motto at his advisor's suggestion, as a way to encourage him to ignore the ancient warning & instead take risks, surpass himself and go "farther beyond."

p 631 | The Rules of Duels (Code Duello)

p 632 | "Some Sunday morning... "": opening words of a 1902 popular song "Viens, Poupoule" by Félix Mayol. Listen & read here.

p 634 | "Spes mea" ("My hope"); "Exspectata non eludet" ("He will not disappoint hopes"); "J'attendrai" ("I shall wait"); "Memes plaisirs du mestre" ("The same pleasures as the master");
"Sustentant lilia turns" ("The towers support the lilies"); "Manet ultima caelo" ("The end belongs to heaven"); "Non mortale quodopto" ("I have the ambition of an immortal"); "Atavis et armis" ("By ancestors and by arms")

p 638 | "C'est mon plaisir" ("It is my pleasure"); "Tantus ab uno splendor" ("So much brilliance coming from one person"); "Condescendre n'est pas descendre" ("To condescend is not to descend"); "Mart (mort) m'est vie" ("Death to me is life")

• See also comments from The Cork-Lined Room blog.
• See also comments from the GoodReads blog

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.

Proust Online Course

Professor Carter's online Proust course appears to be ongoing.

Biographical essay

Here's a short biographical essay by Charles Matthews at his Proust-reading weblog.

Combray (vol I)

We're starting part 2 of Swann's Way, Swann in Love.  This is set further back in time, a re-telling by the Narrator (second-hand) of what someone told him about Swann's life.  If you want to read in French & English, try it here.  We can increase the page count if you're making good time.

I haven't yet found any analysis of the unnamed fisherman in the straw hat. 

The Pont-Vieux led to a tow-path which, at this point, would be overhung in summer by the bluish foliage of a hazel, under which a fisherman in a straw hat seemed to have taken root. At Combray, where I knew everyone, and could always detect the blacksmith or grocer’s boy through his disguise of a beadle’s uniform or chorister’s surplice, this fisherman was the only person whom I was never able to identify. He must have known my family, for he used to raise his hat when we passed; and then I would always be just on the point of asking his name, when some one would make a sign to me to be quiet, or I would frighten the fish.

So.  Proust wrote Impressions on Riding in an Automobile about a car trip to Caen, where he saw the steeples shifting at Saint-Etienne & Saint-Pierre.  The pertinent part of the article later became the boy Marcel's writing fragment, the one he jots down in the carriage. See the page 437 preview in Carter's biography at this link. (Scroll down).

More analysis of the Martinville fragment in this learned essay (Ruskin, Proust, and the Art of Failure). (Use Ctrl F to find the word "Martinville").

Oh, I've found someone hosting an online reading of Proust. They're doing 10 pages per day, but Abrams posts some excellent research and people's comments are thoughtful, like yours. Try this one for size....  Nice Moss post.

Check the blog for steeple & Vivonne illustrations. See you soon!

Steeple and Church at Combray : week 5

Interior & exterior Combray church photos at the Ecclesiastical Proust Archive :: WOW! There's an outstanding search feature, so you can search for Combray church windows and color!

Illiers-Combray - French Wiki

Walking Combray  :: Someone went to Illiers-Combray & took pictures.

Pictures of the church steeple (unfortunately, no birds)

The church from the outside

Map :: Modern

..."The [tea] leaves, which had lost or altered their own appearance, assumed those instead of the most incongruous things imaginable, as though the transparent wings of flies or the blank sides of labels or the petals of roses had been collected and pounded, or interwoven as birds weave the material for their nests."

•  conversational reading blog :: nice blog entry on Combray, steeples, and other stuff we haven't gotten to yet.

• Daily Proust … This writer from S.C. started reading & blogging. Here are his church entries. Looks like he didn’t finish. Or at least he stopped blogging.