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).  

I said to myself: "Here I am: this is the Church of Balbec. This square, which looks as though it were conscious of its glory, is the only place in the world that possesses Balbec church. All that I have seen so far have been photographs of this church—and of these famous Apostles, this Virgin of the Porch, mere casts only. Now it is the church itself, the statue itself, they, the only ones—this is something far greater."

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).

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)

Departure for Balbec  according to Waggish

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): 

(above)  Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (1626-96)  [p305]; one of her many letters (right)
[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

[p314] Mme de Simiane: "Mme de Sévigné corresponded with her daughter for nearly thirty years. A clandestine edition, containing twenty-eight letters or portions of letters, was published in 1725, followed by two others the next year. Pauline de Simiane, Mme de Sévigné's granddaughter, decided to officially publish her grandmother's correspondence." (wiki)
[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

Place Names (v I) Pages for March 2011

3/3: Cruel memories (278). Gilberte’s strange laugh, evoked in a dream (281; cf. 217). Fewer visits to Mme Swann (283). Exchange of tender letters, progress of indifference (286). 

3/10: 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).

3/17:  NEW BOOK! Part 2 PLACE-NAMES:  THE PLACE (searchable text online)

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).

3/24: 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). 

About Roger Shattuck

Includes bibliography

Radio Proust has been updated

Have a look at the Radio Proust website at Bard.  Many updates, videos, new photographs, and links to information and courses.

Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 241-51) Notes for February 2011

p 242 | Grebe:  a diving bird without webbed feet. Really nice photo of a French grebe is here; look at the large size to see feather details. 

p 242 | Cockade : a badge on a hat; more pictures here. 

p 243 | 1928 lithograph advertising Maitre Fleurs Naturelles, an important Parisian florist of the day. 

p 244 | LACHAUME was -- and still is -- one of the important florists in Paris. Probably as expensive as Odette said... [

p 246 | Lohengrin is an opera by Richard Wagner (wiki). Here's a synopsis of Lohengrin at the Metropolitan Opera House website. 

Mariano Fortuny

Thanks to VA for finding this terrific page highlighting one gorgeous Fortuny gown, as well as the video that follows. We'll read more about him later in the book, but it's interesting that this sale page quotes Proust.  Wonder what it sold for...

And here's a video from Otis Fashion College showing more of his gorgeous clothes:



UPDATE 5/9/11: Thanks to un home sobrer in Barcelona for sending this link to a Fortuny exhibition held there some time ago. He points out that Mariano Fortuny Madrazo (Granada 1871 - Venice 1949) was the son of Catalan painter Marià Fortuny i Marsal,  who died all too soon in Rome in 1874. This kind of international cultural sharing is quite amazing!