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2.05.2014

The Guermantes Way III p 598-607

p 598 | Though there were several Princesses de Parme, the one in the book is a created composite character. One of the sources Proust used for her, according to George Painter's Marcel Proust: A Biography (v.2, p 97-98) was Princesse Mathilde Bonaparte, who also appears in the book as herself.
p 599 | ... Dresden figures....

p 600 | ... the wit of the Mortemarts...: a French family known for the esprit Mortemart, a particular type of wit which allowed impossible things to be said.
p 600 | "... supple undulation of those tresses of light whose loosened hairs run like flexible rays along the sides of a moss-agate..."
.
Moss-agate
p 602 | ...gave as its source the mythological impregnation of a nymph by a divine Bird... Yeah, I'll just go with Leda and the Swan here...
p 602 | Prince Gilbert de Guermantes (Basin's cousin; nephew of Mme de Villeparisis)
p 604 | Hannibal Barca, who threw snakes onto ships to win battles. Also the Barca family emblem in Flaubert's novel Salammbô.
p 605-7 | Marquise de Gallardon (née Courvoisier, the other side of the Guermantes family.)
p 606 | The Ligne and de La Trémoille families still exist.
p 606 | Perche, former province of northern France. (Percherons!)
p 606 | "And if but one is left, then that one will be me." (Et s'il n'en reste qu'un, je serai celui-là !) Last line of Ultima Verba (ca. 1853) by Victor Hugo, in exile because he would not accept the reimposition of a Bonapartist monarchy under Napoleon III, the emperor's nephew, whom Hugo dubbed "Napoléon le petit."
p 607 | "Thanks to the gods..." From Andromaque by Racine, V v.

1.23.2014

The Guermantes Way III p 569-575

p 571 | Hannibal and the battle of Cannae

p 572 | Ossian (legendary 3rd century Gaelic bard)

p 574 | Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), 18th-century French painter, considered a master of still life.




p 574 | Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, French painter who specialized in portraits executed in pastels.

p 575 | "We lack the wisdom to work backwards from the particular to the general..."
Ingres, Grande Odalisque, 1814

Manet, Olympia, 1863

1.17.2014

The Guermantes Way III p 551-569

p 556 | "... at the time of Agadir..." : Agadir Crisis of 1911.  The second of the Moroccan crises (see Moroccan crisis, 1905) leading to the outbreak of World War I. The Germans sent the gunboat "Panther" to the Moroccan port of Agadir, claiming that the French had ignored the terms of the Algeciras Conference. This provoked a major war scare in Britain until the Germans agreed to leave Morocco to the French in return for rights in the Congo.
p 559 | "... their 1830 ties..."
p 559 | "... unassimilated Jews...", though he may mean Hasidim.
p 560-61: Opus franci-genum ("A work of French origin"); referring to Gothic architecture, as well as the "young sons of France" with their sculpted faces.
p 562 | Flag of Luxembourg
p 563 | Jockey-Club de Paris

p 565 | Albert I, Prince of Monaco (1848-1922)


p 569 | Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-69), literary critic.
| Mme Marie-Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin;
| Mme Jeanne-Françoise Récamier,
| Eléonore-Adèle d'Osmond, comtesse de Boigne.


1.09.2014

The Guermantes Way III p 537-551



p 539 | Paris in fog
p 539 | Jews used to cover their heads with ashes in times of mourning...
p 540 | Nietzsche cut himself off from Wagner's music.... More on Proust and Nietzsche

p 544 | Le Figaro: French daily newspaper.

p 544 | Steeples at Martinville

p 547 | Pillar of Fire that guided the Hebrews.
p 548 | Arabian roc
p 548 | Zola trial  and this Zola trial


 

p 549 | Melanie Louise Sophie Renouard de Bussiere, better known under her married name Countess Edmond de Pourtales (1836-1914), was one of the "queens of Paris" under the Second Empire. Marquise de Galliffet.
p 549 | Revolving doors

p 550 | Dignus est intrare. Latin for "He is worthy to enter." Also, this phrase is found in Molière's comedy-ballet Le Malade imaginaire.
p 551 | Rond-Point of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées

12.29.2013

And only 65 G's

The real first edition
And it's in Brooklyn!

12.05.2013

The Guermantes Way III p 522-537

p 527 | Meudon: sw suburb of Paris, with hills.
p 527 | Adam Frans van der Meulen, (Flemish painter, 1634-94)


p 527 | Fleurus: Belgian town; Nijmegen: town in eastern Netherlands.

p 000 | Isle of Swans (Île aux Cygnes): small artificial island in the Seine in Paris.

p 000 | Islands of Brittany




p 000 | Boulevard des Capucines (Capuchin convent); Rue du Bac (ferry at quai Voltaire)


p 533 | "... marble goddess who had been carved in the act of springing from her pedestal..." This is not that statue (its dates are later), but it could be.





p 537 | "...at the corner of a window, as in a Gallé glass, a vein of crusted snow...": Art Nouveau etched glass pieces.

11.29.2013

The Guermantes Way III p 498-522

p 502, 506 | Saint-André-des-Champs: Proust's fictional church near Combray, which throughout the novel comes to represent, through its Gothic sculptures of people, the essence of "Frenchness." He has related it to Francoise & Theodore. Here he sees Albertine's little peasant face.
p 503 | Mme. Blandais: minor character, wife of a LeMans notary Marcel meets on holiday at the Grand Hotel.
p 507 | A bergère is an enclosed upholstered French armchair with an upholstered back and armrests on upholstered frames.







p 507 | Yellow satin gown with black poppies... well, maybe something like this (but way nicer...)
p 508 | Schubert's Adieu (music);
"The song is not by Schubert, but by August Heinrich von Weyrauch. It was first published in 1824, to a text by Karl Friedrich Gottlob Wetzel. Schubert's name was first attached to the song in 1843. The author of the French text to which the song is now sung ("Voici l'instant supreme...") is thought to have been Edouard Belanger. (Reed, John. The Schubert Song Companion, page 12, via books.google.com).  (Note that the lines quoted are not part of these lyrics, as far as I can tell.)
p 514-15 | "Fabrice's aunt... Count Mosca": reference to characters in Stendahl's novel The Charterhouse of Parma.
p 517-18 | Book of EstherAhasuerus (later Xerxes) is given as the name of the King of Persia in the Book of Esther; Mordecai was there also.
p 520 | Théâtre-Français = Comédie-Française .
p 520 | Fernand Labori was the lawyer for Dreyfus & Zola.
p 521 | May be Elizabeth, Princess of Ligne.


10.25.2013

On Reading Proust

New York Review of Books has this article in the latest issue: On Reading Proust Stephen Breyer, interviewed by Ioanna Kohler
The following interview with Justice Stephen Breyer was conducted in French by Ioanna Kohler and was initially published in La Revue des Deux Mondes in Paris as part of a special issue entitled “Proust vu d’Amérique.” It appears here in translation.

Surprisingly good.

9.12.2013

The Guermantes Way III p 476-98

p 476 | Persian church in the mist...  flowers on the Ponte Vecchio
p 481 | ... collections of old quizzing glasses...
p 484 | Herculaneum (wiki), an ancient Roman town destroyed by volcano in 79 A.D.
p 485 | Fontainbleau golf club (a place, not a stick)
p 491 | In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. Tacitus (c. AD 56–117) was a senator & historian of the Roman Empire, who wrote concisely.
p 492 | Sir Henry Irving (English actor, 1838–1905) and Frédérick Lemaître  (French actor, 1800–76).
p 494 | Jade grapes








p 498 | Piazzetta: Doge's Palace and piazzetta, Venice, Italy, 1890s, showing 2 columns.-->  

 p 498 | Dome of the Salute: Santa Maria della Salute is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica in Venice.
Santa Maria della Salute