The Captive V pp 351-69

p 355 | Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–88) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedist.

p 355 | A tea dance, also called a thé dansant (French for "dancing tea"), is a summer or autumn afternoon or early-evening dance from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., sometimes preceded in the English countryside by a garden party.

p 356 | A l'ombre d'un petit bois de pins qui couvre la partie supérieure de la grande ile, s'élève le Chalet, café-restaurant tenu par les glaciers Poiré-Blanche. (In the shade of a small pine forest that covers the top of the large island, stands the Chalet, café and restaurant run by Poiré Blanche glaciers [makers of ices].

p 365 | "... fall of Gaeta..." : The Siege of Gaeta was the concluding event of the war between the Kingdom of Sardinia & the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, part of the unification of Italy. It started on November 5, 1860 and ended February 13, 1861, in Gaeta (today's Southern Lazio, Italy).

p 365 | From Manet, Wagner, and the Musical Culture of Their Time by Therese Dolan (p 33): "...The third act found little favor with the majority and the end of the opera was greeted with loud sifflements, the hissing and whistling that were the characteristic French show of disdain. Jules Janin reported that Princess Metternich broke her fan against the railing of the loge where she was seated because she pounded it in such fury at the hostile reaction of the audience." This was at the Paris debut of Wagner's Tannhäuser on March 13, 1861.

Caroline Bonaparte

p 365 | Maria Carolina Murat (1782–1839), better known as Caroline Bonaparte (a younger sister of Napoleon I), was also the Queen of Naples.

p 366 | Duras=Duchesse de Duras, 1st wife of the Duc de Duras.

p 367 | In Wagner's Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg, the character Beckmesser is "the pedantic town clerk and master of "Die Meistersinger." ... Beckmesser can't actually create beauty himself; all he can do is find flaws, judging the new by the old..." From a music review by Edward Rothstein, New York Times, 1/24/93. 

p 369 | Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814) was a French writer and botanist.

The Captive V pp 310-351

Nijinsky

p 314 | History of the Ballets Russes

p 316 | Jean Jaurès (French politician & historian, 1859–1914) was a French Socialist leader.

p 320 | rhino-gomenol: a decongestant & antiseptic ointment which Proust himself frequently used.


p 327 | Aristide Bruant (1851–1925) was a French cabaret singer, comedian, and nightclub owner.

p 328 | Maria Sophie in Bavaria (Queen of Naples, 1841–1925) was the last Queen consort of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 

Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Duchesse d'Alençon were her sisters. Her niece, Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of Belgium (1876–1965) married Albert I (1875–1934), who reigned as King of the Belgians from 1909 to 1934. 

p 331 | Norns:  in Norse mythology, female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men. They roughly correspond to other controllers of humans' destiny, the Fates, elsewhere in European mythology.

p 334 | Sibyl: certain women of antiquity reputed to possess powers of prophecy or divination or supposed to utter the oracles and prophecies of a god.

p 337 | Kinderszenen ("Scenes from Childhood"), Opus 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of 13 pieces of music for piano written in 1838. "Child Sleeps" and "Poet Speaks" are two titles from the work. Hear samples at this link.

p 339 | The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art.

p 350 | Song to the Evening Star & Elizabeth’s Prayer, both from Wagner's 1845 opera Tannhäuser. Tristan, Rhinegold, and the Mastersingers are other operas by the German composer, Richard Wagner, 1813-83.

p 351 | "...Pas d'Armes du Roi Jean.... the Contemplations...": Early vs later works by French author Victor Hugo, 1802-85.

Comments at The Cork-Lined Room

Proustiennes forever!

See more of us over here!

 August 2010: Watching "Swann in Love" together

New Proust play in Montreal

This play sounds like great fun!

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About Sylvie Moreau, the director (articles in French). 

Sylvie Moreau du côté de chez Proust

La vie et l’œuvre de Marcel Proust

In bed with Marcel

Video of Proust??

Story from Le Figaro

Video is here... watch at 37 seconds



Des images de Proust retrouvées ? by LePoint

The Captive V pp 289-310

p 290 | per fas et nefas: Latin for "Through right and wrong."

p 290 | Il Sodoma (1477–1549) was the name given to Renaissance painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi.  After separating from his wife, he was considered by contemporaries to have been homosexual.

p 292 | Robert de Montesquiou (1855-1921)

p 294 | kakochnyk: hair style resembling diadems worn by Russian aristocratic women. Léon Bakst : Portrait of a Girl Wearing a Kokoshnik

p 306 | Xavier Boniface Saintine (1798 – 1865) was a French dramatist and novelist.

p 309 | Montesquiou family; Uzès family; House of La Trémoille; Duke of Luynes

p 309 | Abbé François-Xavier de Montesquiou-Fézensac (1757–1832) was a French clergyman and politician.

p 310 | philippic: a discourse or declamation full of bitter condemnation; tirade.

The Captive V pp 272-89

p 272 | El Greco paints the Grand Inquisitor: This intense portrait depicts Fernando Niño de Guevara (1541–1609), who in 1596 was named cardinal and is dressed as such here. In 1599 he became Inquisitor General of Spain but resigned in 1602 to serve the rest of his life as Archbishop of Seville. The painting probably dates from the spring of 1600 when the cardinal was in Toledo with Philip III and members of the Madrid court.

p 275 | Jean Mounet-Sully (1841-1916), French actor.

p 276 | Hair en brosse: French phrase meaning cut short so it stands up like bristles on a brush. An example of en brosse is a man's military hair cut or a buzz cut.

p 279 | Queen of the May: The May Queen is usually a teenage girl who is selected to ride or walk at the front of a parade for May Day celebrations. She wears a white gown to symbolize purity and usually a tiara or crown.

p 281 | 19th century private detectives. 

p 284 | ... looks like a Bronzino.

p 289 | Le Gaulois: French daily newspaper, founded 1868.

The Captive V pp 261-72

p 261 | Cercle de l'Union interalliée : also known as the Cercle interallié, is a private social & dining club established in 1917. The clubhouse is the Hôtel Perrinet de Jars at 33 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. It adjoins the British Embassy and an annex of the embassy of Japan.

Duchesse of Uzes

p 262 | Uzès, Jacques, duc de (French aristocrat): The Duchesse of Uzes, née Rochechouart de Mortemart was the first woman in France to obtain a driving licence... in 1889 she and her son Jacques were fined for speeding at nearly 15 kph in their Delahaye in the Bois de Boulogne. Heiress to the Veuve Cliquot champagne fortune, she financed General Boulanger whose ambition was to overthrow the French Republic. She wrote under the name of Manuela, and also sculpted the statue of St Hubert (Patron of the Hunt) in the Sacré Coeur Basilica in Paris. She was a feminist who was interested in furthering social welfare, and became a friend of the anarchist Louise Michel.

p 262 | M. Cartier (French aristocrat, Mme de Villefranche’s brother; friend of Bréauté & La Trémoïlle) (character)

p 262-63 | Tissot's painting of the Rue Royale. Charles Haas is on the far right. Click here to see who else is in the picture.

p 264 | Antoine Léon Marie de Noailles (19 April 1841 Paris – 2 February 1909) 9th prince de Poix, from (1846) 6th duc espagnol de Mouchy, 5th duc français de Mouchy et duc de Poix, from 1854, was a French nobleman.

p 264 | Boucher tapestries :: François Boucher (1703–1770)

p 266 | Charles VII, called the Victorious or the Well-Served, was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1422 to his death.

p 265 | Quai Conti, right on the Seine, near Pont Neuf. Nice.

p 267 | Otto Wegener... photographer.... see photos here...
Otto Wegener (1849 - 1924) is a Swedish photographer who worked in Paris from 1867. He took this picture of Proust:

p 267 | Guillaume Lenthéric (Parisian hairdresser/perfumer, d. 1912)

p 270 | Praxiteles (Greek sculptor, 4th century B.C.):

p 270 | Jean de La Bruyère (French essayist, Académician, 1645–96).

p 270 | Theocritus (Greek poet, 3rd century B.C.):

p 272 | Chaps: a fissure or crack, especially in the skin.

Video : Marcel Proust (Ten Great Writers Part 5)

Video :  Marcel Proust (Ten Great Writers Part 5)

Click above or press Play.  Some dramatization, some conversation, some explication. All wonderful.  One hour long.

Possible chronology, in French

Chronologie des événements d'À la recherche du temps perdu...