Within a Budding Grove (vol II p 122-27) Notes October 2010

p 127 | Louis-Philippe, Count of Paris (1838-94)

p 124-25 | Faubourg Saint-Germain: fashionable Parisian district, where most of Swann's old friends were. 

p 122-23 | Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906): more to come 

p 124 | THE ALMANACH de GOTHA: Europe's Nobility Reference Book 
Madame de Marsantes (Countess) was the sister of Charlus and Basin (Duc de Guermantes); mother of Robert de Saint-Loup, niece of Mme de Villeparisis. She was the one person who disobeyed Lady Israels by being "at home" to Odette, until the day they arrived together. 

p 125 | Swann's friend, Robert Philippe d’Orléans (1840–1910), was the Duc de Chartres and claimant to the throne. He was the Prince, but this confused Odette, who thought he was only a duke. 

p 125 | Aisne: Department in northern France.  Odette thought the Guermantes family were from here. They were not. Another gaffe. 

Pages for October

10/7:  The evolution of society (117). Swann’s “amusing sociological experiments” (128). Swann’s old jealousy (131) and new love (133).

10/14:  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). 

10/21:  What the little phrase now means to Swann (145). “Me negger; you old cow!” (149-53).

10/30:   Consistent charm of Mme Swann’s heterogeneous drawing-room (153). Princess Mathilde (157). 

Within a Budding Grove (vol II p 107 ff) Notes September 2010

p 107 | Joseph- Ernest Renan (born Feb. 28, 1823, Tréguier, France — died Oct. 2, 1892, Paris) French philosopher, historian, and scholar of religion. He trained for the priesthood but left the Catholic church in 1845, feeling that its teachings were incompatible with the findings of historical criticism, though he retained a quasi-Christian faith in God. His five-volume History of the Origins of Christianity (1863 – 80) includes his Life of Jesus  (1863); an attempt to reconstruct the mind of Jesus as a wholly human person, it was virulently denounced by the church but widely read by the general public. His later works include the series History of the People of Israel (1888 – 96).

Emmanuel Kant

Thus, for Kant, space and time are "transcendentally ideal" and "empirically real" as subjective conditions and objective, constitutive principles of intuition. In brief, this is Kant's resolution of the scientific debate between the adherents of Newton's concept of absolute space and time and Leibniz's relational view. Kant is saying that space and time are absolute conditions for human experience even though there may be nonspatial and nontemporal entities that are unknown.

This argument provides an answer to how synthetic a priori judgments in mathematics are possible. These judgments are universal and necessary, and yet they apply to and yield new knowledge about experience. The principle of Kant's explanation may be expressed as follows: whatever is true of a condition is a priori true of the conditioned. Space and time are the conditions for all possible perceptions. And Euclidean geometry and arithmetic are true of space and time. Therefore, arithmetic and geometry are a priori valid for all possible appearances.

The Palace of Darius at Perspolis (Persia)

is thought to have looked like this => 

Destroyed by Alexander the Great, only ruins remain.

Mme. Bontemps (Albertine’s aunt): at Odette's "at home" :: Wife of the Chief Secretary to the Minister of Public Works

Paul Helleu studied in Gerome's studio and later became Proust's friend.

• We will make you ‘toast’ every bit as good as you get at Colombin’s.
• "You're speaking of the Swann of Colombin's?" [Swann had an affair with a woman who served tea there.]
• Un autre décor du roman, mais qui n’existe plus aujourd’hui : le salon de thé Colombin, à l’angle de la rue Cambon et de la rue du Mont-Thabor.{http://www.terresdecrivains.com/Balades-avec-Proust-a-Paris-3}

p 110 | BLATIN, Mme. (friend of Odette). Reads Journal des Débats: I 565-56. Her affectation: 576-77. Marcel’s mother’s poor opinion: 587-88. Mme Swann dreads her visits: II 110. Resembles a portrait of Savonarola: 147.

Pages for September

9/3:  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).

9/10:  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).

Movie Week

Swann in Love (preview & imdb)

hypogean   ::  adjective  ::   Located or operating beneath the earth's surface: hypogeal, hypogeous, subterranean, subterrestrial, underground.

Within a Budding Grove (vol II) Pages for August

WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE :: 

Week 40:  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).

Man Ray's photo of the late Marcel Proust, at the Getty Museum.

Within a Budding Grove (vol II) Pages for July 2010

WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE :: 

Week 37: July 8 :: King Theodosius’ visit to Paris (41); Balbec church (48); Mme Swann (49); Odette and the Comte de Paris (58). Recording

Week 38: July 15: Odette & 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).  Recording

Week 39: July 22: 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); her views on Parisian restaurants (78). 

Week 40: July 29: 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). 

July 29: Meeting postponed

Notes from week 37: Foreign Policy from Norpois

CAMARILLA: \kam-uh-RIL-uh; -REE-yuh\ , noun;

1. A group of secret and often scheming advisers, as of a king; a cabal or clique.
Origin: Camarilla comes from Spanish, literally, "a small room," from Late Latin camera, "chamber" ("vault; arched roof" in Latin), from Greek kamara, "vault."
Quote: "Mr Kiselev likened Yeltsin's entourage to a "camarilla" . . . which would turn Russia "into a gigantic banana republic corrupted from top to bottom by a rotten clique of demagogues". -- Marcus Warren, "Moguls at war over control of Kremlin", Daily Telegraph, July 23, 1999

HISTORY

• During the Siege of Paris in 1871, the northern German states, supported by its German allies from outside of the confederation (excluding Austria), formed the GERMAN EMPIRE with the proclamation of the Prussian king WILHELM I of Prussia as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles (note: he was the grandson of Queen Victoria of England!).
• The French term Entente-Cordiale ("cordial agreement") (amities?) was first used in English in 1844 (OED) to denote recognition of common interests between the United Kingdom & France. When used today, it almost always denotes the 2nd Entente-Cordiale, the written and partly secret agreement signed in London between the two powers on 8 April 1904.
• The Franco-Russian Alliance was a military alliance between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire that ran from 1892 to 1917. The alliance ended the diplomatic isolation of France and undermined the supremacy of the German Empire in Europe.
• More on FRANCE in the 19th CENTURY  

~~~~~~~~~~

“What do I see? A Nesselrode pudding! As well! I declare, I shall need a course at Carlsbad after such a Lucullus-feast as this."

Recipe for and photos of Nesselrode Pudding...  "Flavored with chestnuts and maraschino, Nesselrode pudding was a Victorian favorite."

^^ CARLSBAD was/is a spa in Bohemia (current Czechoslovakia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlovy_Vary

Lucullan  [loo-kuhl-uhn]  –adjective
1.(esp. of banquets, parties, etc.) marked by lavishness and richness; sumptuous.
2. of or pertaining to Lucullus or his life style. Also, Lu·cul·le·an  [loo-kuh-lee-uhn]   Lu·cul·li·an.  Origin: 1855–60;  < L Lucullanus; see Lucullus
"Lucullan." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 08 Jul. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Lucullan>.

demi-monde - Marges de la bonne société, mais fréquentées par celle-ci. (En particulier) Milieu constitué autour de femmes légères, souvent vénales ou entretenues par les hommes du monde fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/demi-monde


Demi-mondaine was a polite 19th century term that was often used the same way we use the term "mistress" today. Demi-monde primarily referred to a class of women on the fringes of respectable society supported by wealthy lovers (usually each had several)...  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demimonde

Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 7-14) Norpois

p 7 | Ernest LEGOUVÉ  (Secretary of the Académie Française, 1807–1903)

p 7 | Maxime du Camp – Academician, a founder of the Revue de Paris (suppressed in 1858), and a frequent page 7contributor to the Revue des deux mondes. Monarchist, opposed politically to Hugo, but required to give eulogies… He found himself too ill to go.  

Nicolas BOILEAU-DESPRÉAUX  (French poet & critic, 1636–1711). 

p 7 | Paul CLAUDEL (French poet & diplomat, 1868–1955). 

p 7 | Maurice Barrès, French member of parliament & writer. 

Phèdre. Jean Racine  (December 1639 – April 21, 1699): French dramatist, one of the "Big 3" of the 17th century (along with Molière and Corneille); one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition.

La Revue des Deux Mondes (Review of the Two Worlds): French language monthly literary and cultural affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829. Website here.

Andromaque (1667 RACINE play): tragedy based on the legend of Troy. Andromaque, widow of the slain Trojan hero Hector, is the beloved captive of King Pyrrhus. (Hmmm, did you say "captive?"...) page 362

Alfred de MUSSET (French poet & playwright, 1810–57). The Moods of Marianne (Les Caprices de Marianne), is his 1833 play, which later was the basis for Jean Renoir's 1939 film, The Rules of the Game.

p 14 | Assumption of the Virgin [“Frari Titian”] (1516-18 TITIAN painting) 

p 14 | Paintings by Carpaccio in San Giorgio degli Schiavoni (Venice)

Anatole FRANCE (French writer, 1844–1924).

Tombs of the Medici (Michelangelo)