In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 3: Sodom and Gomorrah & The Captive

by Marcel Proust, C.K. Scott Moncrieff (Translator), Terence Kilmartin (Translator)

Sodom and Gomorrah opens a new phase of In Search of Lost Time. While watching the pollination of the Duchess de Guermantes’s orchid, the narrator secretly observes a sexual encounter between two men. “Flower and plant have no conscious will,” Samuel Beckett wrote of Proust’s representation of sexuality. “They are shameless, exposing their genitals. And so in a sense are Proust’s men and women . . . shameless. There is no question of right and wrong.”

Genres: Classics, Literature, Fiction, France, Novels

908 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Marcel Proust was a French novelist, best known for his 3000 page masterpiece À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time), a pseudo-autobiographical novel told mostly in a stream-of-consciousness style.

Born in the first year of the Third Republic, the young Marcel, like his narrator, was a delicate child from a bourgeois family. He was active in Parisian high society during the 80s and 90s, welcomed in the most fashionable and exclusive salons of his day. However, his position there was also one of an outsider, due to his Jewishness and homosexuality. Towards the end of 1890s Proust began to withdraw more and more from society, and although he was never entirely reclusive, as is sometimes made out, he lapsed more completely into his lifelong tendency to sleep during the day and work at night. He was also plagued with severe asthma, which had troubled him intermittently since childhood, and a terror of his own death, especially in case it should come before his novel had been completed. The first volume, after some difficulty finding a publisher, came out in 1913, and Proust continued to work with an almost inhuman dedication on his masterpiece right up until his death in 1922, at the age of 51.

Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century, and À la recherche du temps perdu as one of the most dazzling and significant works of literature to be written in modern times.

Reviews

[Duygu · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish he wrote essays instead of essays pretending to be novels.

[شمس · Rating 5 out of 5]

He put us inside somebody’s mind in a way, and with a kind of determination, and an elasticity, a capacity to move inside that mind in a way that nobody had ever done before [or ever can do] . . . he has this ability to conjure up a social world and then plunge you into the mind recording it, and the mind beyond just the recording of that world . . . and he makes the mind tactile; it is a very sensuous novel, so it’s not just the interiority of thought, it’s also the physical sensation of being inside that mind; it’s a kind of, Erotics of Thought, and nobody had done that before . . .

[ . . . ]

One of my favourite moments in Proust is when he says “Our lives are full of memories, but we do not have the ability to recall them . . . Given that that’s the case, why do we think those memories we can’t recall just go back to the last thirty years of our lives; maybe they go back to another planet, and lives we lived in the bodies of other men . . ." That’s to say this is really infinity we are talking about here. Now I think what happens is the concern about memory and what we can and we can’t know about our own minds, then fixes on the body and the mind and the existence of these women, and it becomes as it were an allegory for a chase after something, which in his wisest moments, Proust knows, one can never control or know, because you never know what the people you love are doing when they’re not with you . . . you can never know and control another person . . .

[ . . . ]

But he’s saying something so strange about desire, that you don’t desire directly, you desire though association; somebody reminds you of somebody else, somebody makes you think of somebody else, or even to refer back to the discussion of Ruskin, you only desire something if it’s already been aesthetically framed for you . . .

[ . . . ]

He’s a snob who provides the most brilliant critique of snobbery we’ve ever had, and there's a real ambiguity at the heart of his belonging in that world, he comes from an upper-middle class professional medical family, and all he wanted to do was hang out with aristocrats and royalty . . . and he allowed them to indict themselves in the most chilling and devastating way; they just tear themselves to shreds under his acute eye . . . —Jacqueline Rose, In Our Time - Proust

__________
Round two for me via the Everyman Edition of this work I wrote in a previous life.

I'm going to be a lazy-bones and just post all the quotes I've noted down in comments below to avoid the character limit for reviews.

Apologies for the lack of culling of quotations which will only have personal significance to myself, and for any spelling errors.

I may write something resembling a review sometime in the future . . .

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (never mind that the edition cited here posts it as Vol.3), Sodom and Gomorrah, asks a lot of a reader and gives a lot.

Its gifts are exceptional insights into and characterizations of homosexual love (male and female), jealousy, pride, social status, and the mysterious ways in which identity is shaped and destroyed by time.

In addition, there are great characters in S&G: none more intriguing, repulsive, sly, and vulnerable than Baron Charlus, a man of the highest social standing and egregious ways of using his standing (and intelligence) to satisfy his sexual urges and needs.

And then there is Marcel, the narrator, a mixture of hauteur and weakness, inexplicably adored by numerous French aristocrats (What has he done to deserve the attention he receives? Something literary, but what?), and perversely crafty in pursuing, rejecting, and then pursuing again Albertine, a young woman he suspects of lesbian tendencies who nonetheless carves out many hours at his command -- during which they eventually take things all the way.

What one encounters in S&G is an exceptional portrait of humanity, from waiters through musicians to dukes and duchesses. Proust goes Tolstoy one better in not only giving minor figures names and characteristics, he provides them with intimate biographies.

As a social satirist, Proust tends to go on too long. He can extend an evening's cocktail party or dinner interminably. He never wants to pass up a bit of gossip, a wonderful insult, a study in frailty, old age, need, and loss of social status. Could this 700 page book be better at 600 pages? Probably. Could it be better if it spent more time in dispatching our old friend Swann? Yes. Could it be better if it included the episode in which Mme Verdurin humiliates Charlus, instead of foreshadowing it and the pushing it off into the next volume? I would think so.

To my surprise, the final pages of S&G boiled with real passion, confusion, and excitement as Marcel wrestled with the issue of whether he should marry or discard Albertine. In some ways I was reminded of the final pages of Ulysses, although stylistically very dissimilar. But I won't conclude this note by revealing Marcel's decision--not only so I don't spoil the book for another reader but also because I don't trust Marcel and am not meant to. Whatever he decides at the end of S&G, and however well his decision is presented, it is likely a twisted truth.

[Chuang · Rating 5 out of 5]

He regarded Dostoevsky well.

[Rupsa Pal Kundu · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I began reading, I couldn't believe myself after a few pages as it wasn't deviating towards the typical Proustian philosophical musings that much. It went on as straight as any other novel and so much happened in this volume.

The opening scene is very engaging when the narrator sees a Baron to flirt with his tailor and it gives rise to various amazing thoughts in his mind regarding homosexuality. With the central theme of homosexuality, Sodom and Gomorrah is interesting when the characters try hard to suppress their sexuality and it becomes hilarious at times. You just, need to read a few episodes! It is the funniest and easiest among the first four volumes and I can say it's the most amusing as Proust has given the lesser curve balls of daydreaming but he was actively busy with far more entertaining 'stuff'.

Marcel's continuous confusion regarding sexuality of others and himself is really amusing and I was thrilled to read this volume faster than any other. I had set to read 20 to 22 pages a day, but I remember reading almost 50 pages at a length at times. Till date Swann's Way was my favourite but I can say that it has toppled it from the throne.

There are many soirees in this volume, which are exciting enough to paint a vivid imagery of the society in Paris. Not only the social status but also the private affairs of the socialites have been depicted so beautifully that I could feel myself being present in there. Everything happens almost in the real time. But, eventually, the descriptions of too many social events becomes exhausting after some times.

Whatever may have transpired while reading Proust, but the substantial amount of my mental peace I absolutely give credit to him. I know, I am in love with the man and my affair with Proust is going to continue. I can't thank him enough for making me realise the strength in being a little sluggish in this fast forwarding world.

#insearchoflosttime #marcelproust #readingproust

[Ludwig M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Äntligen klar! Otroligt tålamodskrävande att läsa den här delen. Ibland är den så långdragen och ute på långa litterära villovägar. Då är den nere på 2 toast ibland. Men plötsligt kommer en sida eller två som får en att säga högt att nu kan jag dö lycklig. Det är fortfarande den bästa läsinvesteringen jag har gjort, men del 3 inte lika bra som de två föregående. Nu blire paus. Väl mött. Hej

[Anita Cassidy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most rewarding reading experiences. Ever. I know of no other books that make me feel quite like these volumes by Proust. Incredible.

[Kolby reid Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is beautifully written. The only issues I have with the book other than being ready to be done with all of In Search of Lost Time is the narrator's personality he consistently is flip flopping between actually having feelings for a character and being indifferent to her and it kinda annoys me.

[Andràș-Florin Răducanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way the plot changed with sodom and gomorrah and now i have only two novels left to finish this work, that being another volume but i feel excited af

[Jeanne Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sodome et Gomorrhe :

+ : Le rêve de sa grand-mère morte (intro magnifique)
Les considérations sur les difficultés et les tourments de la vie d'inverti, données comme "vu par un hétéro" : très poignant
Des personnages réussis :
Le portrait de Madame de Cambremer (la mère)
Le personnage de Charlus en général. Très pittoresque et intéressant (scène avec Jupien au tout début, puis relation avec Morel, diverses extravagances - faux duel...)
L'analyse de la nature du sentiment amoureux (pratiquement sans rapport avec la personne sur laquelle il se fixe)

- : l'ennui des interminables récits de réceptions, l'antisémitisme et l'homophobie affichés (l'analogie ressassée et peu pertinente entre les Juifs et les "invertis"), l'arrogance de classe, le snobisme.
le mécanisme de la jalousie maladive
les étymologies

Cette partie m'a paru longue, je me suis forcée pour finir. Je fais une pause avant d'attaquer La prisonnière.

1er avril 2018 - Fini La prisonnière

Malgré quelques défauts similaires à ceux du roman précédent (moins les listes étymologiques), je l'ai plus apprécié :
- retour de réflexions sur l'art (analyses critiques de musique et de littérature, mais aussi place de la pratique de l'art dans l'existence : "La vie pouvait-elle me consoler de l'art, y avait-il dans l'art une réalité plus profonde où notre personnalité véritable trouve une expression que ne lui donnent pas les actions de la vie ?")
- liées à cela, les réflexions sur la vie de couple vs la solitude
- la réception chez les Verdurin prend une ampleur particulière du fait de l' "exécution de Charlus"
- l'évocation de la mort qui fait prémonition (à très peu de distance dans le texte sont mentionnées ou rappelées, y compris, souvent, dans leurs circonstances, la mort de Bergotte, celle de Swan, celle de Saniette, celle de Vinteuil ; Bergotte et Vinteuil survivant à travers leurs oeuvres)
- le coup de théâtre final est très réussi. Il est vraisemblable et bien ménagé.

Passages mémorables : le sommeil d'Albertine ("je m'étais embarqué sur le sommeil d'Albertine"), le petit pan de mur jaune admirablement peint, les livres veillant la mort de Bergotte dans les vitrines éclairées des libraires, les volets = barreaux dorés d'une cage, la séance de pianola, la scène d'Albertine ouvrant sa fenêtre, les couleurs des clairs de lune au cours de l'histoire littéraire, le coup de théâtre final, la peinture de la réaction du narrateur)

[Richard Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a risk when a physical book contains 2 actual books - in this case volume 4 and 5 of In Search of Lost Time. If you rate them differently what rating should you give the book.

Well to start, to use an overused metaphor - reading In Search of Lost Time is more of a marathon than a sprint. And in volume 4, Sodom and Gomorrah I started to feel tired. It's not that there are not brilliant descriptions writing, but the ongoing party scenes bored me after a while. However, it is still writing of a standard most authors will never achieve!

Volume 5, The Captive on the other hand, I loved and I sped through. Proust's wisdom and insight into human relations shines through as well as his wonderful writing. It is the only book where he implies directly that the books are autobiographical referring in a couple of places to his own name. 5 stars for The Captive.

[Malcolm Mccallum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revealing for the description and normalcy of sexuality at the turn of the last century. As ever, the psychology of his characters is at once elevating and deflating.

[Wayne's · Rating 1 out of 5]

And on and on and on and on and on it goes, utter tripe.