One Year In Search of Lost Time ~ 2015 discussion

To the end of Part I, ~51.17%.

Thanks for keeping us on track Teresa! :)

Enters Charles Morel, a key character that will take on more importance in the later volumes.

Morel may be based on Léon Delafosse, a talented pianist and composer, friend of Proust and lover of Robert de Montesquiou:





Portrait of Leon Delafosse by John Singer Sargent, 1899
Spoiler warning: http://www.jssgallery.org/Paintings/P...

Another inspiration could be Henri Rochat, waiter at the Ritz Hotel... no picture for this very louche and interesting character...

Marcelita, do you have more on these two? :)

On Henri Rochat:

The unwelcome lodger [living with Proust in his aunt's 102 boulevard Haussmann apartment] was Henri Rochat, a Swiss waiter at the Ritz who came to work “intermittently” as the novelist’s secretary, became a drain on his resources and was, after nearly three years, put on a ship to Buenos Aires to take up a position in a bank.

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/a...

Étude in G major (Modéré) by Léon Delafosse


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq5El...

Léon Delafosse (1874-1951) is remembered today for having been painted by Singer Sargent in 1899, and for being a 'protégé' of Marcel Proust and Robert de Montesquiou at around the same time.

These two introduced him to some very exclusive European salons, where (having been a child prodigy at the Paris Conservatoire) he was lionised for his looks and talent as a pianist.

One of the society hostesses who encouraged him was the Princess de Brancovan, who also befriended Paderewski and Eduard Schütt.

Delafosse wrote songs to verses by his two famous patrons, but also some piano music, including the very fine set of six studies from which this piece comes.

It bears some technical affinity to Saint-Saëns' celebrated 'Étude en forme de Valse', and was dedicated to the pianist Wilhelmine Clauß-Szárvády (1834--1907), a friend of the Schumanns, who latterly lived in Paris.

Another piece by Delafosse:
Étude in D minor (Lent)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRd1f...

One final piece:
"Nocture", music by Delafosse, lyrics (poem) by Montesquiou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A7TK...

Wonderful scene where our naive protagonist informs Mme de Villeparisis that M. de Charlus asked him to wait for him (although the older narrator is much less naive)...

(...)I must wait for M. de Charlus; I am going with him.”

Mme. de Villeparisis overheard these last words. They appeared to vex her. Had the matter in question not been one which could not possibly give rise to such a sentiment, it might have struck me that what seemed to be at that moment alarmed in Mme. de Villeparisis was her modesty. But this hypothesis never even entered my mind. I was delighted with Mme. de Guermantes, with Saint-Loup, with Mme. de Marsantes, with M. de Charlus, with Mme. de Villeparisis; I did not stop to reflect, and I spoke light-heartedly and at random.

“You’re going from here with my nephew Palamède?” she asked me.

Thinking that it might produce a highly favourable impression on Mme. de Villeparisis if she learned that I was on intimate terms with a nephew whom she esteemed so greatly, “He has asked me to go home with him,” I answered blithely. “I am so glad. Besides, we are greater friends than you think, and I’ve quite made up my mind that we’re going to be better friends still.”

From being vexed, Mme. de Villeparisis seemed to have grown anxious. “Don’t wait for him,” she said to me, with a preoccupied air.

I don't think there's any remaining doubt as to what M. de Charlus' intentions are. And he's incredibly frank (yet not enough for our poor protagonist) about the deal he proposes, the relationship he envisions...

The description of the thermometer is another wonderful bit of writing:

A thermometer was fetched. Throughout almost all its length it was clear of mercury. Scarcely could one make out, crouching at the foot of the tube, in its little cell, the silver salamander. It seemed dead. The glass reed was slipped into my grandmother’s mouth. We had no need to leave it there for long; the little sorceress had not been slow in casting her horoscope. We found her motionless, perched half-way up her tower, and declining to move, shewing us with precision the figure that we had asked of her, a figure with which all the most careful examination that my grandmother’s mind could have devoted to herself would have been incapable of furnishing her: 101 degrees.

The "little sibyl," "little prophetess" has no good news for us...

Thanks for all this, BP.

Yes, there's been quite a bit of 'foreshadowing' concerning de Charlus.

I was stunned by the description of the thermometer; it was exceptional.

Book Portrait wrote: "Enters Charles Morel, a key character that will take on more importance in the later volumes.

Morel may be based on Léon Delafosse, a talented pianist and composer, friend of Proust and lover of R..."

Morel? Yes, both; see *Painter's biography.

Also, in every reading group, there is the inevitable discussion about Albertine's illusive quality.

These pages may be helpful, but SPOILERS!

Marcel Proust: A Life
By Edmund White
https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3X...

and
Proust in Love
By William C. Carter
https://books.google.com/books?id=UnG...

and
* Proust: The later years
By George Duncan Painter
https://books.google.com/books?ei=90Z...

Marcelita wrote: "Morel? Yes, both; see *Painter's biography."

Thanks for these links. I had completely forgotten the mentions of Rochat in Edmund White's short bio. I need to reread it. And I really need to read Proust in Love...

I'm always circumspect of Painter's biography, as it was the first one of Proust and heavily criticised:

Two of Painter's mistakes were to assume that Proust's posthumously published novel, Jean Sauteuil, corresponded exactly to his life, and that in Remembrance, each of the characters has a single, indentifiable model. Painter maintained that Proust "invented nothing", that the work "is not, properly speaking, a fiction, but a creative auto-biography". If this viewpoint was ever tenable, it has since been conclusively invalidated by scholars.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/...

But my public library has it so I'll probably end up reading it at some point. Have you read it?

Proust's comment on neurotics and their doctors is very perceptive. I wonder if he recognised himself in this portrait:

Submit to being called a neurotic. You belong to that splendid and pitiable family which is the salt of the earth. All the greatest things we know have come to us from neurotics. It is they and they only who have founded religions and created great works of art. Never will the world be conscious of how much it owes to them, nor above all of what they have suffered in order to bestow their gifts on it. We enjoy fine music, beautiful pictures, a thousand exquisite things, but we do not know what they cost those who wrought them in sleeplessness, tears, spasmodic laughter, rashes, asthma, epilepsy a terror of death which is worse than any of these...

And not to forget that his father was a very well-known doctor himself, although not in the field of psychiatry. It's always interesting to read Proust's comments on the posturing of doctors. Doctor du Boulgon, despite being completely wrong about the narrator's grand-mother's illness, is more honest than the others:

I have told you that without nervous trouble there can be no great artist. What is more,” he added, raising a solemn forefinger, “there can be no great scientist either. I will go further, and say that, unless he himself is subject to nervous trouble, he is not, I won’t say a good doctor, but I do say the right doctor to treat nervous troubles. In nervous pathology a doctor who doesn’t say too many foolish things is a patient half-cured, just as a critic is a poet who has stopped writing verse and a policeman a burglar who has retired from practice.

Les Jardins des Champs-Élysées: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_d...




And its "Chalet de toilette et de nécessité" (photograph by Charles Marville, c. 1865-70), where the snobish "marquise" operates:


http://lefoudeproust.fr/2014/02/pavil...

I don't remember seeing this monstrosity in the gardens. I'll have to double-check next time I'm wandering there...

Book Portrait wrote: "Proust's comment on neurotics and their doctors is very perceptive. I wonder if he recognised himself in this portrait:

Submit to being called a neurotic. You belong to that splendid and pitiab..."

I read it as such.

Book Portrait wrote: "Proust's comment on neurotics and their doctors is very perceptive. I wonder if he recognised himself in this portrait:


Submit to being called a neurotic. You belong to that splendid and pitiab..."

This is an interesting book, which discusses Proust's doctor, Sollier, his father, Freud, etc...

Following Charcot: A Forgotten History of Neurology and Psychiatry
edited by Julien Bogousslavsky
https://books.google.com/books?id=O4b...

Book Portrait wrote: "Les Jardins des Champs-Élysées: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_d...

And its "Chalet de toilette et de nécessité" (photograph by Charles Marville, c. 1865-70), where..."

I believe the WC's you remember is on this page (scroll down).

Photographed by Nicolas Drogoul (available to purchase)
http://www.proust-ink.com/paris/

Marcelita wrote: "I believe the WC's you remember is on this page, photographed by Nicolas Drogoul (scroll down)
http://www.proust-ink.com/paris/ "

That was an amusing passage, though it led to something not amusing at all. I had to start the passage over once I realized what the facility and the attendant were there for.

Marcelita wrote: "I believe the WC's you remember is on this page (scroll down).

Photographed by Nicolas Drogoul (available to purchase)
http://www.proust-ink.com/paris/ "

Great link! The photos are really beautiful. The other day I walked into St Augustine for the first time and saw the incredible iron structure apparent inside the building. We can see them in the photo. They were done by Baltard who also did the old iron & glass Halles (central market) that were torn down in the 1970's...

Oh yes, this public toilet is more in keeping with the style of the belle époque. I can picture the mean & snobbish marquise there. :)

The other pages of photographs are beautiful too. I love the room in the Cabourg Grand Hotel (it has to be my favorite location in the whole novel!). And I had no idea what the men's toilets looked like in the Casino! ^^

We should put this photographer on the trail to Orléans and the Caserne Coligny to complete our Proust world. :)

Book Portrait wrote: "The other pages of photographs are beautiful too. I love the room in the Cabourg Grand Hotel (it has to be my favorite location in the whole novel!). And I had no idea what the men's toilets looked..."

Yes! His name is Nicolas Drogoul. Not only does Nic take wonderful photographs, he is the wizard behind William C. Carter's website, www.proust-ink.com.

I bought two of Nic's photographs and have a friend who purchased the W.C. photo for his bathroom. Cheeky.

I'm behind with the read but catching up - I've now finished this section and am bewildered as to why Robert is so angry with Marcel at this point in the story (accusing him in a letter of betrayal and saying he can never forgive him.)

What happened? I've been looking back and am wondering if I've missed something, or whether the answer will be revealed later in flashback. I believe Marcel failed to meet up with Robert and Rachel because he was held up by Charlus, but is that really an unforgivable perfidy?!

Many thanks to Book Portrait and Marcelita for the wealth of background information and photos. As I catch up, it's great to see all this material each time I finish a section.

Ironically, my question about the perfidy accusation was answered on the next page I read! If anyone else reaches this stage and is puzzled, don't worry about it as I've been doing... just read on. :)

Judy wrote: "Ironically, my question about the perfidy accusation was answered on the next page I read!"

I did the exact same thing you did, Judy -- paging back thinking I must've missed something at this juncture before reading on!

Thanks, Teresa. Good to know I wasn't the only one to do this!

I already forgot Robert was mad with Marcel, would you be so kind to help my poor memory out? :)
That's why you always learn or relearn more with re-reading. But let's not talk about re-reading ISOLT too much yet ;) though I'd probably be happy to do that in the future.

Simon wrote: "I already forgot Robert was mad with Marcel, would you be so kind to help my poor memory out? :)"

To make Robert jealous, 'Rachel' had told him that the narrator had tried to have sex with her.

Oh, right. I think the wording was more ambiguous in my translation. Thanks!

Simon wrote: "Oh, right. I think the wording was more ambiguous in my translation. Thanks!"

Here's what it says in mine (the Moncrieff):

"Rachel, who liked to provoke his jealousy—she had other reasons also for wishing me harm—had persuaded her lover that I had made a dastardly attempt to have relations with her in his absence."

Hmm, to me that doesn't necessarily imply sex, though it seems likely, but it could also mean Marcel trying to enter a relationship with Rachel (where maybe they just kiss at first).
Thanks for giving the quote!

Simon wrote: "Hmm, to me that doesn't necessarily imply sex, though it seems likely, but it could also mean Marcel trying to enter a relationship with Rachel (where maybe they just kiss at first).
Thanks for giv..."

Or it could be Moncrieff toning it down, as he tends to do. But, yes, I see what you mean, in the same way 'make love' in older books and movies meant wooing, not sex.

We should look at the original french. Oh, i didn't know about 'make love' in older books, thanks! Shakespeare liked to use "wooing" though.

Simon wrote: "We should look at the original french."

I found it: "J'avais très bien compris alors ce qui s'était passé. Rachel, qui aimait à exciter sa jalousie—elle avait des raisons accessoires aussi de m'en vouloir—avait persuadé à son amant que j'avais fait des tentatives sournoises pour avoir, pendant l'absence de Robert, des relations avec elle."

Which according to Google-translate is: "I had very well understood what had happened. Rachel, who loved to excite her jealousy she had also accessories why blame me-had persuaded her lover that I had done underhanded attempts to have, during the absence of Robert, relations with her."