One Year In Search of Lost Time ~ 2015 discussion

"I was delighted that Albertine should be going to the 'special' matinée at the Trocadéro, but above all reassured that she was going there in company, the company of Andrée" (31.17%).

This relationship is definitely a power struggle, and it's becoming hard to sympathise with Marcel because of the level of his jealousy.

I'm wondering who is the captive/prisoner in this volume - Marcel, who has to stay inside because of his ill-health, or Albertine, whose life is increasingly controlled by her demanding lover. Or are they both captives?

As you know, Judy, I'm reading this in French. The title is La Prisonniere, the female prisoner, so I'm sure it is Albertine who is meant to be the captive. However, you have a very good point about Marcel being a captive to his ill-health and his jealousy. You're right--they're both captives.

Barbara wrote: "As you know, Judy, I'm reading this in French. The title is La Prisonniere, the female prisoner..."

That's revealing about the French title, Barbara. Thank you.

Thanks, Barbara, that's helpful. As soon as I'd posted the question, I noticed that over the next few pages Albertine was referred to as a captive a few times, so I suspected that was the case - but it's good to have it confirmed.

i found it interesting that apparently the name of the narrator apparently isnt as fixed as we thought before:
¨Then she would find her tongue and say: “My—” or “My darling—” followed by my first name, which, if we give the narrator the same name as the author of this book, would be “My Marcel,”¨ (p. 91, MKE)

I generally have the impression that the narrator often changes his mind about things and makes statements that contradict previous passages. That is very true to life i feel, we often change our mind and think differently about things after some time.
I find it very interesting (especially to Jonathan i suppose) that at one point the narrator himself confesses to be unreliable:
If we were not obliged, in the interests of narrative tidiness, to confine ourselves to frivolous reasons, how many more serious reasons would enable us to demonstrate the mendacious flimsiness of the opening pages of this volume in which, from my bed, I hear the world awake, now to one sort of weather, now to another! Yes, I have been forced to whittle down the facts, and to be a liar , but it is not one universe, but millions, almost as many as the number of human eyes and brains in existence, that awake every morning.
(p. 250, MKE)

also at one point he mentions that he left out some lies Albertine told to him at Balbec, because it was too painful to him.

I would have many more things to note, and things i really liked in this volume so far, but im a bit limited in computer accessibility right now (annoyingly, this keyboard doesnt have an apostrophe on it, what folly!). I can just repeat how much im enjoying the reading.

Simon, it is believed by many that had Proust had more time to work on the last volumes (he died while editing Vol. 5), he would have removed the name "Marcel" altogether, as (if I recall correctly) it did appear in the earlier manuscripts and he edited all occurrences out.

Renato wrote: "Simon, it is believed by many that had Proust had more time to work on the last volumes (he did while editing Vol. 5), he would have removed the name "Marcel" altogether, as (if I recall correctly)..."

How interesting, Renato. It supports my belief that we shouldn't be calling him Marcel. ;)

I share that belief, Teresa! Up to this point we've had no textual reason for calling the narrator "Marcel" and so I've refrained. Now that he mentions the name it's used in a way that undermines itself, as Simon pointed out. How stark the contrast from Moby Dick's famous "Call me Ishmael" when his name's definitively stated from the outset (although there's fascinating ambiguity in "call me" vs. "my name is"). It takes Proust 2000+ pages to give us a conditional use his own name: "if..., would... ". I don't have the French of this volume but I trust the translators enough to assume that the French uses the subjunctive or some other mood of uncertainty.

I don't doubt that Proust would have removed the rest of his uses of "Marcel" if he'd had a chance but I'm glad this one made it into the published version. It sets us up for more interesting conversations about the narrator's identity and the truth of the story he relates.