One Year In Search of Lost Time ~ 2015 discussion

And he added, in Mme de Villeparisis's Guermantes voice, 'He's a fine land, a good type, I often use him at home.' But his cleverness often misfired, for people were astonished by his intimately friendly manner and the pneumatiques he sent to footmen. The footmen themselves were not so much flattered as embarrassed by what their friends would say" (61.82%)

At 47%, there's a definite change in narration and tone with this passage:

And yet, my dear Charles--, whom I used to know when I was still so young and you were nearing your grave, it is because he whom you must have regarded as a little fool has made you the hero of one of his volumes that people are beginning to speak of you again and that your name will perhaps live. If in Tissot's picture representing the balcony of the Rue Royale club, where you figure with Galliffet, Edmond Polignac and Saint-Maurice, people are always drawing attention to yourself, it is because they know that there are some traces of you in the character of Swann.

Is the above the narrator or Proust speaking, or maybe the first real clue that they are one and the same?

And here is the painting: https://bookaroundthecorner.wordpress...
Charles stands to the right.

Lines like that always give me a thrill too - like the moments where he discusses giving his narrator the name Marcel. I think it's Proust "breaking the fourth wall" and talking direct for a moment rather than as the narrator.

This passage also makes me wonder about the original of Swann - thanks for the link to the painting, Teresa. It would be interesting to read more about Haas and see how similar he was to Swann.

The writer of that blog suggests that Proust is being quite "smug" here and that he "indulges into self-congratulation as he muses over the immortality the first volume of In Search of Lost Time will grant to Charles Haas/Swann".

Interesting - I read it differently, that he is commenting on the interest the previous volumes had already attracted by the time he wrote this one. It was probably already becoming clear that his works would live. It's reminiscent of Shakespeare's comments in his Sonnets about how the people he is writing about will live on through his writing.

Thrill is the perfect word, Judy.

That's how I read it too -- I believe Proust would've known by that time that there was a great interest in at least the first volume.

Judy, I saw your post on the general chat thread about salons, which reminded me that I wanted to bring up the one in this week's section. It's definitely my favorite so far, because of the narrator's musings on music and art and their relationship to the understanding of human nature.

And I couldn't help but think of the septet referring to these 7 volumes we're reading, even if there is some disagreement as to how the books should be divided.

...I succumbed once again to the music; and I began to realise that if, in the body of this septet, different elements presented themselves in turn, to combine at the close, so also Vinteuil's sonata, and, as I was to find later on, his other works as well, had been no more than timid essays, exquisite but very slight, towards the triumphant and complete masterpiece which was revealed to me at this moment.

Thanks, Teresa - I also really enjoyed his thoughts about music. As Renato mentioned earlier that Saint-Saëns was the inspiration for Vinteuil, I started listening to some of his music via Spotify to get in the mood - I liked it a lot though I see that, oddly, Proust wasn't always very complimentary about Saint-Saëns.

Thanks for picking out that description - must agree, it works brilliantly as a description of Proust's "septet" too!

I liked another salon section coming up later even better... the one I referred to in the chat thread.

Finally I caught up again, yay!

There is a Septet by Saint-Saens that may have inspired this section, as the 'little theme' of Vinteuil may be based on Saint-Saens' Sonatas for Violin and Piano 1 or 2 (which imo are incredibly intense and beautiful!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IgpZ...

And here's a live version with video, though the normalization volume level is very low, could use amplification:
https://youtu.be/QPgTLbpL1kc?t=27s

Here's the score:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Septuor,_Op.65_...

Note that the Septet section continues in next week's part.

Unfortunately this Septet sounds ordinary and uninteresting to me on first listen except for the joyous and virtuoso last movement, but maybe that would change on relistening.

The third movement, called Intermède, is an Andante as described in the section, though that is not too surprising, as most septets and multi-movement works in general have an Andante or slow movement. Another congruency is the double bass mentioned and used.
It would be interesting to try to find whether the septet shares a 'little theme' with one of the violin sonatas as in the novel.
But of course Vinteuil could be as easily a mixture of Saint-Saens and other composers as anyone or wholly fictitious.

In this discussion of Mme Verdurin's often-mentioned burying of her face in her hands during music, there's a casual mention of a dog belonging to Mme Verdurin's. I may be wrong, but i think that's the first mention of her dog ever. It doesn't seem significant, but it reminds me of how selective the narrator is in what he tells us and what he doesn't (like most of his own speech).

(view spoiler)[

my eyes encountered only Mme Verdurin’s face, or rather the hands, for the former was entirely buried in the latter.
Did she wish, as some people do in church, to hide from prying eyes, out of modesty or shame, their presumed fervour or their culpable inattention or an irresistible sleepiness? A regular noise which was not musical gave me momentarily to think that this last hypothesis was the correct one, but I realised later that it was produced by the snores, not of Mme Verdurin, but of her dog.
(p. 335)

(hide spoiler)]

Right?! I just got to the part about Swann being in lust with Odette, and began to wonder who was talking, I had to keep going back, it was as if it was no longer a third eye, but the one seeing, the narrator, the wanton one. I also think at this point there is a subtle shift in his underlying sexuality, his view of the landscape is shrouded in male sensuality, and his deliberate, almost cruel portrayal of Odette and his feelings towards her...it's confusing me.

Yes, I also felt that the narrator had a lust and obsession toward Odette of his own.
Good to see you back!

Simon wrote: "Finally I caught up again, yay!

There is a Septet by Saint-Saens that may have inspired this section, as the 'little theme' of Vinteuil may be based on Saint-Saens' Sonatas for Violin and Piano 1 ..."

Vinteuil and Proust's models: I added (in General Chat) some links, via Bill Carter's entry on Proust's April 20,1918 dedication/letter to Jacques de Lacretelle.
See Selected Letters, Vol. 4 ; page 39.
https://books.google.com/books?id=9e1...

Via a French blog: http://proustien.over-blog.com/pages/...