One Year In Search of Lost Time ~ 2015 discussion

End of The Fugitive:

"'All that is so long ago,' she said, 'I've never thought of anyone but Robert since the day we were engaged. And, you know, those childish pranks are still not what I regret the most'"

Looking back from the end of the volume, I'll admit that the first time I read this I wasn't convinced of Albertine's fate until I neared the end of The Fugitive. I thought it was a ploy she came up with to be left alone, to truly escape. I guess I got that from the title. But she was never really a fugitive, was she? It seems like it's mistitled, or maybe it's a red herring.

Is Albertine disparue the original title? I think that one fits best. I find The Sweet Cheat Gone rather cringe-worthy.

Me too. I have varying degrees of ambivalence toward Montcrieff's titles, I can appreciate The Cities of the Plain, but this one is terrible.

This volume was first published posthumously in 1925 under the title Albertine disparue. From Wikipedia (confirmed by Jane Lewin, Pléiade's website, and Predergast's series introduction): "The first definitive edition of the novel in French (1954), also based on Proust's manuscript, used the title La Fugitive. The second, even-more-definitive French edition (1987–89) uses the title Albertine disparue and is based on an unmarked typescript acquired in 1962 by the Bibliothèque Nationale."

The critical explanation continues here.

The translator of the Penguin edition doesn't explain his choice of title for The Fugitive. The translators sometime use the 1954 French and sometimes the 1987 which Prendergast talks about in the Editor's Introduction.

The critical question aside, I think The Fugitive is more appropriate as a title since it doesn't step on it's own revelations - who wants to read The Prisoner knowing that then next volume is called Albertine Gone? Not me. At the same time, I think Albertine Gone is more accurate then The Fugitive. I suppose in this case I prefer a non-spoiler title to accuracy.

Jacob wrote: "The critical question aside, I think The Fugitive is more appropriate as a title since it doesn't step on it's own revelations - "

Especially if there's some ambiguity in who exactly the fugitive is, as there is with the question of the prisoner. Though I don't really find that with the former as I did with the latter.