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By Root 1637 0

that she would die one day turned my happiness in being with her to such torment that what I longed to do more than anything else was to forestall her and to die myself then and there. Now it was these same paths or similar ones that I was taking, and already the anguish I had felt in the train was fading, and if I had met Rosemonde [Albertine] I would have asked her to come with me. Suddenly I was attracted by the scent of the hawthorns which, as at Combray in the month of May, array themselves alongside a hedge in their large white veils and decorate this green French countryside with the Catholic whiteness of their demure procession. I went nearer, but my eyes did not know at what adjustment to set their optical apparatus in order to see the flowers at the same time along the hedge and in myself. Belonging at one and the same time to many springtimes, the petals stood out against a sort of magical deep background which, in spite of the strong sunlight, was plunged in semi-darkness either because of the twilight of my indistinct memories or because of the nocturnal hour of the Month of Mary. And then, in the flower which opened up before me in the hedge and which seemed to be animated by the clumsy flickering of my blurred and double vision, the flower that rose from my memory revolved without being able to fit itself exactly on to the elusive living blossoms in the tremulous hesitancy of their petals.

The hawthorns brought out the heaviness of the blossom of an apple-tree sumptuously established opposite them, like those dowryless girls of good family who, while being friends of the daughters of a big cider-maker and acknowledging their fresh complexions and good appearance, know that they themselves have more chic in their crumpled white dresses. I did not have the heart to remain beside them, and yet I had been unable to resist stopping. But Bloch’s sisters, whom I caught sight of without their seeing me, did not even turn their heads towards the hawthorns. The latter had made no sign to them, had said nothing to them; they were like those devout young girls who never miss a Month of Mary, during which they are not afraid to steal a glance at a young man with whom they will make an assignation in the countryside, and by whom they will even allow themselves to be kissed in the chapel when there is no one about, but would never dream—because it has been strictly forbidden—of speaking to or playing with children of another religion.

Synopsis

PART ONE

Discovery concerning M. de Charlus. Reflections on the laws of the vegetable kingdom. Meeting between M. de Charlus and Jupien; amatory display. Eavesdropping. M. de Charlus’s revelations on the peculiarities of his amatory behaviour.

The race of men-women. The curse that weighs upon it; its freemasonry; varieties of invert; the solitaries. The Charlus-Jupien conjunction a miracle of nature. M. de Charlus becomes Jupien’s patron, to Françoise’s sentimental delight. Numerous progeny of the original Sodomites.

PART TWO

Chapter One

Reception at the Princesse de Guermantes’s. My fear of not having been invited. The Duc de Châtellerault and the usher. The Princess’s social technique. Her welcome. I look for someone to introduce me to the Prince. M. de Charlus’s chattering. Professor E——. M. de Vaugoubert; his amatory tastes; Mme de Vaugoubert. M. de Charlus “on show”. Mme de Souvré and the cowardice of society people. Mme d’Arpajon, whose name escapes me for a moment, pretends not to hear my request to be introduced to the Prince. Failure of my clumsy request to M. de Charlus. M. de Bréauté effects the introduction. The Prince’s reserved but unaffected welcome. He takes Swann into the garden. The Hubert Robert fountain. Mme d’Arpajon gets a soaking, much to the hilarity of the Grand Duke Vladimir. A chat with the Princess. The Turkish Ambassadress. The Duchesse de Guermantes’s eyes. My progress in worldly diplomacy. Diplomatic Sodoms; references to Esther. Mme d’Amoncourt and her offers to Mme de Guermantes. Mme de Saint-Euverte recruiting for her garden-party. A