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by the thought that the stilts beneath my own feet might already have reached that height; it seemed to me that quite soon now I might be too weak to maintain my hold upon a past which already went down so far. So, if I were given long enough to accomplish my work, I should not fail, even if the effect were to make them resemble monsters, to describe men as occupying so considerable a place, compared with the restricted place which is reserved for them in space, a place on the contrary prolonged past measure, for simultaneously, like giants plunged into the years, they touch the distant epochs through which they have lived, between which so many days have come to range themselves—in Time.

NOTES · SYNOPSIS

Notes

1 Proust’s manuscript adds at this point: “Cruelty on the death of her father (copy from the note-book where it is described).”

2 Legrandin has earlier been described in almost identical terms (see Vol. V, The Fugitive, pp. 904, 905).

3 Another chronological inconsistency. Bergotte’s death was reported long before the marriage of Gilberte and Saint-Loup.

4 From Victor Hugo’s Les Contemplations.

5 Quotation from Baudelaire’s Le Balcon.

6 “Le moi est haïssable” (Pascal).

7 Eponymous hero of a novel by the Comtesse de Ségur.

8 And yet the narrator does not meet her until more than 70 pages later, failing to recognise her at first.

9 The remark occurs later: see preceding note.

10 This passage is also rather surprising, since Rachel has been identified several pages before. All such inconsistencies are attributable to Proust’s endless additions to his original text. He died before he had time to resolve the resulting confusions.

Synopsis

Tansonville. Walks with Gilberte (1). Disenchantment with the scenes of my childhood (2). Gilberte shows me that the Guermantes and the Méséglise ways are not irreconcilable (3–4; cf. i 188) and reveals the meaning of the sign she made to me years ago (4; cf. i 199).

Scene from the window of my room at Tansonville (10). Effects of Saint-Loup’s vice on his behaviour (12). His lies (13). Françoise’s esteem for him (14–5). His feelings towards Gilberte (16). The Guermantes type in Robert (18–9). The Guermantes’ amatory tastes (20). Conversation with Gilberte about Albertine (24).

The Goncourt journal (26). Its description of the Verdurin salon (27–38). My lack of a bent for literature (39).

M. de Charlus during the war. My return to Paris in 1916 (47). Wartime Paris: changes in fashions and in society (47–55). News of the war in the Verdurin salon (55. The new “faithful;” Morel, a deserter, and “I’m a wash-out,” Andrée’s husband (57–8). Mme Verdurin’s overtures to Odette (59–60).

Aircraft in the sky at nightfall (63). Walks in night-time Paris, reminiscent of Combray (64).

Meeting with Saint-Loup in 1914 (67); his secret efforts to get to the front (69). Bloch passed fit for military service (70). Bloch and Saint-Loup (70–1). Ideal of virility among homosexuals (78–81). The manager of the Grand Hotel and the lift-boy (81–2); the lift-boy and the rich young man (82). Françoise and the war (84); tormented by the butler (85–7).

Return to the sanatorium (88). A letter from Gilberte: German occupation of Tansonville (88–9). A letter from Robert (89).

Second return to Paris: another letter from Gilberte, with news of the fighting round Combray (93–4). A visit from Saint-Loup, in Paris on leave (96). Beauty of nocturnal air-raids (98–9); reflexions on strategy (101).

Beauty of night-time Paris (105). Meeting with M. de Charlus (107); Mme Verdurin’s malevolence towards him (107–8); Morel’s ingratitude and scurrilous articles in the press (111–12). Mme Verdurin’s croissant and the Lusitania (120). M. de Charlus’s pro-Germanism (121–30). His sarcasm about Brichot’s articles (130). Morel and women (131). Norpois’s articles (133–4). Odette’s remarks about the war (144). Brichot falls out of favour with the Verdurins (145–6). M. de Charlus’s defeatist harangue on the boulevards (151–9). Aeroplanes in the night sky (161). M. de Charlus and Morel