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By Root 528 0

woman dressed as a man, entitled Miss Sacripant, Oct 1872, depicts a youthful Odette, and subsequently that the wise painter of Balbec was therefore the vulgar ‘Monsieur Biche’ of ‘Swann in Love’, another perspective on the plurality of identity becomes apparent, which gradually colours the Narrator’s developing familiarity with Albertine. He feels surprised by her use of language, which suggests ‘a degree of civilisation and culture’ he never imagined the ‘bacchante with the bicycle, the orgiastic muse of the golf-course’ to have before they became acquainted, a point that highlights the inevitable ‘optical errors’ of our first impressions (BG, 524; JF, 685). Albertine’s facial expressions and the words she utters seem so complex a proposition that the Narrator metaphorically casts himself in the role of the schoolboy translator ‘faced by the difficulties of a piece of Greek prose’ (BG, 534; JF, 691). Albertine’s lure of the unknown (in terms of language, appearance, background, tastes) is extremely powerful for the Narrator. Eventually she expresses her liking for him in a note that is neither equivocal nor gushing – ‘Je vous aime bien’, she writes [I do like you] (BG, 567, trans. mod.; JF, 715). With this, the Narrator’s mind is set spinning and when Albertine, spending a night at the Grand Hotel in order to catch an early train next morning, asks him to spend the evening with her, he interprets this as an invitation to further intimacy. His assumption, however, is misplaced, and when his joy is at its peak (‘Death might have struck me down’, he remarks, ‘and it would have seemed to me a trivial, or rather an impossible thing’) he attempts to kiss Albertine, only for her, with a good measure of deflating humour, to evade his advances by pulling on the service bell ‘with all her might’ (BG, 593–4; JF, 729). This refusal is key in cementing the Narrator’s love, which hitherto he had not thought to be founded on the desire for physical possession. Now apparent proof of Albertine’s virtue makes her all the more desirable.

There is much that is alluring in the life that the Narrator tastes at Balbec but for all his discoveries, the closing note is one of disillusion, again – characteristically – relating to the passage of time. He came to Balbec expecting storm clouds and swathes of mist; the weather, in fact, has been uniformly fine, so as Françoise opens the curtains on the last of the summer sunshine, the scene thus revealed communicates not hope but a sense of stagnation for the Narrator. Albertine, however, like so many of the individuals we meet in the Search, is multiple and mobile; and her story has only just begun.

The Guermantes Way

Part One

The Narrator’s family have moved to an apartment adjoining the Guermantes’ Paris residence. Gradually the Narrator is disabused of the illusions he had woven around the name ‘Guermantes’ in his mind, but still he becomes fixated on the Duchesse. A trip to the Opéra to see Berma again offers an opportunity to reappraise her performance; Proust provides an extraordinary metaphorical account of the denizens of the faubourg Saint-Germain in their boxes, like water deities in enchanted grottoes. The Narrator seeks to gain access to the Duchesse through Saint-Loup, visiting him at his barracks at Doncières. Male companionship, class distinctions and military strategy are discussed at length. He returns to Paris to find his grandmother changed through illness.Saint-Loup introduces him to his mistress, Rachel, who, unbeknownst to Robert, the Narrator has previously encountered in a brothel with Bloch. Saint-Loup’s violent response to Rachel’s flirting with a dancer suggests, in an echo of Swann’s relation with Odette, that love is impossible without jealousy. The long account of a matinée chez Mme de Villeparisis follows: complex social dynamics are observed, there is much talk of Dreyfus; prejudices and rifts provide tension and humour in equal measure. Charlus offers to serve as a mentor for the Narrator but his motives are ambiguous. Part One closes with the Narrator