"The Guermantes Way" By Marcel Proust

The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust. Translated by Mark Treharne. 619 pp. Penguin Classics. $20.00 (paperback)

The Guermantes Way is the third part of "In Search of Lost Time," Marcel Proust's seven-volume novel (readers can also refer to my comments on the first and second volumes). In this volume, the unnamed narrator is now a young man who emerges into the fashionable salons of Paris and moves from adulation of the aristocracy to disillusionment.

The central focus is the narrator's relationship to Madame Oriane de Guermantes. At first, the narrator associates the name "Guermantes" with a glamorous, inaccessible realm. He becomes infatuated with Madame de Guermantes and arranges his morning walks so that he runs into her. He watches her grand, fashionably late entrance into her cousin's theater box. There are, in fact, a number of scenes associated with the theater, a realm that is analogous to the theatrical, ritualized salon of Madame de Guermantes and her adulterous husband Basin.

Madame de Guermantes prides herself on her wit and her supposed independence from convention. Yet her wit is often cruel and her judgments harsh, and none of her salon regulars would dare contradict her. Further, her independence is a cover for relentless social climbing and concern for appearance. The final, devastating scene depicts the Guermantes' relative indifference toward their friend Charles Swann, an important character in the first volume, who is quite ill and doesn't have long to live. The couple are too busy rushing off in their carriage to their next social engagement to give Swann much sympathy.

In The Guermantes Way, Proust  continues his bildungsroman, the education of a youth, with a scathing portrait of the aristocracy as seen through the eyes of his formerly star-struck narrator.

Written in memory of my mother, Dorothy Tone (1923-2006), who first spoke to me about Proust. 

"Sodom and Gomorrah" by Marcel Proust

Sodom and Gomorrah" is the fourth volume of Marcel Proust's magnum opus "In Search of Lost Time" (see my commentary on the first, second and third volumes). In the third book, "The Guermantes Way," Proust paints a scathing portrait of the aristocracy with his depiction of Madame Oriane de Guermantes and her salon. In "Sodom and Gomorrah," he continues this theme with Mme. Verdurin, who demands complete loyalty from the regulars in her "little clan." The unnamed narrator, who is living in a hotel at the seaside resort of Balbec, becomes part of this group, taking the train every Wednesday to the parties at a country home that the Verdurins rent from the Cambremers; in this case, the renters and the rentees share a mutual disdain for each other based on snobbery.

The title, "Sodom and Gomorrah," is based on the homosexual theme in the book. Proust, a closeted gay man, doesn't necessarily portray gays, whom he called "inverts," in a complimentary way. One of the members of the Verdurin clique is Baron de Charlus, a verbose, pedantic, histrionic man given to manipulating his petulant young lover, the violinist Charlie Morel. In another development, the unnamed narrator of the novel becomes more involved with Albertine, one of a group of girls he met at Balbec in the second volume. Though he seems to be growing tired of her, he jealously suspects that she will become involved with Mlle. Vinteuil, a lesbian from the narrator's hometown, Combray. This jealousy motivates him to move back to Paris, take Albertine with him and declare to his mother, despite her objections, that he will marry the young woman. In the first book, much of the infatuation of Charles Swann with the courtesan Odette de Crecy was also based on jealousy and suspicion, apparently major motivators in the love relationships in "In Search of Lost Time."

Written in memory of my mother, Dorothy Tone (1923-2006), who introduced me to art and literature, including the work of Marcel Proust.

"In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower" by Marcel Proust

In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust. Translated by James Grieve. 558 pp. Penguin Classics. $20.00 (paperback).

I’m in the midst of reading Marcel Proust’s 3,000-4,000 page modern masterpiece, “In Search of Lost Time.” I recently commented on the first volume, “Swann’s Way,” and am now focusing on the second, “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower,” which centers around adolescent love.

“Swann’s Way” concluded with Charles Swann’s tormented love for the courtesan Odette de Crecy. In the second volume, Odette is now Mrs. Swann, and the unnamed narrator has a brief romance with the Swanns’ daughter, Gilberte. This romance is a prelude to the infatuations the narrator has with a group of girls that he meets while vacationing for the summer with his grandmother at a seaside hotel in Balbec.

As always with Proust, the themes revolve around time and impermanence. The narrator reflects upon the old women these adolescent “young girls in flower” will become. He also conveys the shyness and excitement–and frustrations–of adolescent attraction.

As in the first volume, Proust draws unforgettable characters, including the narrator’s friend, Robert de Saint-Loup, a young aristocrat with leftist sympathies, and the artist Elstir, who loves expounding upon his aesthetic theories. Many of the characters at the Grand Hotel, including those on the lower echelons of high society, are social climbers with a penchant for spiteful observations and an acute awareness of their own standing.

James Grieve’s new translation clearly has the modern American reader in mind, with the narrator’s young girlfriends using such expressions as “lounge lizard,” “getup,” “buzz off,” “Isn’t he the limit?” and “cramming.” At times these expressions are jarring; one wonders whether Proust heard anything like their French equivalent. This, however, is a minor point in a translation that fully captures the beauties of the seascape in summer, as well as the passions and transitory nature of youth.

Written in memory of my mother, Dorothy Tone (1923-2006), on whose bookshelves I came upon the writings of Proust.

"Swann's Way" By Marcel Proust

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust. Translated by Lydia Davis. 468 pp. Penguin Classics. $17.00 (paperback)

Years ago, my mother told me that after reading Proust, she thought about her background and the fact that ultimately no one will know about the life her family led. Proust, with his concern about time, the past and impermanence, is certainly the author to inspire such thoughts.

"Swann's Way" is the first volume of Proust's six-volume, 3,000-page "In Search of Lost Time." I read this first volume a long time ago and came back to it with a resolve to read the entire magnum opus. I did a fair amount of research regarding which translation to read. The original translation was done by Scott Moncrieff, who was known for embellishments and prudery that were supposedly corrected by Terrence Kilmartin and Kevin Enright for the Modern Library. A little over a decade ago, Penguin came out with six volumes by six different translators, whose aim was to present an updated, more straightforward rendition based on a new French translation. Lydia Davis, the translator of "Swann's Way," wrote in an exchange in The New York Review of Books, "The adulterations of Proust’s text by the Scott Moncrieff translation, even after the two revisions, proliferate on every page, and their two main sins are (1) to pad the text, and (2) to intensify it artificially." I found the Davis translation to be thoroughly engaging.

Regardless of how straightforward this rendition is, there's no denying the fact that Proust must have written the longest, most digressive sentences in literature. This may require an adjustment from some readers, who perhaps are best off trying to get into the flow of Proust and understand the gist of his writing instead of trying to parse every sentence. Once one does get into this flow, the reading experience is remarkable. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who read "In Search of Lost Time" in the original, said, "Proust is the Shakespeare of the inner world." This first volume testifies to Breyer's statement. It's divided into four sections, with an un-named first-person narrator throughout who is presumably the author. The book starts with the famous scene in which the narrator, after tasting a piece of madeleine dipped in tea that his aunt used to give him as a child, recalls by association his entire hometown of Combray. He then recollects his childhood in that town, including his family, the church, the homes and the landscapes. The third section is a novella, "Swann In Love," in which Charles Swann, a dilettante and social climber, falls for Odette de Crecy, a woman known for loose morals and one who does not possess Swann's cultural interests. Swann is somewhat critical of her physical appearance, but convinces himself that she resembles women in great paintings. After an initial courtship, Odette keeps her distance from Swann except when she needs money. We watch Swann go from despair to jealousy to endless mental gyrations trying to convince himself that Odette still is interested. In the fourth section, the first-person Breyer's statement. It's divided into four sections, with an un-named first-person narrator throughout who is presumably the author. The book starts with the famous scene in which the narrator, after tasting a piece of madeleine dipped in tea that his aunt used to give him as a child, recalls by association his entire hometown of Combray. He then recollects his childhood in that town, including his family, the church, the homes and the landscapes. The third section is a novella, "Swann In Love," in which Charles Swann, a dilettante and social climber, falls for Odette de Crecy, a woman known for loose morals and one who does not possess Swann's cultural interests. Swann is somewhat critical of her physical appearance, but convinces himself that she resembles women in great paintings. After an initial courtship, Odette keeps her distance from Swann except when she needs money. We watch Swann go from despair to jealousy to endless mental gyrations trying to convince himself that Odette still is interested. In the fourth section, the first-person narrator recalls his attraction as a child to Gilberte, a young girl he played with in the park. His jealousy and ruminations resemble Swann's. The volume movingly ends years later when, looking back at the park he visited while young, he recalls those he no longer sees there and reflects upon the transitory nature of life.

In considering what "Swann's Way" is about, one must look at it as the first volume of a massive novel. Certainly Proust introduces us to some of his major concerns: family, social class, the past, mortality, love, jealousy, subjective perception and the relation between language and experience, all rendered by finely drawn characters and psychological portraits. I'm ready for the next 2,400 pages.
Written in memory of my mother, Dorothy Tone (1923-2006)