(620 pages)
Continuing an enjoyable and slow-paced re-read of Proust. This is the third volume (or section), at least in the way my copy ( the Moncrieff-Kilmartin translation) is broken up.
There are several posts already on this blog about this wonderful work. I don't think I need to repeat what I've written before about the high value and sheer pleasure from reading this. Four more sections to go in this re-read, looking forward to it!
In this volume/section -
- The narrator and his family move into an apartment in a wing of the Hotel de Guermantes. Narrator becomes infatuated with the Duchess de Guermantes.
- Narrator visits the Duchess's relative (already his friend) - Saint Loup in barracks at Doncieres, having issues with his mistress (who narrator had met in a different setting).
- Narrator's grandmother is getting progressively more ill. These sections are particularly well done.
- Lengthy discussion of a party at Mme de Villeparisis's residence. Lots of portrayal of society, the salons.
- Baron de Charlus - kind of weird behavior.
- Dreyfus case discussed at length.
- Albertine visits.
- Lengthy scenes of dinner with the Guermantes; Faubourg Saint-Germain matters.