The Year of Reading Proust discussion
This topic is about
Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah, vol. 4
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Through Sunday, 11 Aug.: Sodom and Gomorrah
Fionnuala: a French question. I have read Moncrieff all my life. But a few years ago, when new translations came out, I tried different ones. My new(ish) copy of Sodom and Gomorrah (trans. by a John Sturrock) has something very confusing. It is at Charlus' first visit to the Verdurins, when the "young" Cambremers are also there. Mme. de Cambremer is talking to the Narrator about Charlus; the Narrator remarks that the Baron looks well for "a man who is getting on." At this point, Sturrock has Mme. de C. say, "Getting on? He doesn't look as if he's getting on, see, his hair's still yellow." Moncrieff has her say, "But he doesn't seem at all old, look, the hair is still young." Now: in all previous descriptions of Charlus, his hair is black (at least his moustaches are described as "dyed black to match his hair). Could Sturrock have confused "jaune" with "jeune"? What does the original say?
Hi Elizabeth, yes, you are right, there is no question of yellow hair. le cheveu est resté jeune
'the hair is still young' corresponds better than 'his hair's still yellow'.
The 'the' is important too as the narrator points out that to say le cheveu, emphasising the singular, was fashionable at the time although he feels the plural form les cheveux will grow back eventually!!!
Eugene wrote: "Marcelita quoted : There are times when, to paint a complete portrait of someone, we should have to add a phonetic imitation to our verbal description, and our portrait of the figure that M. de Cha..."I loved this too. How smooth!
Also loved the sharp observation about Charlus's laugh.
I found the the Marquise de Cambremer's use of adjectives in a diminuendo hilarious-amusing-interesting. And how clever of the Narrator's part to add, "Qu'il y eût seulement un quatrième adjectif, et de l'amabilité initiale il ne serait rien resté."
I often find myself googling the names of people who did not exist. Am I the only one fooled by the mixture of real and fictional characters?
Elizabeth wrote: "Fionnuala: a French question. I have read Moncrieff all my life. But a few years ago, when new translations came out, I tried different ones. My new(ish) copy of Sodom and Gomorrah (trans. by a J..."Ooh, doesn't that just make you cringe. Dear me.
In another discussion, Cece misspelled saloon for salon, but I must say that sometimes the atmosphere at La Raspelière is more like a saloon than a salon, especially thanks to the crass remarks by the Verdurin. Incidentally, there are occasional comments on the food being served but more rarely about the beverages. I am sure they did not only drink lime blossom tea. Verdurin does here mention a few wines, and we know that Saniette only drinks Chateau La Flotte, but I don't remember seeing too many comments about drinking. Of course, the Narrator was not only drinking water at Riverbelle, but aside from that....
And the music revisions continue.In this section he mentions Bach for the first time, twice. He also mentions Scarlatti for the first time.
And Proust connu et inconnu is felt again.
G-V had said that Proust had made an error in saying that the Vinteuil sonata had been played by a solo piano, since it was a violin sonata, and these are not reduced to piano single score.
So now we have Morel accompanied by Charlus. And they play the Fauré sonata. And then later the Narrator requests some Franck.
The Fauré and the Franck sonatas, together with the Saint-Saëns are taken as the "sources" of the Vinteuil piece. Saint-Saëns has not been mentioned so far, though.
It seems that Proust is moving more into the real world now... more real personalities. This is happening in music but also in other areas. Less fictional.
Here are the pieces, both in A Major.
Fauré (nº 1, Op 13):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfSPBa...
Franck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIlPaq...
But I just had to laugh out loud when the music scene continues to say that Morel began with Debussy's Fêtes (I just cannot imagine this in a violin solo, though)... and not knowing the full piece, he moved to Meyerbeer, to march from Robert le Diable..So, from this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZHrqp...
to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAL07H...
Not from Robert le Diable, but it gives an idea (does it? - even harder to imagine on a violin)
and the following is from Robert le Diable but not a March...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGOJ7Q...
This whole scene is a JOKE.
And then, to continue the hilarity, and given that I have been reading about Mallarmé and the Symbolists lately.... As an aside, this is the first time he mentions Mallarmé.
Mais Brichot voulait que j'eusse ma part de festin, et ayant retenu des soutenances de thèses, qu'il présidait comme personne, qu'on ne flatte jamais tant la jeunesse qu'en la morigénant, en lui donnant de l'importance, en se faisant traiter par elle de réactionnaire: «Je ne voudrais pas blasphémer les Dieux de la Jeunesse, dit-il en jetant sur moi ce regard furtif qu'un orateur accorde à la dérobée à quelqu'un présent dans l'assistance et dont il cite le nom. Je ne voudrais pas être damné comme hérétique et relaps dans la chapelle mallarméenne, où notre nouvel ami, comme tous ceux de son âge, a dû servir la messe ésotérique, au moins comme enfant de choeur, et se montrer déliquescent ou Rose-Croix.
Mais vraiment, nous en avons trop vu de ces intellectuels adorant l'Art, avec un grand A, et qui, quand il ne leur suffit plus de s'alcooliser avec du Zola, se font des piqûres de Verlaine. Devenus éthéromanes par dévotion baudelairienne, ils ne seraient plus capables de l'effort viril que la patrie peut un jour ou l'autre leur demander, anesthésiés qu'ils sont par la grande névrose littéraire, dans l'atmosphère chaude, énervante, lourde de relents malsains, d'un symbolisme de fumerie d'opium.
Just brilliant and very funny.
Thank you for this, Kalliope. I find myself listening carefully for 'the little phrase'. It certainly feels less fictional, indeed in the Franck and Fauré pieces.
Kalliope wrote: "But I just had to laugh out loud when the music scene continues to say that Morel began with Debussy's Fêtes (I just cannot imagine this in a violin solo, though)... and not knowing the full piece,..."We have to be forgiving. Proust did not have Google. It is quite funny though.
Jocelyne wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "But I just had to laugh out loud when the music scene continues to say that Morel began with Debussy's Fêtes (I just cannot imagine this in a violin solo, though)... and not knowin..."No, I think it was intended.. he is making fun of Mme Verdurin..., and their cultural pretensions...
This is just a page before he then makes fun of the Symbolist group.
In an earlier post I told how a friend of mine, professional pianist, played a Chopin piece and without stopping moved to Debussy. The critics at the cocktail that followed his concert had not noticed... But at least that was Chopin and Debussy... not Debussy and Meyerbeer...!!
Oh, I see. Yes, it was intended this time. You are right, of course.
Close beside us, M. de Cambremer, who was already seated, seeing that M. de Charlus was standing, made as though to rise and offer him his chair. This offer may have arisen, in the Marquis's mind, from nothing more than a vague wish to be polite. M. de Charlus preferred to attach to it the sense of a duty which the simple squire knew that he owed to a prince, and felt that he could not establish his right to this precedence better than by declining it. ML p. 466The first sentence is in first person narration and one could say the second sentence is too because it's speculation, but the third sentence is different from the previous two; it is by an omniscient 3rd person narrator telling the reader what M. de Charlus "felt". There is a music to the narrative voice change, not just here, but throughout the novel.
Look at Proust's 'roundhouse' right of antithesis delivered by M. de Charlus that KO's M. de Cambremer: "and felt that he could not establish his right to this precedence better than by declining it."
And wittily adding a Guermantes insult to Cambremer's 'injury',
"Come, come, my dear fellow," the Baron insisted, "that would be the last straw! There's really no need! In these days we keep that for Princes of the Blood."
Eugene quotes MKE: "I could see at a glance that you were out of your depth." Elizabeth quotes Moncrieff: "I could see at a glance that you were not used to Society."
Fionnuala quotes Proust: J'ai tout de suite vu que vous n'aviez pas l'habitude.
Yes subtle, but because the term "l'habitude" is more general it is more specific as every reader or translator can freely interpret it for what it means to them as we see by the translations above; because of its inexactitude, there are more specific possibilities for interpretation. "L'habitude" is a broad term, a general term and unqualified, but because of that, more to the point and devastating.
Habitude
1 habit
par habitude = out of habit
ils ont l'habitude de se coucher tôt = they usually go to bed early
avoir l'habitude de = to be used to
From http://oxforddictionaries.com/transla...
Kalliope wrote: "I was going to post my photo of the sunset as a proxy to the view of the gulf, but the sun..."And now reading Flaubert's Parrot, Barnes quotes from a letter by Flaubert:
"the greatest events from my life have been a few thoughts, reading, certain sunsets by the sea at Trouville, and conversations....
Proust was not the first in the literary world to pay homage to those Trouville sunsets....
I enjoyed this week's reading and the discussion just as much. Now keep in mind that I have the persona of Montesquiou firmly embedded in my mind when I think of Charlus:
While reading the interchange between Verdurin and Charlus, I had the feeling that Proust was trying to create a character that could go against Charlus/Montesquiou and possibly beat him at his own game. But yet, the--what is the word anyway? Superciliousness? Extreme hubris laced with an arrogant pomposity?--of "I could see at a glance that you were out of your depth," smashed that brief hope that someone was going to stand up to this doofus.
Martin wrote: "smashed that brief hope that someone was going to stand up to this doofus. "But who really is the doofus (I love the word)?
Verdurin, I think.
The Narrator, and Proust himself seem to me to be more on Charlus' side in any confrontation in spite of Charlus sometimes massacring the French language as badly as his brother: M de Charlus n'était en somme qu'un Guermantes
I loved too how Charlus managed to please Mme de Verdurin while at the same time insulting her without her realising, when he explained that Mécène was a 'Verdurin de l'antiquité'.
Martin wrote: "I enjoyed this week's reading and the discussion just as much. While reading the inter..."
Hello Martin, good to read you...
I would agree with Fionnuala and I think the Narrator is more on Charlus' side...
The scene of the Verdurins confusing Meyerbeer with Debussy seemed to me particularly cruel.
In the audio edition I am listening in parallel to my read this whole section is very well rendered... The different voices, between the haughty Charlus, the stuttering M. de Cambremer, the pedantic Brichot, and the histrionic Mme Verdurin, and the Russian accent (rolling the Rs) of the Princesse Sherbatoff.. are a lot of fun.
And Cottard is particularly irksome, pontificating and grilling the stuttering Cambremer about Trional. Next to him even the haughty Son Altesse, Monseigneur le Baron de Charlus comes across as less ridiculous.It seems that few are spared Proust's ironic/scathing depiction, whether in the haute bourgeoisie or in the aristocracy. I wonder how come the publication of his book did not unleash more of an outcry. Even if he was able to placate those who saw themselves in his portraits, I think that a lot of them must have felt collectively insulted.
And when Morel again does not know what to play next, Cottard suggests Gallimarié. My edition adds information behind the play of words that ensues between the two singers, Céleste Galli-Marié and Speranza Engalli.
... Gallimarié? dit le docteur en coulant vers M. de Cambremer un regard insinuant et bénévole. C'était la femme du rôle. J'aimais aussi y entendre Engalli -- marié.
Here is Céleste Galli-Marié as Carmen:
And Speranza Engalli:
Kalliope wrote: "And then, to continue the hilarity, and given that I have been reading about Mallarmé and the Symbolists lately.... ..."In the section making fun of the Symbolistes, the Rose-Croix group is also mentioned.
Earlier (I have forgotten in which volume), one of the members of this mystical-symbolist group had already been mentioned, Josephin Péladan and I posted his portrait then. It is such a beautiful painting that I will post it again. Some members may remember then.
By Alexandre Séon.
M. de Charlus: Beside the Narrator and Swann he is Proust's most full featured, developed and interesting character: he's smart, lacking, witty, silly, harsh, tender, offensive, offended, tragic, comedic, a lover and we love him for his polar opposites and his tensions when not antithetical; he's unpredictable unlike so many of Proust's one dimensional characters, Legrandin, the Verdurins et al. If I were Proust I would be pleased with his composition.
Eugene wrote: "M. de Charlus: Beside the Narrator and Swann he is Proust's most full featured, developed and interesting character: he's smart, lacking, witty, silly, harsh, tender, offensive, offended, tragic, c..."After consideration, and taking another look at the reading, I've flipped my view. It was clouded by the Carter bio of Montesquiou, and therefore I don't think I was quite seeing the character as fully as I would have without that prior information.
Martin wrote: After consideration, and taking another look at the reading, I've flipped my view (of Charlus). It was clouded by the Carter bio of Montesquiou...Tall, black-haired, rouged, Kaiser-moustached, he cackled and screamed in weird attitudes, giggling in high soprano, hiding his little black teeth behind an exquisitely gloved hand—the poseur absolute. Uncredited from Wikipedia
Intrigued, I bought:
Prince of Aesthetes: Count Robert De Montesquiou, 1855-1921 by Philippe Jullian
Professeur de beauté, de Robert De Montesquiou, Marcel Proust
Poésies de Robert de Montesquiou on Kindle
Reading ahead, but I think this is the right place for the quote,
"Oh!" said Mme Verdurin, "you don't know the Duc de Guermantes?" "And how could I not know him?" replied M. de Charlus, his lips curving in a smile. This smile was ironical; but as the Baron was afraid of letting a gold tooth be seen, he checked it with a reverse movement of his lips, so that the resulting sinuosity was that of a smile of benevolence. ML p. 500
Fionnuala wrote: " to see how the narrator compares Mme de Cambremer to la chose fondante et savoureuse when he met her in Balbec but now at La Raspillière, she has become a dry and hard galette normande. ..."
I am rereading, and yes, this passage and simile is extraordinary, in particular after the Narrator had expressed so much impatience when the "lift" would persistently call the Cambremers, Camembert..., and the play of words between "galette" and "galet".
In the first book, in the Combray section. I listed the flowers that Proust was mentioning.We get a few more (a couple repeated) but many new ones:
graminées
coquelicot (not new)
fleurs des champs (not specific)
and later on, a few rare ones.
plate-bandes
araucacias
bégonias (not new)
joubardes
dahlias doubles
anthémis
cheveux de Vénus.
Between this section and my reading of Barnes' Flaubert, I feel as if I were still in Normandy.Barnes writes on the Norman coast, and its painters, and its sky.
The light over the Channel, for instance, looks quite different from the French side: clearer, yet more volatile. The sky is a theatre of possibilities. I'm not romanticising. Go into the art galleries along the Normandy coast and you'll see what the local painters liked to paint, over and over again: the view north. A strip of beach, the sea, and the eventful sky
A couple by Boudin:
Jocelyne wrote: "And Cottard is particularly irksome, pontificating and grilling the stuttering Cambremer about Trional. Next to him even the haughty Son Altesse, Monseigneur le Baron de Charlus comes across as les..."Yes, this is a different Cottard from the one we knew. But I am finding the the harshest portraits are those of Mme de Verdurin and of Mme de Cambremer.
She is the perfect hypocrite, a trait that enervates the Narrator greatly. She pretends to be spiritual but she is in reality a snob.
Mais franchir celle qui bornait ses propres relations, s'élever jusqu'à la fréquentation de duchesses, était le but de tous ses efforts, tant le traitement spirituel auquel elle se soumettait par le moyen de l'étude des chefs-d'oeuvre, restait inefficace contre le snobisme congénital et morbide qui se développait chez elle.
@Eugene, I agree that Charlus is one of the most, if not the most layered characters so far. We never know what he is going to do or say next.@Fionnuala, Kalliope. I also noted 'la chose fondante...galette' I thought of the lift referring to her as Me Camembert, but the play on words with 'galet' did not occur to me. Well spotted!
An evening at the Verdurins: a vignette:I could not say today what Mme Verdurin was wearing that evening. Perhaps even at the time I was no more able to, for I do not have an observant mind. But feeling that her dress was not unambitious, I said to her something polite and even admiring. She was like almost all women, who imagine that a compliment that is paid to them is a literal statement of the truth, a judgment impartially, irresistibly pronounced as though it referred to a work of art that has no connexion with a person. And so it was with an earnestness which made me blush for my own hypocrisy that she replied with the proud and artless question that is habitual in such circumstances: "Do you like it?" ML p. 473
before another vignette where the Narrator and Mme. Verdurin talk about Brichot and Saniette, before still another where M. de Charlus speaks about the Guermantes family history--and on and on--one vignette follows another depending on who comes up to talk to the Narrator or what he overhears or whom he approaches to say something.
Proust uses the circumstance of a dinner at the Verdurins to avail himself to writing vignettes: each vignette has a point or two, each is self contained, most tell a story, have a situation with characters, etc.
The question is why, in Proust's mind--or might we say of Proust's pen, does one vignette follow another? Are they happenstance, random? I'm sure you think not. Maybe you would answer "they were planned," but what went into that planning? For Proust they were correct, they felt good to him is my answer for now. Tomorrow, Beethoven's late string quartets and how, for me, they bear on Proust's 'planning' or on his conscious decision making in writing, but moreover and most especially, what he doesn't give a thought to with pen in hand.
Kalliope wrote: "It seems that Proust is moving more into the real world now... more real personalities. This is happening in music but also in other areas. Less fictional.."This is interesting, Kalliope. The days of Bergotte and Vinteuil are now over so? Wasn't Bergotte's deteriorating health mentioned too at the Verdurin's? Very apt.
I listened to the pieces of very contrasting music you posted.
To be able to hear the music Proust writes about is wonderful.
And when reading the following, it made me think how much I am also enjoying the audio version. You can tell that the readers are trying to pick up any indications there may be in the book about the way the characters talk, like a play, as Fionnuala has also pointed out.Il y des moments où pour peindre complètement quelqu'un il faudrait que l'imitation phonétique se joignit à la description, et celle du personnage que faisait M. de Charlus risque d'être incomplète par le manque de ce petit rire sin fin, si léger, comme certaines oeuvres de Bach ne sont jamais rendues exactement parce que les orchestres manquent de ces "petites trompetez" au son si particulier, pour lesquelles l'auteur a écrit telle ou telle partie.
And now on the toiles de Jouy that for any body here into home decoration are well known patterns. A couple of samples.Orientalist design:
Galant design:
And information on their origins:
The exotic printed cotton
From the end of the sixteenth century, audacious Portuguese, Dutch and British navigators imported the vivid coloured cottons to the old continent. In France, with the creation of the East India Trading Company in 1664, ambassadors began to exchange tales of exotic travel in Siam and other almost mythical countries, which increased the popularity of these "Indians".
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the then Secretary of State for trade, began to worry that these imports were too competitive with nationally produced products. After his death his successor, Le Pelletier, in 1686 obtained an edict from Louis XIV prohibiting not only the importation of the fabrics but also the manufacturing of "Indians".
http://www.toilesdejouylauthentique.f...
Pater wrote, all art aspires to music. Proust's prose is of meaningful sounds, different from noise, and similar to the cello in op. 132, even though Beethoven was deaf when he wrote its part, where the meaning is the pleasure we enjoy in hearing it.Deaf Beethoven shows that music can be a non-auditory experience; he couldn't hear what he wrote but we must assume that the notes in sequence felt good to him, and what didn't feel good, he rejected.
Some listen to op. 132 and hear noise; some read ISOLT and don't see Proust's music.
So be it.
Oh and what Proust doesn't think about when he's writing is music which in this respect he's like what Beethoven heard.
Fionnuala wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "It seems that Proust is moving more into the real world now... more real personalities. This is happening in music but also in other areas. Less fictional.."This is interesting, ..."
More real figures in this section are the doctors mentioned by the Narrator and by M. de Cambremer. They were real contemporaries or quasi. From the footnotes, Bouchard (1837-1915), Charcot (1825-1893), Bouffe de Saint-Blaise (no dates) and Courtois-Suffit (1861-1947). The latter alive when the book was published.
I had not arrived at the part that mentions Bergotte's health deteriorating... These fictional figures receding... just an impression.. we'll see later on.
Thank you for all these posts they are wonderful master classes. I use them to extract every drop of taste from ISOLT.You can´t begin to imagine how I enjoy them.I play classic music in the internet and fly away in time and place with Proust and piano for hours on end. I could be anywhere but where I am.Beautiful trips I owe to you.
I'll second Patricia's comment. I have learned so much from you wonderful people. You have given the reading such an extraordinary backdrop, such a lush texture, and rendered the experience so much richer.
Proust's art is writing. The vignette that follows, "Do you think so?" (ML p. 373) has Brichot on his way to becoming another Saniette in the eyes of the Verdurins. Proust writes that Saniette is "penniless" and submits to the Verdurin insults to be included, to be invited to dine, to feed while Brichot is becoming worthless (even though the Narrator is interested in what he says) and he painfully rationalizes the new found derision & lack of attention that he suffers at the Verdurin gatherings. "The faithful" are captives to abuse by their masters. Dogs fed to be beaten.
What will happen to Cottard, to Ski et al? This unknown is a music of trepidation to me in a minor key and as different but similar to Beethoven's compositions to an ear that can't hear them.
The mistress is as evil as they come because she is unaware of it--like a politician, she thinks she's doing the right thing.
In my second reading I had to laugh at this, and thought of my neighbours.Mme de Cambremer n'eut guère le temps de le ressentir pour elle-même, car elle venait de découvrir un cahier de Scarlatti et elle s'était jetée dessus avec une impulsion d'hystérique. «Oh! jouez ça, tenez, ça, c'est divin», criait-elle. Et pourtant de cet auteur longtemps dédaigné, promu depuis peu aux plus grands honneurs, ce qu'elle élisait, dans son impatience fébrile, c'était un de ces morceaux maudits qui vous ont si souvent empêché de dormir et qu'une élève sans pitié recommence indéfiniment à l'étage contigu au vôtre.
I am studying lately a Scarlatti sonata (K466 - F minor). But then I respect hours while my neighbours have a new baby who does not.
What you don't know, or think of, is who you are. Before moving on, let me equate music with talent. Language has a sound, like music, but it also has a definite semantic component, unlike music whose meaning is the pleasure of the senses--music being more direct, language signifies a specific thing: it is to be appreciated by the intellect. But yes, it has a sound too and the orchestration of the sonic component of language is music and there are meanings that can be juxapositioned, that can be 'music-ed'.Everybody has their own music, some are common and some are not. Proust has a music, a way of writing things down that he doesn't think of, it just flows one word (sequence, chapter, etc.) after another. You might commonly say "he has talent," like Beethoven, like Pater and so many other masters; but who he is, like them, is talent--you don't have it, you are it, like music.
I haven't had a chance to read the comments above, so forgive me if I'm repeating what may have already been said, but I did wonder about:"But less us not consider here a subject that deserves a chapter to itself: The Profanation of the Mother. (MKE 416)"
The profanation of the mother after that loving relationship and all those desired kisses?!!! If that isn't cryptic, I don't know what is! Is there something that we don't know?
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "I haven't had a chance to read the comments above, so forgive me if I'm repeating what may have already been said, but I did wonder about:"But less us not consider here a subject that deserves a ..."
Yes, Reem. It is wonderful how Proust drops in a few hints about things that are coming later, but without falling in the typical tricks of writers of pageturners, it is more like a Narrator pausing himself and ordering his mind.
ReemK10: I, too, have wondered about that cryptic "the profanation of the mother." I wonder if it is a veiled allusion to Proust's homosexuality. Note that he did not begin ISOLT until after his mother's death (I think I'm right about that...)
·Karen· wrote: "Dear me, M. Verdurin is very harsh with poor Saniette isn't he? I wonder if there's something behind this fury?""Almost without exception, the faithful burst out laughing, looking like a group of cannibals in whom the sight of a wounded white man has aroused the thirst for blood. For the instinct of imitation and absence of courage govern society and the mob alike. And we all of us laugh at a person whom we see being made fun of, though it does not prevent us from venerating him ten years later in a circle where he is admired. It is in the same fashion that the populace banishes or acclaims its kings." MP p 452
Dîner du petit clan Verdurin à la Raspelière
"A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU" by NINA COMPANEZ
dans le film TV de Nina Companeez, France 2
Marcelita wrote: "·Karen· wrote: "Dear me, M. Verdurin is very harsh with poor Saniette isn't he? I wonder if there's something behind this fury?""Almost without exception, the faithful burst out laughing, looking..."
I ordered this film yesterday... I should have it by Wednesday.
Kalliope wrote: "Marcelita wrote: "·Karen· wrote: "Dear me, M. Verdurin is very harsh with poor Saniette isn't he? I wonder if there's something behind this fury?""Almost without exception, the faithful burst out..."
Here is the review. I only saw the first part, with subtitles on Vimeo; however, it has since been deleted. Major flaw confusing Proust with the narrator. (The actor who plays the character "Marcel" is rather strange!)
http://www.agoravox.fr/culture-loisir...
The flipping and flopping...who is who...and who is on top of the heap flashed, sparkled and shifted this week at Verdurin's 'Wednesday Night'. It seemed a skit or comedy worthy of Monty Python.M and Mme Verdurin do not know of M de Charlus status in the aristocracy...the comedy of the seating arrangements at the table. The standing and sitting seesaw between M. Cambremer & M. de Charlus. M. de Charlus filling M. Cambremer in on his lineage to impress Morel, who is listening. Hilariously, Ski then tells Mme Verdurin (who did not catch it), "'He [M de Charlus] was telling the Boss just now that he's a prince,'...'but it's not true, they're quite a humble family of architects.'"
Culminating with the exchange between Mme Verdurin and M de Charlus. Mme Verdurin, who now sees the potential of M. de Charlus as one of the 'faithful' because he is attached to Morel (and M de Charlus is worried that he not be included because he wants to accompany Morel), asks how long M de Charlus will be on the coast. The end of September, the occasion of the Archangel Michael, his patron saint's feast at the Abbey on the Mount.
Mme de Verdurin stifles her "outraged anti-clericalism". M. de Charlus waxes eloquent on the ecstacies and glories of the religious ceremony..."his voice reinforced by an exaltation which seemed now to be not merely aesthetic by religious..." Mme Verdurin, suggests HER 'faithful' attending as a group "notwithstanding her horror of the clergy." [At that moment my vision of Mme Verdurin's facial expression was similar to Hyacinth Bucket (Bouquet) in the Brittish comedy "Keeping Up Appearances".]
M de Charlus pours it on: "...it would be wonderful to see our young friend Palestrinising and even performing an Aria by Bach. The worthy Abbot, too, would be wild with joy, and it is the greatest public homage, that I can pay to my patron saint. What an edification for the faithful! We must mention it presently to the young Angelico of music, himself a warrior like Saint Michael." ML p 485
A play on faithful...the religious faithful or Mme de Verdurin's ridiculous tribe?
At the beginning of this dialogue, M de Charlus says "insolently" to Mme Verdurin, "You are perhaps afflicted with intermittent deafness," ML p 484 Such an apt description of Mme de Verdurin. Reflective that she does not yet know who he is...and her continued enthusiasm for the music that switched from Debussy's Fetes to a march by Meyerbeer...her belief that artists and musicians are 'made' by her and lose their illustrious way when they leave her salon.
Referring to the feast of St. Michael at the abbey "...it would be wonderful to see our young friend Palestrinising and even performing an Aria by Bach." ML p 485Does "Palestrinising" refer to Giovanni Pieluigi da Palestrina?
"Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525 – 2 February 1594)[1] was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition.[2] He has had a lasting influence on the development of church music, and his work has often been seen as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni...
Ce Ce wrote: "Referring to the feast of St. Michael at the abbey "...it would be wonderful to see our young friend Palestrinising and even performing an Aria by Bach." ML p 485Does "Palestrinising" refer to Gi..."
Yes, I think so...
The French says: ce serait ravissant de voir notre jeune ami palestrinisant et exécutant même une Aria de Bach.
The Year of Reading Proust
Books mentioned in this topic
Flaubert's Parrot (other topics)Proust connu et inconnu (other topics)
Cyrano de Bergerac (other topics)
It's the hands...with the le..."
Yes, those hands are wonderful. They remind me of Sargent's ability with hands. But I like the whole portrait. Wonderful three quarter profile -- difficult angle because the nose breaks the silhouette of the side of the face which is furthest away.
But we should refer to the Comte as M. de Montesquiou, so that we show to belong to society....
"Par example, il fallait dire le Malade, le Bourgeois; et ceux qui auraient ajouté imaginaire ou gentilhomme eussent témoigné qu'ils n'étaient pas de la boutique, de même que dans un salon, quelqu'un prouve qu'il n'est pas du monde en disant: M. de Montesquiou-Fezensac pour M. de Montesquiou".
No need to add that it is Montesquiou and not Montesquieu, as it has been written here sometimes.