Reading Proust - A Running Commentary

  Finally in the Combray section (which consists almost entirely of the remembrance of his youth in that Norman village by an older Marcel while lying in bed somewhere else unspecified), we come to the Guermantes way. This is a longer walk than Swann's way (aka the M éséglise way) and so the family only embark on it when the weather is fine ( p.227 Scott Moncrieff, p.180 Kilmartin ). The route runs alongside the Vivonne river where, on each stroll, Marcel observes a single lily “which the current, across whose path it had unfortunately grown, would never leave at rest for a moment, so that, like a ferry-boat mechanically propelled, it would drift over to one bank only to return to the other, eternally repeating its double journey.” The lily's plight is first compared to that of neurasthenics such as his Aunt L é onie and then to the never-ending repetitions of the inhabitants of the Inferno, to whom Dante would like to have talked for longer had he not been whisked away by h...

The narrative so far has mainly concentrated on Combray and its inhabitants. It is now time to take a look at its immediate surroundings. When Marcel's family go for a walk, they can take one of two routes: one which they call “Swann's way”, which is the route to the nearby village of M ésé glise that goes past Swann's country residence; or one which they call the “Guermantes way”, which goes to the seat of the aristocratic Guermantes family ( p.183 Scott Moncrieff, p.146 Kilmartin ). We are introduced first to Swann's way. During the family's walk along it, Marcel hopes to catch sight for the first time of the young Mlle Swann, with whom he already imagines himself in love after he discovered from her father that the distinguished novelist Bergotte is a frequent visitor and her “greatest friend” ( p.133 SM, p.107 TK ). As they pass by the grounds of Swann's house, “ an invisible bird, desperately attempting to make the day seem shorter, was exploring with a...

 In the second chapter of Combray (or the only chapter called Combray in the Scott Moncrieff (SM) and Kilmartin (TK) editions, their having called the first chapter Overture instead), we are introduced to a number of  characters, mainly local and of varying degrees of importance such as Aunt Léonie, M. Legrandin, Uncle Adolphe, the Lady in Pink, Bloch, M. Vinteuil, Gilberte, and Mme de Guermantes, and also to places and things which figure largely in Marcel's mind such as the church of Saint Hilaire, Swann's Way (also referred to as the Méséglise Way), the Guermantes Way and hawthorn blossom. Proust animates each brilliantly by a variety of techniques. Even buildings such as the church spring to life: "the worn old stones of [its spire] the setting sun now illumined no more than the topmost pinnacles, which, at the point where they entered that zone of sunlight and were softened and sweetened by it, seemed to have mounted suddenly far higher, to have become truly remot...