Reading Proust - A Running Commentary

 Following his failure, due to feigned indifference, to be introduced by Elstir to the girls of the “little band”, Marcel finds pleasure afterwards in the realisation that he will nevertheless soon meet them. As he observes, many hours might pass between the event that gave us pleasure and the moment at which we are free to enjoy it ( p.229 IV Scott Moncrieff, p.925 Kilmartin ). When, having persuaded Elstir to give a small tea-party so that he can meet Albertine Simonet, his favourite of the girls, Marcel again experiences this deferred pleasure after he is introduced to her: “This is not to say that the introduction ... did not give me any pleasure, nor assume a definite importance in my eyes. But so far as the pleasure was concerned, I was not conscious* of it, naturally, until some time later, when, once more in the hotel, and in my room alone, I had become myself again. Pleasure in this respect is like photography. What we take, in the presence of the beloved object, is merely...

 Seascape, with Frieze of Girls is the title that Scott Moncrieff gave to the third and final part of Within a Budding Grove. For Proust, and later translators, there were only two parts: Madame Swann at Home and Place-Names: The Place. The latter is itself in two parts, and it is this second part of Place-Names: The Place that Scott Moncrieff has chosen to entitle. His sectioning off is understandable because while the whole of Place-Names: The Place is set in Balbec during Marcel's stay at the Grand Hotel, its first half concerns his meeting Mme de Villeparisis, Robert de Saint-Loup and Baron de Charlus, while its second half concerns his meeting the painter Elstir and, through him, Albertine Simonet and her “little band” of girl friends. Artist: Frank Weston Benson Robert, who is a sergeant in a cavalry regiment, has had to depart Balbec for his barracks at Doncières. Left by himself, Marcel is hanging about outside the hotel when he sees in the distance, walking towards him “fi...