In Search of Lost Time (72 page)

An evening at the Marquise de Saint-Euverte's
. Detached from social life by his love and his jealousy, Swann can observe it as it is in itself (325): the footmen (326); the monocles (329); the Marquise de Cambremer and the Vicomtesse de Franquetot listening to Liszt's ‘Saint Francis' (330); Mme de Gallardon, a despised cousin of the Guermantes (331). Arrival of the Princess des Laumes (332); her conversation with Swann (343). Swann introduces the young Mme de Cambremer (Mlle Legrandin) to General de Froberville (346). Vinteuil's little phrase poignantly reminds Swann of the days when Odette loved him (347). The language of music (350). Swann realizes that Odette's love for him will never return (355).

The whole past toppled stone by stone
(373). Bellini's
Mohammed II
(357). An anonymous letter (358).
Les Filles de Marbre
(362). Beuzeville-Bréauté (363). Odette and women (363). Impossibility of ever possessing another person (366). On the island in the Bois, by moonlight (367). A new circle of hell (369). The terrible recreative power of memory (370). Odette and the procuresses (371). Had she been lunching with Forcheville at the Maison Dorée on the day of the Paris-Murcia fête? (372 cf. 228). She was with
Forcheville, and not at the Maison Dorée, on the night when Swann had searched for her in Prévost's (372 cf. 234). Odette's suspect effusions (374). ‘Lovely conversation' in a brothel (375). Odette goes on a cruise with the ‘faithful' (375). Mme Cottard assures Swann that Odette adores him (377). Swann's love fades; he no longer suffers on learning that Forcheville has been Odette's lover (380). Return of his jealousy in a nightmare (381). Departure for Combray, where he will see the young Mme de Cambremer whose charm had struck him at Mme de Saint-Euverte's (382). The first image of Odette seen again in his dream: he had wanted to die for a woman ‘who was not his type' (383).

Dreams of place-names
. Rooms at Combray (387). Room in the Grand-Hôtel at Balbec (387 cf. 12). Dreams of spring in Florence (390 cf. 393). Words and names (391). Names of Norman towns (392). Abortive plan to visit Florence and Venice (393). The doctor forbids me to travel or to go to the theatre to see La Berma (397); he advises walks in the Champs-Élysées under Françoise's surveillance (397).

In the Champs-Élysées
. A little girl with red hair; the name Gilberte (397). Games of prisoners' base (399). What will the weather be like? (399). Snow in the Champs-Élysées (401). The reader of
Les Débats
(Mme Blatin) (401 cf. 416). Signs of friendship: the agate marble, the Bergotte book, ‘You may call me Gilberte' (405); why they fail to bring me the expected happiness (407). A spring day in winter: joy and disappointment (408). The Swann of Combray has become a different person: Gilberte's father (410). Gilberte tells me with cruel delight that she will not be returning to the Champs-Élysées before the New Year (411). ‘In my friendship with Gilberte, I was the only one who loved' (415). The name Swann (416 cf. 143). Swann meets my mother in Trois Quartiers (417). Pilgrimage with Françoise to the Swanns' house near the Bois (419).

The Bois, Garden of Woman
. Mme Swann in the Bois (420). A walk through the Bois one late autumn morning ‘this year' (424). Memory and reality (427).

*
Editor's note. It should however be pointed out that the translation of
A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs
(
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
) is not the choice of that volume's translator. Of all Proust's titles,
A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs
is unquestionably the hardest to manage. It is easy to identify what is wrong with Scott Moncrieff's version,
Within a Budding Grove
(every one of its terms is inapposite), but far from easy to come up with a convincing alternative. The version published here is in part inspired by Nabokov's view that the only plausible solution, however awkward, is to plump for literalness. This view is not shared by the translator; his proposal was initially
A Rosebud Garden of Girls
, subsequently modified to
A Rose-Garden of Girls
.