Summary “Under the shadow of the girls in bloom” Proust
The first family dinner with the Marquis de Norpois has been remembered for a long time by Marcel. It was this rich aristocrat who persuaded his parents to let the boy go to the theater. The Marquis approved Marcel’s intention to devote himself to literature, but criticized his first sketches, Bergotte called the “flutist” for excessive infatuation with the beauty of the style. The visit to the theater turned out to be a huge disappointment. Marcel thought that the great Berma did not add to the perfection of “Phaedra” – only later he was able to appreciate the noble restraint of her game.
Dr. Kotar was very close to Swanam – he introduced his young patient to them. From the caustic remarks of the Marquis de Norpois to Marseilles, the herd is clear that the current Svan is very different from the former, which has been delicately silent about its high-society ties, not wanting to put the bourgeois neighbors in an embarrassing position.
At Svanov Marcel finally saw Borgoth. The great elder of his childhood dreams appeared in the form of a squat man with a crustacean nose. Marcel was so shocked that he almost fell out of love with the books of Bergot – they fell in his eyes, along with the value of the Beautiful and the value of life. Only in time, Marcel realized how difficult it is to recognize genius (or even just giftedness) and what a huge role public opinion plays here: for example, Marcel’s parents did not listen first to Dr. Kotar’s advice, who first suspected asthma of a boy, but then became convinced that this vulgar and a stupid man is a great clinician. When Bergot praised Marcel’s abilities, the mother and father immediately became imbued with respect
The love for Gilberte brought complete pain to Marcel. At some point, the girl became obviously burdened by his company, and he undertook a roundabout maneuver in order to reawaken interest in himself – began to go to the Swanns only at the time when she was not at home. Odette played him a sonata of Venteil, and in this divine music he guessed the secret of love – an incomprehensible and unrequited feeling. Unable to withstand, Marcel decided to see Gilberta again, but she appeared accompanied by a “young man” – much later it turned out that it was a girl, Tortured by jealousy, Marcel managed to convince himself that he fell out of love with Gilberto. He himself had already acquired the experience of communicating with women thanks to Blok, who took him to a “gay house”. One of the prostitutes was distinguished by a pronounced Jewish appearance: the hostess immediately baptized her Rachel,
Two years later Marcel came with his grandmother to Balbec. To Gilbert, he was already completely indifferent and felt as if he were cured of a serious illness. In the church there was nothing “Persian”, and he survived the collapse of yet another illusion. But at the Grand Hotel, he was waiting for a lot of surprises. The Normandy coast was a favorite vacation spot for aristocrats: my grandmother met the Marquis de Villeparizi and after long hesitation introduced her grandson to her. In this way. Marcel was admitted to the “higher spheres” and soon became acquainted with the grand-nephew of the Marquis, Robert de Saint-Loup. The young and handsome officer first unpleasantly struck Marcel with his arrogance. Then it turned out that he has a gentle and trusting soul – Marcel once again saw how deceiving the first impression is. Young people swore to each other in eternal friendship. Most of all, Robert appreciated the joy of intellectual communication: there was not a drop of snobbery in him, although he belonged to the family of the Germans. His unspeakably excruciated separation from his mistress. He spent all the money on his Parisian actress, and she told him to leave for a while – he was so annoying her. Meanwhile, Robert enjoyed great success with women: indeed, he himself said that in this respect he was far from his uncle, Baron Palameda de Charlus, whom Marcel had yet to meet.
First, the young man took the baron for a thief or for a madman, for he looked at him with a very strange, piercing and simultaneously elusive gaze. De Charles showed great interest in Marcel and even paid attention to my grandmother, who was concerned only with one thing – the poor health and morbidity of her grandson.
Never before had Marcel felt such tenderness towards his grandmother. Only once she disappointed him: Saint-Louis offered to be photographed for memory, and Marcel with annoyance noted the vanity of the old woman’s desire to look better. Many years later, he will understand that my grandmother already had a premonition of her own demise. A person is not given to know even the closest people.
On the beach, Marcel saw a company of dazzlingly young girls, similar to a flock of gay gulls. One of them jumped over the frightened old banker with a running start. At first Marcel could hardly distinguish them: they all seemed to him beautiful, bold, cruel. A full-cheeked girl in a bicycle cap, pulled over her eyebrows, suddenly looked at him sideways – did she somehow distinguish him from the vast universe? He began to wonder what they were doing. Judging by their behavior, they were spoiled girls, which inspired the hope of intimacy – it was only necessary to decide which one to choose. At the Grand Hotel, Marcel heard the name that struck him – Albertina Simone. This was the name of one of Gilberta Swan’s school friends.
Saint-Loup and Marcel often visited a fashionable restaurant in Rivne. Once they saw in the hall of the artist Elstir, about which something told Svan. Elstir was already famous, although the real glory came to him later. He invited Marcel to himself, and he reluctantly gave in to his grandmother’s request to pay the courtesy duty, for his thoughts were hushed up by Albertina Simone. It turned out that the artist knows the girls from the beach company perfectly – they were all from very decent and well-off families. Struck by this news, Marcel nearly cooled to them. Another discovery awaited him: in the workshop he saw a portrait of Odette de Crecy and immediately remembered the stories of Swann. Elstir was a frequent visitor to the Verdurenov’s salon, where he was called “maestro Bish”. The artist easily admitted this and added that he wasted a few years in the light life.
Elstir arranged a “reception with tea?”, And Marcel met finally with Albertina Simone. He was disappointed, for he hardly recognized the merry, full-cheeked girl in a bicycle cap. Albertina was too much like other young beauties. But even more struck by Marcel was the shy, delicate André, whom he considered the most daring and resolute of the whole “flock” – after all, it was she who nearly frightened the old man on the beach.
Both girls liked Marcel. For a while he hesitated between them, not knowing which one was the nicest, but once Albertina threw him a note with a declaration of love, and it resolved the matter. He even imagined that he had obtained consent for intimacy, but his first attempt ended pitifully: Marcel, who had lost his head, came to his senses when Albertina began to yank violently at the cord of the bell. The stunned girl told him later that none of her boyfriends had ever allowed herself such a thing.
Summer is over, and a sad time of departure has come. Albertina left as one of the first. And in the memory of Marcel forever remained a flock of young girls on the sandy beach strip.
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