by Marcel Proust; D. J. Enright; Joanna Kilmartin; Andreas Mayor; Terence Kilmartin
WILDE, Oscar, Irish writer (1854–1900). Allusion to his downfall in the dissertation on the plight of inverts: IV 21.
WILLIAM II, the Kaiser, Norpois’s views on him: II 46–47. Charlus hints that he is an invert: III 394 (cf. IV 471; VI 283) Saint-Loup on his intentions over Morocco: 565. Discussed at the dinner-table by Prince Von and Oriane; dislikes Elstir’s work; Prince Von’s irony apropos of his aesthetic judgment: 717, 721–24, 751, 776. Mme Verdurin’s claims on the “faithful” compared to his claims on his subjects: IV 372–74. Charlus’s opinion of him; the Eulenburg affair: 471. During the war, M. Bontemps wants him to be put up against a wall and shot: VI 284. Discussed by Bloch and Saint-Loup; rumours of his death; Saint-Loup and the Guermantes insist on referring to him as “the Emperor William”: 71–73. Charlus describes him as “a complete upstart”: 140, but defends him against French chauvinists: 157–59 (cf. Saint-Loup’s view: 226).
WINTERHALTER, German portrait painter (1806–73): II 157; III 645
WOLF, Friedrich-August, German philologist (1759–1824): II 112.
XENOPHON, Greek historian: III 598; V 376; VI 285.
XERXES, King of Persia 486–465 BC: V 53, 131.
ZOLA, Emile, French novelist (1840–1902). His trial during the Dreyfus Case: III 315, 548 (cf. V 44–45; VI 286). Discussed at the Guermantes dinner party—“the Homer of the sewers” (Oriane): 681–85. Frequents Mme Verdurin’s salon: IV 198–99 (cf. 384). Brichot’s sarcasm at his expense: 483; VI 287.
Index of Places
ABBAUE-AUX-BOIS. Disused convent in Paris where Mme Ré-camier lived and held her salon and where Chateaubriand was a regular visitor: IV 373, 612.
ACACIAS, Allée des. See Bois de Boulogne.
AGRIGENTO, Sicily. Evoked by M on being introduced to the Prince d’Agrigente: III 593.
ALENÇON, capital of the Orne department. Eating habits that are considered unacceptable in “the best society of Alençon”: II 347; the “high society” of Alençon: IV 423.
AMSTERDAM. Visited by M: III 718. Visited by Albertine; the gulls in Amsterdam: IV 289 (cf. V 518, 529, 580).
ANDEL YS, Les, town on the lower Seine. A house there contains one of Elstir’s finest landscapes: III 163.
BADEN-BADEN. Odette once led a gay life there: I 445.
BAGATELLE (f). Farm-restaurant near Balbec: II 660; IV 320.
BALBEC (f). Remembered by the narrator: I 9. Legrandin’s sister lives in the neighbourhood: 92. Described by Legrandin: 182–86. M’s room in the Grand Hotel: 545. M’s imagined Balbec; “the land of the Cimmerians;” its “Persian” church; the poetry of its name: 545–54. Norpois’s opinion of Balbec and its church: II 48–49. M goes there with his grandmother: 299–308. Old Balbec, Balbec-en-Terre; M’s disappointment with the church: 322–24. The “little train”: 325–26. Arrival at the Grand Hotel; the manager; the lift; M’s room: 327–34. Views of the sea: 342–44 (see also 387, 523–24; IV 247–48). Clientele of the hotel: 345–56. The countryside round Balbec; landscapes and seascapes: 389–92, 395–409. The Casino: 434–35, 486, 502; behaviour of the “little band” there: 631–32, 645. The sea-front: 502–4. The cliffs of Canapville: 557, 580. Gimcrack splendour of Balbec’s architecture: 564. Elstir’s studio and his Balbec seascapes: 564–72. His enthusiasm for the “Persian” church: 573–76 (cf. III 484). The Mayor, the dentist, and other personalities of Balbec identified by Albertine: 631–32. Farms in the neighbourhood; picnics on the cliffs: 660–62. End of the season at Balbec; M’s memories of his stay: 724–30. Balbec bay the “gulf of opal painted by Whistler”: III 27. M’s desire for Albertine confused with his desire for Balbec: 479–81, 483–84. M’s second visit: IV 204–724. The manager of the Grand Hotel and his malapropisms: 204–10, 220–21. Life at the hotel; the liftboy, the pages; a Racinian stage-set: 233–36 (cf. 327–28). Views of the sea: 247–49. The little train and its nicknames: 249. At the Casino Albertine stares at Bloch’s sister and cousin in the mirror: 272–74. Girls on the beach: 321–24. A scandal at the Grand Hotel: 326–27. Nissim Bernard and the fledgling waiter: 327–31. Gomorrhan behaviour there: 337–41. Etymology of the name Balbec: 456–58. Roads near Balbec and their associations for M: 558–60. Corrupting effect of the country round Balbec—“this too social valley”: 697–98. The two pictures of Balbec; Albertine’s sleep evokes nights of full moon on the bay: V 81–86. Albertine’s trip to Balbec with the chauffeur: 174 (cf. 449–50). Bathing establishment at the Grand Hotel: 663. M’s retrospective musings about the Albertine of Balbec and her possible Gomorrhan activities: 673–703 passim. Aimé’s report on his investigative mission to Balbec: 694–96. “My Hell was the whole region of Balbec”: 699. The Grand Hotel a stage-set for the different dramas of M’s life: 730–31. M visits Balbec with the Saint-Loups: 925–27. M’s memories of Balbec and the sea revived by a starched napkin: VI 288. (See also Rooms in Index of Themes)
BAYEUX. One of the stops on the 1.22 train: I 548–49. What its name evokes: 554. A stained glass window in its cathedral decorated with the arms of the Arrachepels: IV 282.
BAYREUTH. Odette’s proposed trip: I 427–28. The Prince of X lets his castle during the festival: III 736. Visitors to Bayreuth: IV 201, 290–91.
BE ARN. Correct way of pronouncing: V 35.
BEAUMONT (f). Hill near Balbec with a view of the sea through woods: IV 548–50 (cf. II 391).
BEAUVAIS. Mme Verdurin’s Beauvais tapestry settee: I 292. Its cathedral: 415; II 321; III 7. Captain de Borodino posted there: 172. Mme de Villeparisis’s Beauvais chairs: 251, 275, 366. Charlus’s Beauvais chairs: 770. A Beauvais armchair illustrating the Rape of Europa: IV 191.
BENODET. One of the stops on the 1.22 train: I 548–49. What its name evokes: 553.
BERLIN. The Wilhelmstrasse: II 44. The Spree: III 331. Prince Von’s wife a leading light in the most exclusive set in Berlin: 348. Unter den Linden (Norpois): V 864; Unter den Linden (Charlus): VI 289.
BOIS DE BOULOGNE, Paris. Verdurin dinner-parties in the Bois: I 373, 381–83, 403–4. Odette’s encounter with a woman on the Island in the Bois: 519–21. The Swanns live near it: 586, 590. What it represents for M; Mme Swann’s walks and drives there; the Allée des Acacias: 592–98. The Bois in autumn; the Allée des Acacias; “the Elysian Garden of Woman”: 598–606. Associated with Swann’s memory of Vinteuil’s “little phrase”: II 144–46. M. Bloch drives through it in a hired victoria: 481. M. invites Mme de Stermaria to dine with him on the Island in the Bois; visits it with Albertine: III 525–33. “Improper things” happen there at night: 709. M. de Charlus wants to admire the moonlight in the Bois: 771 (cf. IV 3). M goes for a walk there with Albertine and contemplates the girls: V 219–28. M walks there alone one Sunday in autumn; its charm and melancholy; “aflower” with girls: 754–59.
BONNET ABLE, in the Perche region. Norpois went shooting there with Prince Foggi: V 858.
BOURGES. The cathedral: II 321; its soaring steeple in a Book of Hours: V 790.
BRABANT. Its “old-gold, sonorous” name: I 10. The lords of Guermantes were Counts of Brabant: 143, 242, 246; II 456 (cf. III 711, 808, 811–12). Charlus claims to be Duke of Brabant: IV 464, 477.
BRITTANY. Evoked by Legrandin: I 183, 185 (cf. II 576–77). Towns of Brittany served by the 1.22 train: 548–49, 552–53. The Stermarias, an ancient Breton family: II 351, 357–58; M imagines a life of poetry and romance in Brittany with Mlle de Stermaria: 364–66. The Island in the Bois evokes for M the “marine and misty” atmosphere of Mlle de Stermaria’s Breton island: III 529, 546. Mme de Guermantes’s Breton anecdotes: V 38. The Breton postal system: 174.
BROU. Tombs of Philibert le Beau and Marguerite d’Autriche in its church: I 420.
BRUGES. Visited by Rachel every year on All Souls’ Day: III 162–65.
BUTTES-CHAUMONT, public park in Paris. Andrée proposes to take Albertine there since she has never been before: V 15; M advises against: 16. Mme Bontemps reveals that Albertine used to go there constantly: 524. M is painfully reminded of this: 732.
Andrée admits to having frequently made love to Albertine in the Buttes-Chaumont: 823 (cf. 740).
CALIFORNIE (f), farm restaurant near Balbec: II 660.
CARQUETHUIT (f), a small port near Balbec. Subject of an Elstir picture: II 567–69, 576. Reminiscent of Florida, according to Elstir: 592.
CARQUEVILLE (f), mediaeval village with an ivy-covered church which M visits with Mme de Villeparisis: II 391, 401–2.
CHAMPS-ELYSÉES, Paris. “Melancholy neighbourhood” where Gilberte lives: I 201. Françoise takes M for daily walks there: 546, 559–60. M’s first meeting with Gilberte there: 560–62. The importance it assumes in his life; games with Gilberte: 562–81; II 80–89. The little pavilion and the “Marquise”: 87–89 (cf. III 419–22). Its bad reputation as regards children’s health: 91, 97–98. M sees Gilberte walking along the Avenue des Champs-Elysées with a young man: 272–73 (cf. VI 290). Dr du Boulbon advises M’s grandmother to go there for her health: III 411. M takes his grandmother there; her stroke: 419–24. M’s nostalgic memory of the streets in the neighbourhood of the Champs-Elysées: VI 291.
CHANTEPIE, Forest of (f), near Balbec. M. de Cambremer shoots there; etymology of the name: IV 434–39, 489. M and Albertine drive through it: 535 (cf. V 649, 659).
CHANTILLY. Residence of the Duc d’Aumale, where M. de Guermantes used to go and dine every week: III 803–4. The Poussins at Chantilly: IV 287.
CHARLUS (f). Little village in the heart of Burgundy: III 742. The Château de Charlus: 759.
CHARTRES. I he cathedral: I 54, 84; the Queens of Chartres: 135; “a positive jewel in stone” (Norpois): II 49, 321. Comparison with Balbec church: 49; Notre Dame de Chartres: III 7; IV 467–68; the windows of Chartres: V 218.
CHTEAUDUN, in the Eure-et-Loir department. The Cure’s brother a tax-collector there: I 78. Mme Goupil has a dress made there: 139. Comtesse G———not even in “the second-best society of Châteaudun”: III 607. Etymology: IV 390.
CHTELLERAULT, in the Vienne department. Mme Bontemps has a villa near there, where Albertine takes refuge after leaving M: V 587, 706.
CHATOU, near Versailles. The Verdurins organise an outing there to which Swann is not invited: I 403–10.
CHAUMONT. Town on the upper Loire to which the duc de Broglie retired; reminds M of the Buttes-Chaumont: V 731.
CHELSEA, London. Whistler “the Chelsea master”: II 526.
CHERRY ORCHARD (f). Farm-restaurant near Balbec where Nissim Bernard encounters the tomato-faced waiters: IV 342.
CHEVREUSE, Valley of. Albertine liked going there with Andrée: V 737.
COMBRAY (f). M’s memories of it: I 9–264. The house, the little garden, the visitor’s bell: 9–17. Evoked by the madeleine: 63–64. General description of the town: 65–66. “The daily but immemorial chronicles of Combray”: 70–79. The church: 80–91. History of the parish: 142–47. The Square; walks round Combray; streets and villas: 158–60, 186–87. The two “ways”: 188–90. The aesthetic standards of Combray: 196. The wind, “tutelary genius” of Combray: 204–5. The Combray of today and of yesterday; ruins of the castle: 233–36. The moral code of Combray: II 3–5. Nothing less like the social “world” than the society of Combray: 200. Sociological theories of Combray: 433. The rites of Combray: III 1. The name Guermantes evokes the air of Combray: 5–9. Combray evoked by Françoise: 13–14, 19–24. Sandstone steps of its houses: 101 (cf. 545). Sense of duty and code of manners Françoise has inherited from Combray: 436–37, 449–50. Referred to disdainfully by Françoise’s daughter as “the back of beyond”: 464 (cf. 194). M recalls arriving at Combray by night: 544. Mme de Guermantes’s eyes and voice remind M of Combray countryside: 677. Rue de Saintrailles: 728. The Cure’s magnum opus on the parish: IV 282, 387–88. The “Combray spirit”—the rule of caste: 579–80 (cf. V 867, 894); order and propriety: V 8–10. Françoise’s Combray “customary”: 648. Venice compared to Combray: 844–48, 874–75. Combray’s reaction to Gilberte’s marriage: 919–20. M’s disillusionment on revisiting the neighbourhood: VI 292. Occupied during the war: 88, 94–96; the church destroyed: 153–54. A memory of Combray the point of departure for M’s exploration of Time: 526–32.
COMMANDERIE, La (f). House near Balbec rented by Bloch’s father: IV 682; Charlus’s anti-semitic observations on the subject: 687–88.
COMPIÈGNE. The Verdurins take Odette there without Swann to watch the sunsets in the forest: I 415–17. The Marquis de Forestelle has a house in the neighbourhood: 417. Napoleon III’s residence: V 866 (cf. II 159–60).
COULIVILLE (f). Village near Balbec. Sacrilegious subject represented on the capitals of its old church: IV 652. Morel takes Albertine to a brothel there: V 811.
COUTANCES. One of the stops on the 1.22 train: I 548–49. What its name evokes: 553.
COWES, Isle of Wight. Albertine wants to go there for the regatta: II 655.
CREUNIERS, Les (f). Rocks near Balbec, reminiscent of a cathedral: II 656–57. Andrée takes M there: 684, 689.
CROIX D’HEULAND, La (f). Farm-restaurant near Balbec: II 660; IV 320.
DELFT. Home of Vermeer: I 279, 341. His View of Delft: III 718 (cf. V 244). Tulip-gardens in Delft: 784 (cf. V 881). The Master of Delft: IV 145.
DONCIÈRES (f). Garrison town not far from Balbec. Remembered by M: I 9. Saint-Loup on military service there: II 420, 478, 502, 528, 609–10, 663. Description: III 86. M visits Saint-Loup there: 86–183. First impressions; the barracks, the Captain’s house in the Place de la République: 91–92. First morning there; the view from Saint-Loup’s room; mist, frost and hot chocolate: 100–101. The Hôtel de Flandre: 102–5. Walks through the town: 116, 120–22; Doncières by night: 122–25. The hotel where Saint-Loup and his friends dine, the Faisan Doré: 124–27 (cf. IV 681–82); military comradeship: 131–54 passim. M’s memories of “mornings at Doncières”: 472–73, 534, and of evenings there (the inn, the panelled dining-room, the serving-girl): 542–43. M and Albertine meet Saint-Loup at Doncières station: IV 344–45, 348–50; meeting between Charlus and Morel, who is doing his military service there: 351–55 (cf. 382). Brichot gives the etymology of the name: 681. Meetings at Doncières station; invitations from Saint-Loup’s friends; meeting with Bloch: 682–86. Depoeticisation of the name: 695–96; its association with Albertine: V 730. Recollections of Doncières during the war: VI 293.
DOUVILLE (f). Station on the little local railway: II 326, and the stop for Féterne and La Raspelière: IV 248–49, 361. Its etymology: 390–91. The village and its surroundings: 398–99; the toll-house: 401–2. Beauty spots round Douville: 539; the “view of Douville”: 544. Painters from Paris spend their holidays there: 589.
DRESDEN. Swann needs to go there for his study of Vermeer: I 502. Odette surrounded by Dresden pieces: II 262. Mme de Guermantes “a statuette in Dresden china”: III 10. The women at the Guermantes dinner party “like Dresden figures”: 599. Dresden china plates: IV 66 (cf. VI 294). The art gallery: 659; V 75.
ECORRES, Les (f). Farm-restaurant near Balbec: II 660. Françoise’s young footman born there: III 777. Remembered by M: V 646.
EGYPT. Odette’s projected trip there with Forcheville on Whitsun: I 506. Norpois was Controller of the Egyptian Public Debt: II 5. “Doubles” of the dead in ancient Egypt: III 39. Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition: 711, 715.
EPREVILLE (f). Watering-place near Balbec where Mme Bon-temps takes a villa: IV 244. M sends the lift-boy there to fetch Albertine: 256, 262, 267. Etymology: 534.
FERNEY, Hermitage of. Residence of Voltaire: IV 614.
FÉTERNE (f). The Cambremer estate near Balbec. The notary goes there on Sundays: II 362. Hired cabs wait at the Grand Hotel for the Féterne guests: 388. Its marvellous gardens; its position overlooking the sea: IV 223–26. Compared with La Raspelière: 282–83. The Dowager Mme de Cambremer talks of her little back garden and of her roses: 287–88. M invited there, but not the judge: 299–302. “Féterne is starvation corner” (Mme Verdurin): 505. A dinner-party at Féterne: 663–72.
FLORENCE. Poet
ry of the name; M conjures it up in his imagination (“a supernatural city”); abortive plan to visit it at Easter: I 549–59. Resurgence of M’s desire to go there: II 287. His memory of this desire makes it the paschal city: III 187, 195.
FLORIDA. Carquethuit reminds Elstir of certain aspects of Florida: II 592.
FONTAINEBLEAU. Albertine on the Fontainebleau golf club: III 485. The forest of Fontainebleau: 732. Doncières has a spurious look of Fontainebleau: IV 681. Water-grapes from Fontainebleau: V 163.
FROHSDORF. Austrian residence of the Comte de Chambord, pretender to the French throne: V 37.
GAETA, port in southern Italy. Its siege and capitulation in 1861 put an end to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: V 329, 364–65, 432–33.
GOURVILLE (f). Village near Balbec: IV 538; the plain of Gourville: 558; the château of Gourville: 664; etymology: 680.
GRAINCOURT-SAINT-VAST (f). First station after Doncières on the little local railway; Cottard catches the train there: IV 358, 366. Cottard and Ski nearly miss the train there: 369, 435.
GRATTEVAST (f). On the little local railway, in the opposite direction from Féterne: IV 534; M. de Crécy’s sister has a house there: 657.
GUERMANTES (f). Seat of the Guermantes family, not far from Combray. The ultimate goal of the “Guermantes way”—“a sort of abstract geographical term;” surrounded by river scenery (the Vivonne): I 188–89, 233–36. M and his family never reach it on their walks: 241–43. M’s longing to go there: 243, 250, 257–62. Permanent significance of the Guermantes way for him: 258–62. Swann reminded of Guermantes and its countryside on meeting the Princesse des Laumes: 483. Saint-Loup talks about the château: II 456–57. M imagines the château: III 7–10. Françoise talks about it: 20–22, 35–36. Mme de Guermantes stays on there late into the season: 67. “Shadowy, sun-splashed coolness” of the woods of Guermantes: 273. The Duchess’s lunch-parties: 276–79. She and Charlus had played there together as children: 518. Carnations from Guermantes: 747. The Guermantes visitors’ book: 753. Life there remembered by the Duke and his brother: IV 158. The Duchess tells an anecdote about a shooting party (the Marquis du Lau and the Prince of Wales): V 38 (cf. 794). Gilberte reveals that it can be reached in a quarter of an hour from Combray: VI 295; the Guermantes way and the Méséglise way not irreconcilable: 3-A.