The Proustian Quest

Notes

Notes 1. The Age of Speed 1. Unles s otherwis e stated , al l page references ar e to th e Gallimar d (Pleiade) edition s o f Proust's works: A la recherche du temps perdu, vols. I , II , an d III , edite d b y Pierr e Clara c an d Andr e Ferr e (Paris, 1954); Jean Santeuil and Les Plaisirs et les jours(vol. IV), and Contre Sainte-Beuve, Pastiches et milanges, Essais et articles (vol . V), both edited by Pierre Clarac and Yves Sandre (Paris, 1971). Ref erences t o la Recherche give volum e an d page number s only . A reference followe d b y a n asteris k indicate s a passage tha t wa s omitted fro m th e origina l editio n o f la Recherche but wa s included in the Pleiade edition . I n references t o works from the other volumes , th e tid e o f th e wor k i s given , followe d b y th e volume an d pag e number . Al l translations , unles s otherwis e stated, are my own. Proust, wh o followe d wit h grea t interes t th e development s o f machine technology, referre d to his era more than once as "locomotive " and "une epoqu e d e hate. " See Contre Sainte-Beuve (V, 202), and A la recherche du temps perdu, II, 815: "On disait qu'a une epoque de hate convenait un art rapide, absolument comm e o n aurait dit que la guerre future ne pouvait pas durer plus de quinze jours, o u qu'ave c le s chemin s d e fe r seraient delaisse s les petits coins chers aux diligences e t que l'auto pourtant devait remettre en honneur." (There is another version of this same statement at III, 888-89. ) I n "Mondanit e e t melomani e d e Bouvar d e t Pecuchet," Proust characterized the century as that of steam, universal suffrage, and the bicycle. See JeanSanteuil(IV, 63-64). 2. Thi s information is provided in Jacques Nathan, La Littirature du mital, de la vitesse, et du cheque de 1880 h 1930 (Paris : Didier, 1971), p . 12 . What i s surprising about thi s otherwis e excellen t 241 242 NOTE S book is that Nathan, a Proust scholar with two prior books on the writer, make s onl y on e brie f mention o f him in thi s study. N o French writer of the epoch discussed in Nathan's book was more influenced by the advancements in modern technology o r made better narrative and metaphorical use of the material than Proust. 3. Se e the article by Eugene Nicole, "Le s Inventions modernes dans La Recherche du temps perdu" Bulletin de la SociSU des Amis de Marcel Proust et de Combray 36 (1986) : 528-42. 4. Charle s Baudoin, quote d by Par Bergman in "Modemolatria" et "Simultaneity": Recherches sur deux tendances dans Vavant-garde littiraire en Italie et en France h la veille de la premihe guerre mondiale, Studia Litterarum Upsaliensia, 2 (Bonniers : Svenska Bokforlaget, 1965), p. 8. 5. Quote d b y Euge n Weber i n France: Fin de Sihle (Cambridge , Mass.: Harvard University Press , 1986) , p . 236 . I n the chapte r entided "The Cosmos Builder," I discuss the similarities between Proust's and Einstein's views of the universe. 6. Quote d by Bergman, "Modemolatria" p. 16. 7. Se e Correspondance de Marcel Proust, edite d by Philip Kol b (Paris : Plon, 1981) , 1912 , 11 : 292. Unles s otherwis e stated , al l refer ences are to this edition, of which twenty volumes have appeared to date . Each referenc e wil l b e give n as follows: Correspondance, year, volume number, and page number. 8. Weber , France: Fin de Sihle, p. 54. 9. Ibid. , p. 68. 10. Se e A. D. Trottenberg's introduction to Euglne Atget, A Vision of Paris (New York: Macmillan, 1963) , pp. 11-28 . 11. Quote d b y Weber, France: Fin de Sihle, pp . 70-71 . "N o mor e rank, tides , o r race . . . . Al l i s mixed , confused , blurred , an d reshuffled in a kaleidoscopic vision," wrote editor Francois Mainguy i n th e first issue (1890 ) o f Le Fin de Sihle, (p . 10) . Proust , too, utilizes the kaleidoscope as one of his principal metaphors to describe social evolution...