Proust: The Guermantes Way (unabridged)
Remembrance of Things Past Vol. 3
read by Neville Jason
- Release Date: 3rd Apr 2012
- Catalogue No: NA0098
- Label: Naxos AudioBooks
- Series: Complete Classics, Remembrance of Things Past
- Length: 28 hours 46 minutes
Downloads
What are FLAC and MP3?Contents
Marcel Proust: The Guermantes Way (Unabridged)
- Recording Venue: Motivation Sound Studios, London
The twittering of the birds at daybreak…
And yet the fairy must perish if we come in contact…
What form was assumed in my mind by this name…
In the parties which she gave…
'Ah! Combray, Combray!' she cried.
This new friend of Francoise was very little at home…
As soon as she had shut the window again…
'I can well believe that it is something…'
What annoyed her more than anything…
And it became all the more essential…
But if the Hotel de Guermantes began for me…
As one of Mme. de Guermantes's footmen was in the habit…
That villa, that opera-box, into which Mme. de Guermantes…
That evening as, armed with the ticket…
Next to me were some common people…
Like a mighty goddess who presides from far aloft…
'That fat fellow is the Marquis de Ganancay,'…
I no longer felt the same indulgence…
My own impression, to tell the truth…
I thought so at first.
Just as the curtain was rising on this second play…
The explanation of Mme. de Cambremer's presence…
Mme. de Cambremer was trying to make out…
On coming home from the Opera-Comique…
Why did I one morning…
I should not myself have felt that Mme. de Guermantes…
To return to Francoise…
I was genuinely in love with Mme. de Guermantes.
The friendship, the admiration that Saint-Loup felt for me…
At that moment a sergeant who was exercising a horse…
To return to the problem of sounds…
The silence, though only relative, which reigned…
Robert, without being aware of its cause…
If I wished to go out or to come in…
What one has meant to do during the day…
When I had finished sleeping…
But soon I was constantly going to see the regiment…
One of them said that the Captain had bought a new horse.
On leaving the barracks I would take a stroll…
The wind grew stronger.
'Robert, this is hardly the time or the place…'
Which was exactly what he had just been doing…
On the third evening, one of his friends…
At this point I was interrupted by Saint-Loup…
Partly out of courtesy to his friends…
The enunciation of these theories by Saint-Loup made me happy.
'Saint-Loup is quite right…'
When the conversation became general…
I breathed a sigh of relief when I realised…
All the same I could see that, during the hour that followed…
'Listen, if you don't mind. Just one last word…'
For I continued my eager demands…
If the Prince de Borodino was not prepared…
Son, doubtless, or grandson of an Emperor…
And, the moment our call has sounded…
When I came among Robert and his friends…
'You haven't seen Sergeant Saint-Loup, have you…'
Alas, this phantom was just what I did see…
Meanwhile the winter was drawing to an end.
She was now wearing lighter, or at any rate brighter, clothes…
Saint-Loup came to Paris for a few hours only.
My father had informed us that he now knew…
My father had also another encounter about this time…
I left the house early, with Francoise complaining bitterly…
Never had Robert spoken to me so tenderly of his friend…
Suddenly Saint-Loup appeared…
It was not 'Rachel when from the Lord'…
It was, by the way, quite true that she was 'literary'.
She seemed anxious to pacify Robert…
If we were not yet in the theatre…
Presently came a message that Robert was waiting…
One number in the programme I found extremely trying.
When, the curtain having fallen, we moved on to the stage…
A group of men – journalists – noticing the look of fury…
At that moment I saw Saint-Loup raise his arm…
These incidents, particularly the one that was weighing…
Moreover, talent is not a separate appendage…
On the occasion of this first call…
'Oh, Ministers, my dear sir,' Mme. de Villeparisis was saying…
Earlier in the day Mme. de Villeparisis might have been…
Presently there came into the room…
'I understand, sir, that you thinkin' of writin' somethin'…'
Meanwhile I had been talking to Bloch…
Presently Mme. de Villeparisis sat down again at her desk…
That admirable writer G – entered the room…
If, in the drawing-room of Mme. de Villeparisis…
The presence of Bergotte by my side…
Everyone had gathered round Mme. de Villeparisis…
Mme. de Villeparisis rang the bell…
'I have better news,' she murmured in my ear…
She rang the bell…
'You must speak loud,' she warned Bloch…
Before M. de Norpois, under constraint from his hostess…
'You know who we're talking about, Basin?' the Duchess asked…
'Seven Princesses! Dear, dear, what a snob she must be!'
'Tell me, my dear aunt,' M. de Guermantes inquired…
Bloch was flattered by this picture of himself…
M. de Guermantes uttered the words…
'I think you're all equally tiresome…'
Possibly the explanation of M. de Norpois speaking in this way…
'You aren't going to Mme. de Sagan's ball this evening?'
M. de Norpois put these questions to Bloch…
Bloch coloured; M. d'Argencourt smiled…
Full of curiosity and anxious to have more light thrown…
In the country, Mme. de Marsantes was adored…
A faint smile made Mme. de Guermantes's eyelashes quiver…
The Prince's name preserved in the boldness…
But Prince von Faffenheim was no simpleton.
The following winter the Prince was seriously ill…
The arrival of Mme. Swann had a special interest for me…
For the rest, Charles Morel seemed to have…
Mme. de Villeparisis meanwhile…
I studied M. de Charlus.
I have recorded a long way back…
I was anxious nevertheless for information…
Robert called me away to the far end of the room…
I should have liked to reply…
I was fully aware that my company…
Anxiously Mme. de Marsantes bade me good-bye.
As I went downstairs I heard behind me a voice…
'You have enough intelligence, I suppose…'
I warned him that, anyhow, Mme. Bloch no longer existed…
'Let us return to yourself,' he said…
'I am sorry about that,' said M. de Charlus.
As for myself, no sooner had I turned in at our gate…
Cottard had told us to take her temperature.
In spite of this more special competence…
Inasmuch as a great part of what doctors know…
'But do you want me to take a cure like that, Sir?'
I was startled to see her so flushed…
Finally my grandmother emerged…
Just as I was signalling to a cabman…
And if Legrandin had looked back at us…
The sun was sinking, it burnished an interminable wall…
My mother and I (whose falsehood was exposed…)
'Oh! My dear, it's dreadful to have to stay in bed…'
My grandmother's illness gave occasion to various people…
People of taste and refinement tell us nowadays…
On the sixth day…
There came a time when her uraemic trouble…
According to our doctor, this was a symptom…
We went into the sickroom.
A half-brother of my grandmother, who was in religion…
For several nights now my father…
To return now to those last hours…
Chapter 2
There was no one else in the house but Francoise.
To revert to where we were…
I must say it at this point…
As for this pleasure which by accomplishing my desire…
No doubt it does happen that women of moderate culture…
As she uttered these words the door opened…
I did not respond at once to this invitation…
In addition, Albertine preserved, inseparably attached to her…
Apart from the most recent applications…
The exact opposite happened.
Apart from this, Albertine's social ideas were fatuous…
Albertine had made me so late…
However that might be…
At that moment Mme. de Villeparisis entered the room.
People who are merely fashionable…
I was struck by the application of this last epithet…
The days that preceded my dinner with Mme. de Stermaria…
And then, the last carriage having rolled by…
At the same time, my Balbec desires…
The next day was cold and fine; winter was in the air…
What added to my distress at not seeing Mme. de Stermaria…
The thought of course never entered my mind…
If as I came downstairs I lived over again…
I was astounded.
As ill luck would have it…
As I have mentioned the Prince de Foix…
In politics the proprietor of this particular cafe…
After leaving us for a moment…
'By the way, while I think of it, my uncle Charlus…'
How much familiar intercourse with a Guermantes…
This imagined remoteness of the past…
The people who detested these 'horrors' were astonished…
While I was examining Elstir's paintings…
At the very outset I found myself completely bewildered.
If M. de Guermantes had been in such a haste to present me…
But already the Duke, who seemed in a hurry…
It seemed on the whole more plausible to regard me…
I should add that one of the guests was still missing…
The other reason for the friendliness shown me…
The Guermantes were just as idiomatic…
To the most trivial statements made by intelligent people…
A single point at which Guermantes and Courvoisiers converged…
To return to the antipathy which animated…
It is in a similar fashion…
Well, to return to Mme. des Laumes…
Many of the friends of the Princesse de Parme…
When the room became too crowded…
With certain people (though these, it must be admitted…)
It must be recognised also that the refinement of social life…
The Duke and Duchess gave a very civil greeting…
And so, thanks on one occasion to 'Teaser Augustus'…
The Courvoisiers were incapable of rising to the level…
When a woman who was intelligent, educated, witty…
As for social activities…
M. de Guermantes at this period in his life…
Very well, at this point in the social year…
As a rule these handsome 'supers' had been his mistresses…
No doubt the love which M. de Guermantes had had…
'Oriane,' began the Princesse de Parme…
'Which leads to some quite amusing scenes…'
I let it be understood that I had no admiration…
Far from condemning Mme. d'Arpajon as absurd…
I was beginning to know them…
Moved by this last quotation, Mme. d'Arpajon exclaimed…
It was Mme. de Chaussegros herself who had said…
'Good Lord, yes,' he replied…
'That portrait ought to appeal to Mme. de Gallardon…'
'Babal always knows everything…'
'But you take the same view of my aunt…'
'As we're discussing your family, Oriane…'
'I really must go and see the Queen of Naples…'
In the period that followed…
Now, on this occasion, among the visitors…
'Babal, you're divine, you know everything…'
Mme. de Guermantes was now nourishing a similar project…
'A good-looking boy, I believe?' she asked.
'And is the Grand Duchess well?'
M. de Guermantes, rejoicing that she should be speaking to me…
Everyone smiled.
'You are quite mistaken,' replied the Duchess…
There was at Combray a Rue de Saintrailles…
In middle-class families one sometimes sees…
Better informed than his wife…
I was privately convinced that all these stories…
I did not even reply to the Ambassadress…
However, my historical curiosity was faint…
Just as I was about to leave…
An exaltation that sank only into melancholy…
From this point of view…
When all was said, very different in this respect…
After a moment's silence I asked him…
So far, I had never dreamed that M. de Charlus's rage…
'Sir, I swear to you that I have said nothing…'
'Sir,' I replied, moving away from him…
'You will excuse my not accompanying you home…'
'The Duchesse de Guermantes…'
We are attracted by every form of life…
The fact remains, nevertheless…
On the day on which the party was to be given…
'You shall see Oriane in a minute,' the Duke told me…
The Duke appeared touched that I should have come…
The Duke called back the footman…
'To be sure, it is,' said the Duke…
M. de Guermantes returned…
'Oriane, you might at least tell the story properly…'
Another footman came into the room.
The footman returned with the Comtesse Mole's card…
'Listen, Basin, I ask for nothing better…'
'What's that you say?' cried the Duchess…
