Close Reading. Within a Budding Grove Pages 502-505. James McDowell 4/30/15

On the very first of the pages open for this close reading, 502-730, the reader re-encounters a theme that has been present to this point, and is introduced to a new character that will be important in the rest of the novel.

At Balbec, with his grandmother, and despite her loving and close attention, the narrator makes great adolescent strides with girls. He has already, and repeatedly, described his thoughts as including a somewhat indiscriminate appetite for females.

Andrea Allen, in her earlier close reading, has described the narrator at this stage to be “a hormone-driven teenage boy.” There is perhaps an allusion to this in the very title of this volume, L’Ombre des jeunes filles en fleures. An example, not the first, of this interest on the part of the narrator has been earlier on pages 396-397. He sees approaching “…one of those creatures—flowers of a fine day but unlike flowers of the field, for each of them secretes something that is not to be found in another and that will prevent us from gratifying with any of her peers the desire she has aroused in us—a farm girl…a shopkeeper’s daughter.” He goes on to recall on walks along the Méséglise way “…when I hoped some peasant girl might pass whom I could take in my arms…that all girls one met…were alike ready and willing to give heed to such yearnings.” And further, “As to the pretty girls who went past, from the day on which I had first known that their cheeks could be kissed,…the universe had appeared to me more interesting.” His interest in girls and women is overtly sensual. Later, on page 534, even music elicits a feminine comparison. “…these tunes, each as individual as a woman, did not reserve, as she would have done, …the voluptuous secret which they contained: they offered it to me, ogled me, came up to me with wayward or wanton movements, accosted me, caressed me, as if I had suddenly become more seductive…”

That day in Balbec, on page 502, these sorts of thoughts are present. While simply “hanging about” in front of the Grand Hotel, “I seemed to see charming women all around me…if I was soon to die I should have liked to know beforehand what the prettiest girls that life had to offer looked like at close quarters…”

Against the background of this omnivorous mindset, on page 503, the narrator first “saw five or six young girls,” a pregnant moment. This collection soon acquires the name “the little band” (506). This term, and its female components, figure in the story for the remainder of the novel, and, and for example, do still appear many pages later in Time Regained (Le Temps Retrouvé). At first the narrator does not single out any of the members of “the little band,” and he considered “them all so beautiful,” and importantly, “none of my suppositions embraced the possibility of their being virtuous.” (509) The narrator explicitly includes the little band as “an excerpt from the endless flight of passing women.” (514)

The little band therefore fits well with the frame of mind the narrator has brought to the encounter, as described above. In his initial encounter with the “little band,” he includes them all but soon singles out one. “Although each was of a type absolutely different from the others, they all had beauty…but I had not yet individualized any of them. Except for one, whose straight nose and dark complexion singled her out from the rest…”(505). He describes her further: “… with plump and rosy cheeks and green eyes; the one with the straight nose and dark complexion who stood out among the rest:…”(508).

He wants to identify the members of the little band, in particular the girl who he has picked out from the rest. He hears the name “Simonet,” and this is confirmed for him by the head waiter Aimé. His fantasies race ahead: “I did not know which of these girls was Mlle. Simonet…but I did know that I was loved by Mlle. Simonet” (528). It is through the artist Elstir that the narrator finally discovers the surname of his central interest in the little band. The name is Albertine Simonet, and on page 579 he indicates that by this time, “She certainly had no conception of what one day she was to mean to me.”

That he has chosen Albertine from a crowd is made clear. Will she disappoint him in the end? In the past, his anticipation had sometimes led to that end. That was eventually the case with Gilberte. That was true with Berma. When he finally saw her, he was disappointed. His meeting with Bergotte was not all that he had expected. Even the much-anticipated church at Balbec was not all that he had hoped for. Albertine, however complex she is, does not disappoint, and is to play a central role for five more volumes.

In our class reading, it will be some time before we discover the full significance of Albertine in the story. Suffice it to say that The Fugitive (The Sweet Cheat Gone) and The Captive, were at one point a single volume known as “Le Roman d’Albertine.” According to Trevor Speller, her name is to appear more than 800 times in the novel. Clearly this member of the “little band” the narrator has met on page 503, becomes hugely important to the story. (And, indeed, Albertine will turn out to be quite different than he at first imagined her to be.)

The narrator is attracted to females, in general, and his desires and fantasies are indiscriminate. From that approach, he does pick out individuals. To this point in the novel, it has been Gilberte, possibly Mme. Swann herself, Mlle. de Stermaria (from a distance in the restaurant) as described in an earlier close reading, and now Albertine. It is soon to be Mme. Guermantes, and who knows who is to follow. The scene on the beach in front of the Grand Hotel brings the narrator and his proclivities to a certain individual who will be hugely important to him for the rest of her life.

In the first few pages of the close reading for today, is the entry into Recherches of a very major character. This begins with the sighting by the narrator of “five or six young girls” on page 503, and singling her out by page 505. On these pages, out of the random female fantasies of the young narrator, an obsessive, long-lasting love for one woman is born.

Close Reading. Within a Budding Grove Pages 502-505. James McDowell 4/30/15

On the very first of the pages open for this close reading, 502-730, the reader re-encounters a theme that has been present to this point, and is introduced to a new character that will be important in the rest of the novel.

At Balbec, with his grandmother, and despite her loving and close attention, the narrator makes great adolescent strides with girls. He has already, and repeatedly, described his thoughts as including a somewhat indiscriminate appetite for females.

Andrea Allen, in her earlier close reading, has described the narrator at this stage to be “a hormone-driven teenage boy.” There is perhaps an allusion to this in the very title of this volume, L’Ombre des jeunes filles en fleures. An example, not the first, of this interest on the part of the narrator has been earlier on pages 396-397. He sees approaching “…one of those creatures—flowers of a fine day but unlike flowers of the field, for each of them secretes something that is not to be found in another and that will prevent us from gratifying with any of her peers the desire she has aroused in us—a farm girl…a shopkeeper’s daughter.” He goes on to recall on walks along the Méséglise way “…when I hoped some peasant girl might pass whom I could take in my arms…that all girls one met…were alike ready and willing to give heed to such yearnings.” And further, “As to the pretty girls who went past, from the day on which I had first known that their cheeks could be kissed,…the universe had appeared to me more interesting.” His interest in girls and women is overtly sensual. Later, on page 534, even music elicits a feminine comparison. “…these tunes, each as individual as a woman, did not reserve, as she would have done, …the voluptuous secret which they contained: they offered it to me, ogled me, came up to me with wayward or wanton movements, accosted me, caressed me, as if I had suddenly become more seductive…”

That day in Balbec, on page 502, these sorts of thoughts are present. While simply “hanging about” in front of the Grand Hotel, “I seemed to see charming women all around me…if I was soon to die I should have liked to know beforehand what the prettiest girls that life had to offer looked like at close quarters…”

Against the background of this omnivorous mindset, on page 503, the narrator first “saw five or six young girls,” a pregnant moment. This collection soon acquires the name “the little band” (506). This term, and its female components, figure in the story for the remainder of the novel, and, and for example, do still appear many pages later in Time Regained (Le Temps Retrouvé). At first the narrator does not single out any of the members of “the little band,” and he considered “them all so beautiful,” and importantly, “none of my suppositions embraced the possibility of their being virtuous.” (509) The narrator explicitly includes the little band as “an excerpt from the endless flight of passing women.” (514)

The little band therefore fits well with the frame of mind the narrator has brought to the encounter, as described above. In his initial encounter with the “little band,” he includes them all but soon singles out one. “Although each was of a type absolutely different from the others, they all had beauty…but I had not yet individualized any of them. Except for one, whose straight nose and dark complexion singled her out from the rest…”(505). He describes her further: “… with plump and rosy cheeks and green eyes; the one with the straight nose and dark complexion who stood out among the rest:…”(508).

He wants to identify the members of the little band, in particular the girl who he has picked out from the rest. He hears the name “Simonet,” and this is confirmed for him by the head waiter Aimé. His fantasies race ahead: “I did not know which of these girls was Mlle. Simonet…but I did know that I was loved by Mlle. Simonet” (528). It is through the artist Elstir that the narrator finally discovers the surname of his central interest in the little band. The name is Albertine Simonet, and on page 579 he indicates that by this time, “She certainly had no conception of what one day she was to mean to me.”

That he has chosen Albertine from a crowd is made clear. Will she disappoint him in the end? In the past, his anticipation had sometimes led to that end. That was eventually the case with Gilberte. That was true with Berma. When he finally saw her, he was disappointed. His meeting with Bergotte was not all that he had expected. Even the much-anticipated church at Balbec was not all that he had hoped for. Albertine, however complex she is, does not disappoint, and is to play a central role for five more volumes.

In our class reading, it will be some time before we discover the full significance of Albertine in the story. Suffice it to say that The Fugitive (The Sweet Cheat Gone) and The Captive, were at one point a single volume known as “Le Roman d’Albertine.” According to Trevor Speller, her name is to appear more than 800 times in the novel. Clearly this member of the “little band” the narrator has met on page 503, becomes hugely important to the story. (And, indeed, Albertine will turn out to be quite different than he at first imagined her to be.)

The narrator is attracted to females, in general, and his desires and fantasies are indiscriminate. From that approach, he does pick out individuals. To this point in the novel, it has been Gilberte, possibly Mme. Swann herself, Mlle. de Stermaria (from a distance in the restaurant) as described in an earlier close reading, and now Albertine. It is soon to be Mme. Guermantes, and who knows who is to follow. The scene on the beach in front of the Grand Hotel brings the narrator and his proclivities to a certain individual who will be hugely important to him for the rest of her life.

In the first few pages of the close reading for today, is the entry into Recherches of a very major character. This begins with the sighting by the narrator of “five or six young girls” on page 503, and singling her out by page 505. On these pages, out of the random female fantasies of the young narrator, an obsessive, long-lasting love for one woman is born.

Introduction/welcome text to go here.