Proust (§21/23) Swann’s Way. [The narrator’s great-aunt accidentally treated M. Swann as a social equal.]

 

by Corry Shores

 

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[The following is summary, with my own bracketed comments. Proofreading is incomplete, so I apologize in advance for my distracting typos.]

 

 

 

 

Marcel Proust

 

Du côté de chez swann. À la recherche du temps perdu. Tome I

Swan's Way. Vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past

 

Première partie

Overature

 

Combray I.

 

§21/23

[The narrator’s great-aunt accidentally treated M. Swann as a social equal.]

 

 

Brief summary:

The narrator’s great-aunt was so unaware of M. Swann’s high social status that she treated him as if he were of a lower status.

 

 

 

 

Summary

 

The narrator’s great-aunt was apparently unaware of M. Swann’s high social status. For, she treated him without ceremony, and she assumed he would be so flattered to dine with the narrator’s family that he would always feel obliged to bring gifts of fruit from his garden or painting reproductions from his trips to Italy.

 

 

 

From the English translation:

§23

Altogether, my aunt used to treat him with scant ceremony. Since she was of the opinion that he ought to feel flattered by our invitations, she thought it only right and proper that he should never come to see us in summer without a basket of peaches or raspberries from his garden, and that from each of his visits to Italy he should bring back some photographs of old masters for me.

 

 

From the French:

§21

Aussi, ma grand’tante en usait-elle cavalièrement avec lui. Comme elle croyait qu’il devait être flatté par nos invitations, elle trouvait tout naturel qu’il ne vînt pas nous voir l’été sans avoir à la main un panier de pêches ou de framboises de son jardin et que de chacun de ses voyages d’Italie il m’eût rapporté des photographies de chefs-d’œuvre.

 

 

 

Proust, Marcel. Du côté de chez swann. À la recherche du temps perdu. Tome I.
Available online at:
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/proust/marcel/p96d/index.html

 

Proust, Marcel. Swan’s Way. Vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past. Transl. C.K. Scott Moncrieff.
Available online at:
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/proust/marcel/p96s/index.html

 

 

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