The Guermantes Way - post IV

Despite it being a press day on the magazine I work for, meaning that it was hard work from morning till the close of business, I was determined to raise my reading above 60 pages, otherwise I will never get through this Volume in time to start the next one on Monday.

Bullet points between pages 187 - 267

* Marcel goes straight from the theatre to Madame de Villeparisis where he comes across a number of women who for various reasons have been limited to the fringes of society

* Madame de Guermantes arrives and starts to display her particular brand of social mixing, which is to appear sometimes to be almost above those people she has deigned to visit

* For a long time he has wanted to be part of the circle that Madame de Guermantes socialises with and now he gets a chance to mix with some of them and finds his friend Bloch already in that world and Legrandin trying desperately to break into it

* As well as the theme of reoccurring meetings there are also moments when people say something that is meant for someone else but is overheard and confusion reigns and often humour, for the reader at least, is the outcome

* There is an interesting moment when Madame de Villeparisis admits that M. de Norpois, her lover, is in the library but as he enters the room he pretends to have come just off the street and grabs any hat he can get and walks awkwardly into the room to discuss the Dreyfus case with Bloch

* The old diplomat avoids getting involved with a debate about the guilt of Dreyfus instead using his political skill to sidestep any pinning down of his own opinions

* Saint-Loup turns up and then for the first time Madame de Guermantes finally talks to Marcel but then things get bogged down in diplomatic discussions and he loses the chance for intimate conversation

More progress tomorrow…