The fifth volume ends on a knife-edge as Albertine walks out on him and despite telling himself he no longer cares for her he is crushed.
Bullet points between pages 362 - 422
* Having told her to leave of course Marcel relents and asks her to stay and they can see how it goes week by week and then he slips back into the relationship based at the house
* The difference is that of course having been told the things she told him after he returned from the Verdurin’s he is both free from some demons but looking for new ones and you sense there is a truce with his jealousy and distrust abated for the moment
* In a passage where Marcel discusses literature he goes into detail about Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy criticising them for repeating the same characters throughout their novels. Some of the criticism seems a bit harsh because most Russian literature depends on a certain amount of stereotype
* He realises that he cannot possess Albertine and as a result the fears and insecurities return and start to focus on her friendship with Andree but he admits that when he is not jealous he is bored
* Using the ruse of anonymous letters he starts to tackle her on all of his speculations over her lesbian affair but he always backs down and apologises in the face of her denials and show of temper
* An aeroplane in the sky becomes a metaphor for his lost freedom and he decides that it is time for him to pursue some of his own dreams
“Yes, I must go, the time has come. Now that Albertine no longer appeared to be angry with me, the possession of her no longer seemed to me a treasure in exchange for which one is prepared to sacrifice every other.”pg 420
She beats him to it and disappears bringing the curtain down on Volume V.
