Cities of the Plain - post I

I am attending a work event tonight and all tomorrow during the day so I am going to post up a shortened number of bullet points to the fourth volume of Remembrance of Things Past.

The page numbers might seem a bit odd but I am reading the Chatto & Windus version which is split into three volumes and puts two books in this volume.

Bullet points between pages 623 – 670

* At the end of the third Vol. Marcel was waiting on the stairs to see if the Duchess de Guermantes would return when he saw something happen which he now discloses – with M. de Charlus and Jupien the tailor who is a friend of Francoise having a homosexual encounter

* There follows a whole treatise on how some men can look like women and how homosexuality is an activity that those that partake can see signs and codes to make sure they know that they are talking with someone like minded

You have to remember of course that Proust was homosexual so it is an interesting take he has distancing the narrator

* Suddenly the situation with M. de Charlus becomes clear and maybe there was a lucky escape that he didn’t accept all of the proposals to get close to him

* Part One ends and Part two starts with Marcel finally going to the Princess de Guermantes social evening where he was convinced that his invite had been a joke. It turns out to be alright and he gets set for an evening in yet more refined company

Hoping to read a fair bit tonight in a child-free hotel room so hopefully the posting tomorrow will be fuller…