Cities of the Plain - post VIII

The fourth volume finally ends in a rush of emotion and resolutions are made that could change things forever for Marcel. A great cliffhanger to take it onto Volume V.

Bullet points from pages 1110 - 1169

* The social scene of the area starts to bore Marcel and he struggles to keep interested in the comings and goings of the group as it all starts to become over familiar

* He tells his mother that he is going to break things off with Albertine because he has decided that he does not want to marry her and sets out to do just that but in a conversation there is a revelation that really disturbs him

* Albertine tells him that she knows well the lesbian daughter of the composer who wrote the music that both Marcel and Swann like and after that he has visions of Albertine with other women and sets out on a policy to isolate her from all women who might lead her astray

* The volume ends with him telling his mother that he has made a mistake and actually he wants to marry Albertine - but the reader knows that the motivation is mixed and not just out of love

I will post a full review in the next couple of days and start Volume V next week after a Proust break with some memoir style reading that will start tomorrow...