Time Regained - post II

The war is raging and having quite an impact on people as well as the country. Marcel is isolated because he is not in the army, has been ill and so is removed from the build-up to the war.

Bullet points from pages 743 - 800

* Marcel meets up with Saint-Loup who has lost touch with Morel, who is a deserter, and the war seems to have made him focus on issues of military strategy and as a result he seems to be more intelligent

* Gilberte returns to her home in Combray despite the fact it is on the front line and saves her home from the fate of many other homes in the area, which are destroyed by Germans and troops from the French side

* In a couple of paragraphs you discover that some of the Verdurin's closest circle have died with Cottard and M. Verdurin dying

* Marcel comes across M. de Charlus who is still exiled from the Verdurin salon and there is a passage where the contrasting fortunes of the old man and the woman who dislikes him are compared with the conclusion being that both are alike in many respects

More tomorrow...