Proust in 1913 (9)

Listen to audio

After the Catholic side of "Combray", it's time to examine its Jewish side. But first, we must return to^Mme Gaston de Caillavet's account of the "First Communion" she had read in the novel. The misunderstanding is probably about the little madeleine, the story of a mysterious, mystical experience, provoked by a flavor, reminiscent of the restless quest for the sacrament of the Eucharist. The mystery of the madeleine brings it closer to the host. The little madeleine that Alberto Beretta Anguissola calls "a little domestic eucharist" is to be compared with the blessed bread mentioned in the previous session.

The second clarification concerns the words: "(because that day I didn't go out before mass)"(RTP, I, 46). The manuscript partially explains the oddity of this "because". In the earliest versions found on a loose leaf, in Cahiers 8 and 25 of autumn 1909, and in the second typescript and the placards, the scene, whether of the cookie, the rusk or the madeleine, took place "every morning". This diversion was therefore introduced very late, when the placards were corrected: the scene no longer takes place every day of the week, but only on Sundays. And we know that the beginning of "Combray" relates the day on Sunday. The change makes the madeleine exceptional. Other corrections to the proofs allude to this visit now taking place only on Sunday mornings. The trace of the change remains in this disconcerting "because".

Third short apostille: why does Proust write "pain bénit" and "brioche bénie" (without t)? Because he follows the usage of the late ^19th century. But he sometimes writes "brioche bénite" in the preface to Ruskin's Sesame and the Lilies .

On the Jewish side of "Combray", a passage has already been quoted: "My grandfather, it is true, claimed that whenever I made friends with one of my comrades more than with the others, and brought him to our house, it was always a Jew, which would not have displeased him in principle - even his friend Swann was of Jewish origin - if he had not found that it was not usually among the best that I chose him"(RTP, I, 90). This strange "même" is in fact the result of a misreading by the typographer, adapted by Proust who never goes back to the manuscript.

The following passage refers to the anti-Semitic humming of the grandfather, who guesses at the Jewish origin of the hero's comrades(RTP, I, 90-91). We'll come back to this "Ti la lam ta lam, talim", which sounds more like psalmody than humming. The narrator shows great indulgence here for this ridiculous and annoying habit of the grandfather who flushes out the Jews. In the draft, it was aimed not at Bloch, but at Swann. The latter's Jewish identity is therefore only given in parenthesis. The clues are absent until then.

Not so in the drafts of "Combray". In the 1909 Cahiers Sainte-Beuve, Swann's Jewish identity is indicated as early as the bedtime drama. At this point, we note the presence of the brother ("every time we brought home a new comrade from school"). As for the name Dumont, which some commentators have interpreted as an ironic variant of Drumont, it is also reminiscent of a translation of a German Berg. The grandfather's familiarity is much more developed, giving rise to jokes about his good-natured anti-Semitism. Here, Proust recalls the theories of Franco-Judaism of the late ^19th century.

Swann was therefore much more Jewish, with his pride in Jewish identity, bringing all the Christian virtues from the morality of the prophets, whereas the grandfather was much more anti-Semitic. In Cahier 8, where Proust sets up this stay in Combray, we find the same frank affirmation. It is at this point that "M. Swann" becomes "Swann". The theme of ritual murder recurs frequently in these early drafts. This is obviously a transposition of Proust's maternal family, whose grandfather was a stockbroker's partner, like Swann's father.

Speaker(s)

Antoine Compagnon

Events

Proust in 1913 (1)

Proust in 1913 (2)

Proust's future

Proust in 1913 (3)

Marcel Proust's time is the time of geologists

Proust in 1913 (4)

A young filmmaker reads Proust

Proust in 1913 (5)

Marcel Proust was waiting for me outside the factory

Proust in 1913 (6)

A Proustian itinerary between history and politics

Proust in 1913 (7)

Proust, Françoise and me

Proust in 1913 (8)

The Proustian " je

Proust in 1913 (9)

Tom Proust, biography

Proust in 1913 (10)

The stranger from out of town

Proust in 1913 (11)

Proust in 1913 (12)

Proust in 1913 (13)

Composition in Proust

Proust in 1913 (14)

Proustian intelligence and the mathematical imagination

See also