The Guermantes Way is the third volume of In Search of Lost Time. The volume sets the stage for the story-proper to unfold, after the two preceding preparatory volumes. It is sort of a coming of the age tale where the narrator tells the story of his transformation from his childhood to the first bloom of his youth. Being of a impressionable age, his thoughts, feelings, and first impressions of love, sound quite naive. But as the story progresses, with the new acquaintances he makes (older than his age) his look of life gradually changes. These changes affect his character, and his thoughts become mature. At the same time, however, he becomes a changed man from his Combray and Balbec days to a clear-headed, ambitious, social climber. I don’t say this in a bad way. In fact, our narrator doesn’t do any unscrupulous or immoral thing on his part to get to know the high society, although that is what he desires. Still, however, with the help of the friendships he makes at Balbec, he manages to get introduced to highly respected exclusive salons in Parisian society.
The narrator takes us into the heart of Paris’s aristocratic society full of Dukes, Duchesses, Princes, Princesses, Comtes, Comtesses, Vicomtes, Barons, etc, giving us a first-hand account of the prejudices of the lot. It was truly amusing to read the narration of their pride of ancient lineage, the social etiquette, for example, who takes precedence over whom according to their title and royal blood, how some keep their salons exclusive to the highly privileged, and how the others try desperately to procure an invitation to enter them. The lot kept me entertained by their strict adherence to the long-held aristocratic conventions and hypocrisy.
However, I was very much put off by some of the prominent characters of the story, especially the Duc and Duchesse de Guermantes of whom the story mainly revolves around. I found the duo, the lady especially, snobbish. Although they make it quite a show to pretend that they don’t care one jot about their titles, it is in fact the very thing they do. And I found her “wit”, so much admired in the Parisian salons, vulgar. It was shocking to read the sort of “wit” that was admired in Paris Society at Proust’s time.
Another disturbing factor was the antisemitism of French society of the day. There is much talk about the Alfred Dreyfus case in this volume which divided society. Some were convinced of his guilt simply because he was a Jew; as if there is no doubt that, if he is a jew, he is capable of committing treason. Only a few believed in his innocence and advocated for a fair trial. We know that J’accuse, the famous open letter written to the President of the Third French Republic by Emile Zola cost him his liberty. Such strong open hostility displayed for the Jewish people was dreadful; the holocaust seems unsurprising given that the platform was slowly building.
My main attraction to this series is Proust’s dreamy writing. Those who have read my review of the preceding two volumes will bear witness. In The Guermantes Way, however, I didn’t feel the same beauty in his writing. It felt less poetic and more contrived. It may be because my expectations were set too high. This is not to say that his writing was com devoid of poetry. There were some beautifully written parts. Yet, many were affected, disturbing the overall dreamy quality. But I won’t judge him and very much looking forward to being invested in the next adventure.
Rating: 3/5
