Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Author:Marcel Proust [Marcel Proust]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Unknown, Classics, Family Life, Fiction
ISBN: 9780956774972
Google: Xn77ugAACAAJ
Publisher: Alexander Vassiliev
Published: 2012-04-30T22:00:00+00:00

your money that she’s really in love with,”

he would not have believed the

suggestion, nor would he have been

greatly distressed by the thought that

people supposed her to be attached to him,

that people felt them, to be united by any

ties so binding as those of snobbishness or

wealth. But even if he had accepted the

possibility, it might not have caused him

any suffering to discover that Odette’s

love for him was based on a foundation

more lasting than mere affection, or any

attractive qualities which she might have

found in him; on a sound, commercial

interest; an interest which would postpone

for ever the fatal day on which she might

be tempted to bring their relations to an

end. For the moment, while he lavished

presents upon her, and performed all

manner of services, he could rely on

advantages not contained in his person, or

in his intellect, could forego the endless,

killing effort to make himself attractive.

And this delight in being a lover, in living

by love alone, of the reality of which he

was inclined to be doubtful, the price

which, in the long run, he must pay for it,

as a dilettante in immaterial sensations,

enhanced its value in his eyes—as one

sees people who are doubtful whether the

sight of the sea and the sound of its waves

are really enjoyable, become convinced

that they are, as also of the rare quality

and absolute detachment of their own

taste, when they have agreed to pay

several pounds a day for a room in an

hotel, from which that sight and that sound

may be enjoyed.

One day, when reflections of this order

had brought him once again to the memory

of the time when some one had spoken to

him of Odette as of a ‘kept’ woman, and

when, once again, he had amused himself

with contrasting that strange

personification, the ‘kept’ woman—an

iridescent mixture of unknown and

demoniacal qualities, embroidered, as in

some fantasy of Gustave Moreau, with

poison-dripping flowers, interwoven with

precious jewels—with that Odette upon

whose face he had watched the passage of

the same expressions of pity for a sufferer,

resentment of an act of injustice, gratitude

for an act of kindness, which he had seen,

in earlier days, on his own mother’s face,

and on the faces of friends; that Odette,

whose conversation had so frequently

turned on the things that he himself knew

better than anyone, his collections, his

room, his old servant, his banker, who

kept all his title-deeds and bonds;—the

thought of the banker reminded him that he

must call on him shortly, to draw some

money. And indeed, if, during the current

month, he were to come less liberally to

the aid of Odette in her financial

difficulties than in the month before, when

he had given her five thousand francs, if

he refrained from offering her a diamond

necklace for which she longed, he would

be allowing her admiration for his

generosity to decline, that gratitude which

had made him so happy, and would even

be running the risk of her imagining that

his love for her (as she saw its visible

manifestations grow fewer) had itself

diminished. And then, suddenly, he asked

himself whether that was not precisely

what was implied by ‘keeping’ a woman

(as if, in fact, that idea of ‘keeping’ could

be derived from elements not at all

mysterious nor perverse, but belonging to

the intimate routine of

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