Proust's duchess : how three celebrated women captured the imagination of fin-de-siècle Paris
by Weber, Caroline, 1969- (Author)
Summary
"A brilliant look at the glittering, decadent world of turn-of-the-century Paris through the first in-depth study of the three women who inspired the character of the Duchesse de Guermantes, the epitome of high-born glamour, in Marcel Proust's great novel, In Search of Lost Time. Geneviève Halévy... Full description
- Overture: Like a swan
- Rara avis (June 2, 1885)
- Leitmotif: pretty birds
- My Don Giovanni, my Faust
- The kingdom of shadows
- Habanera: oiseaux rebelles
- Bohemia's child
- The fall and the rise
- Good for the goose
- Improvisation: trills and feathers
- The art of being seen
- Bagatelle: birdsong
- Prince Charming
- Paris high and low
- A modern-day Aramis
- Chorale: lovebirds
- The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
- Lame ducks
- Variations: caged birds
- Kisses never given
- Fodder for sonnets
- Birds of paradise
- The picture of Mme Bizet
- Cadenza: painters, writers, parrots, prophets
- Elegance for beginners
- Our heart
- Pavane: pair-bonding
- In which Proust is disappointed
- Lament: oiseaux tristes
- Dead love, still undying
- The replacements
- Goddesses and monsters
- So long as the gesture is beautiful
- Sovereigns of transitory things (May 30, 1894)
- Rondo: the real king of birds, or Vive le roitelet
- Coda: Swan song.