Adrien Proust, Dr. (1834-1903)

The following passage is thought to be a tribute to Proust's father, one of France's most distinguished physicians and scientists, who died a few years before Proust began writing In Search of Lost Time:

Imagine a room in which a man has died, a man who has rendered great services to his country; the undertaker's men are getting ready to take the coffin downstairs and the dead man's son is holding out his hand to the last friends who are filing past it; suddenly the silence is broken by a flourish of trumpets beneath the windows and he feels outraged, thinking that this must be some plot to mock and insult his grief; but presently this man who until this moment has mastered his emotions dissolves into tears, for he realizes that what he hears is the band of a regiment which has come to share in his mourning and to pay honor to his father's corpse.

Time Regained 6: 281-82

Tandis que dans la chambre mortuaire les employés des pompes funèbres se préparent à descendre la bière, le fils d'un homme qui a rendu des services à la patrie serre la main aux derniers amis qui défilent, si tout à coup retentit sous les fenêtres une fanfare, il se révolte, croyant à quelque moquerie dont on insulte son chagrin. Mais lui, qui est resté maître de soi jusque-là, ne peut plus retenir ses larmes; car il vient de comprendre que ce qu'il entend c'est la musique d'un régiment qui s'associe à son deuil et rend honneur à la dépouille de son père.

Le Temps retrouvé 4: 462

Americans

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 halted publication of Proust's novel. He continued to write and incorporated the war years into his novel. The United States did not enter the war until 1917. Here is a comment on the role of the United States in the war and the eagerness of wealthy Americans to purchase French art and ship it to America. Charlus is speaking:

"I do not wish to speak ill of the Americans. Monsieur," he went on, "it seems that they are inexhaustibly generous, and as there has been nobody to conduct the orchestra in this war, as each performer has joined in a long time after the one before and the Americans only began when we had almost finished, they may possibly have an ardor which in us four years of war have succeeded in damping. Even before the war they were fond of our country and our art, they paid high prices for our masterpieces. They have taken many home with them. But this uprooted art, as M. Barrès would call it, is precisely the opposite of what once formed the delicious charm of France. The château explained the church, which itself, because it had been a place of pilgrimage, explained the chanson de geste.

Time Regained 6: 153

«Je ne veux pas dire de mal des Américains, monsieur, continua-t-il, il paraît qu'ils sont inépuisablement généreux et comme il n'y a pas eu de chef d'orchestre dans cette guerre, que chacun est entré dans la danse longtemps après l'autre, et que les Américains ont commencé quand nous étions quasiment finis, ils peuvent avoir une ardeur que quatre ans de guerre ont pu calmer chez nous. Même avant la guerre, ils aimaient notre pays, notre art, ils payaient fort cher nos chefs-d'œuvre. Beaucoup sont chez eux maintenant. Mais précisément cet art déraciné, comme dirait M. Barrès, est tout le contraire de ce qui faisait l'agrément délicieux de la France. Le château expliquait l'église, qui elle-même, parce qu'elle avait été un lieu de pèlerinages, expliquait la chanson de geste.

Le Temps retrouvé 4: 373-74

See Edison

See Uncle Sam

See United States