Edison, Thomas Alva (1847-1931)

In Sodom and Gomorrah, Proust mistakenly attributes to Edison the invention of the telephone achieved by Alexander Graham Bell.

The advance of civilization enables people to display unsuspected qualities or fresh defects which make them dearer or more insupportable to their friends. Thus Bell's invention had enabled Françoise to acquire an additional defect, which was that of refusing, however urgent the occasion might be, to make use of the telephone.

Sodom and Gomorrah 4: 176

Les progrès de la civilisation permettent à chacun de manifester des qualités insoupçonnées ou de nouveaux vices qui les rendent plus chers ou plus insupportables à leurs amis. C'est ainsi que la découverte d'Edison avait permis à Françoise d'acquérir un défaut de plus, qui était de se refuser, quelque utilité, quelque urgence qu'il y eût, à se servir du téléphone.

Sodome et Gomorrhe 3: 128

Eiffel Tower

The most famous monument in Paris—perhaps in the world—played an important role in the defense of the capital during World War I. Here is Proust's description of Paris in 1916:

In this Paris, whose beauty in 1914 I had seen awaiting almost defenseless the threat of the approaching enemy, there was certainly, as there had been then, the ancient unalterable splendor of a moon cruelly and mysteriously serene, which poured down its useless beauty upon the still untouched buildings of the capital; but as in 1914, and more now than in 1914, there was also something else, there were lights from a different source, intermittent beams which, whether they came from the aeroplanes or from the searchlights of the Eiffel Tower, one knew to be directed by an intelligent will, by a friendly vigilance which gave one the same kind of emotion, inspired the same sort of gratitude and calm that I had felt in Saint-Loup's room at Doncières, in the cell of that military cloister where so many fervent and disciplined hearts were exercising themselves in readiness for the day when, without hesitation, in the midst of their youth, they would consummate their sacrifice.

Time Regained 6: 161-62

Dans ce Paris dont en 1914, j'avais vu la beauté presque sans défense attendre la menace de l'ennemi qui se rappochait, il y avait certes, maintenant comme alors, la splendeur antique inchangée d'une lune cruellement, mystérieusement sereine, qui versait aux monuments encore intacts l'inutile beauté de sa lumière, mais comme en 1914, et plus qu'en 1914, il y avait aussi autre chose, des lumières différentes, des feux intermittents que, soit de ces aéroplanes, soit de projecteurs de la tour Eiffel, on savait dirigés par une volonté intelligente, par une vigilance amie qui donnait ce même genre d'émotion, inspirait cette même sorte de reconnaissance et de calme que j'avais éprouvés dans la chambre de Saint-Loup, dans la cellule de ce cloître militaire où s'exerçaient, avant qu'ils consommassent, un jour, sans une hésitation, en pleine jeunesse, leur sacrifice, tant de cœurs fervents et disciplinés.

Le Temps retrouvé 4: 380

Proust often expressed his feelings and thoughts in letters to friends as well as through the character of the Narrator. In such cases, it is sometimes difficult to determine which came first: the lived experience or its fictional rendering. In March 1915, Proust described, in a letter to Louis de Robert, his fears for Paris when the Germans were advancing toward the city in September 1914:

...two or three days before the victory of the Marne, when the siege of Paris seemed imminent, I got up one evening and went out into a clear, resplendent, reproving, serene, ironic and maternal moonlight, and seeing the immense city which I never knew I loved so much waiting in its futile beauty for the onslaught that nothing seemed capable of preventing, I couldn't refrain from sobbing.

...deux ou trois jours avant la victoire de la Marne, quand on croyait le siège de Paris imminent, je me suis levé un soir, je suis sorti, par un clair de lune lucide, éclatant, réprobateur, serein, ironique et maternal, et en voyant cet immense Paris que je ne savais pas tant aimer, attendant dans son inutile beauté, la ruée que rien ne semblait plus pouvoir empêcher, je n'ai pu m'empêcher de sangloter.

Correspondance 14: 71

See more on the Eiffel Tower in Proust and Dogs.

Egotism

See Quotable Proust: E.