Well, the volume of Du Côté de Chez Swann still sits on my bedside table, but I have been making progress on it. With less than twenty pages left, I can state that I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's a fascinating book, and I don't mind pouring over it. I sometimes wake in the middle of the night and read it in accordance to the way Proust developed the story in the first few pages of Combray. Currently I'm going through the passages that cover the encounters with Gilbert when Swann has taken her to play with the protagonist. This occures after he has dragged his nanny up and down the Champs-Élysées looking for her. She has told the protagonist that she won't be able to play with him for a while, but if he shows up at the Jardin des Champs-Elysées, early the next day she may be able to be there. He is now fretting about her lack of expression of love for him and seemingly disregard for it while walking with the nanny through the streets on the way to the park. I would love to have a picture of children playing barres, the game that Gilberte and the protagonist played, but I have not found one. I've walked through the Jardin des Champs-Elysées a few times, too. Never did I notice such a game being played, either. We'll have to settle for a modern photo of the Tuilleries in the summer. All of the activity described by Proust there, though, occured in the winter.
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