Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Stephane Heuet has previously adapted into comics the fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson, the story of Noah's Ark, and the works of Balzac. He lives in Paris.

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The acclaimed adaptation continues. Swann is a frequent guest of the high society soirees at the end of the 19th century. When he first encounters Odette de Crecy, he feels no attraction to this frivolous and superficial young woman but time has it otherwise and soon, she becomes an obsession.

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Remembrance of Things Past

By Marcel Proust

Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing

Copyright © 2003 Marcel Proust
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781561632787

Acknowledgement

La Sociiti des Amis de Marcel Proust et des Amis de Combray - Institut Marcel Proust International, its President, Mr. Jean. Pierre Angremy, of the Acadimie frangaise, the President of the Bibltiothhque Nationale de France, and its Secretary General, my friend Anne Borrel, whose assistance and encouragement have been priceless, M. Jean-Pierre Samoyault, Conservateur giniral du Patrimoine, Administrateur giniral du Mobilier National et des manufactures des Gobelins, de Beauvais et de la Savonnerie, Mme. Michhle Pierron, librarian of the Musie de l'Armie,Mme. Marie-Claude de Maneville, of the Sociiti Nouvelle d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, Mme. Catherine Fajour, of Iditions Gallimard,Messrs. Girard Toupet and Guillaume Piens, of the Httel Scribe, first seat of the Jockey Club, Mme. Brigitte Guillamot, of the Sociiti Nanciienne Varin-Bernier, The mayor and residents of Illiers-Combray (Eure-et-Loir), and all the friends who helped me.

Chapter One

PART ONE COMBRAY For a long time, I would go to bed early. ... and when I would awaken in the middle of the night, since I was unaware of where I was, at first I did not even know who I was; ... but then the memory (not yet of the place where I was, but of some of those where I had lived and where I could have been) came to me like help from above to pull me away from the void ... ... My memory was set in motion ... ... I would spend the better part of the night remembering our past life at my great-aunt's in Combray, at Balbec, Paris. Dancihres, Venice, and elsewhere still ... At Combray everyday as the afternoon ended, long before the moment when I would have to go to bed and remain there, sleeplessly, far from my mother and grandmother, my bedroom would again become the painful, fixed point of my worries. In order to distract me on evenings when I seemed too unhappy someone had had the good idea to give me a magic lantern ...YOUR MOTHER TOLD METO SET UP THE MAGICLANTERN WHILE WAITINGFOR DINNER TIME.YOUR GREAT-AUNT'SCOMING UP.I'VE PREPARED THELEGEND OF GENEVIEVEDE BRABANTVERY WELL, FRANCOISETHIS EVENINGWE'RE HAVING BEEFCASSEROLE."... SO THE WICKED GOLO GAVE THEORDER TO HIS LACKEYS TO THROWTHE POOR GENEVIEVE INTHE DUNGEON ..." "... MOVED BY SUCH MISFORTUNE, THESWORDSMEN PRETENDED TO PUT HERTO DEATH AND LET HER FLEEINTO THE FOREST ...""... FOR MONTHS, POOR GENEVIEVEHID WITH HER CHILD IN THEDEPTHS OF THE FOREST ...""... FEARING THAT THE INFAMOUS GOLO WOULD FIND AND KILL HER ..."DINNER'SSERVED! After dinner, alas, I was soon obliged to leave Mama who would stay to chat with the others, in the garden if it were nice out, in the small parlor where everyone would retire if the weather were bad.AH, IT'SRAINING.FRANCOISE,SERVE THELIQUEURS INTHE PARLOR. Everyone, except my grandmother who, in all weather, even when the rain was pouring, would run up and down the soaked pathways.IT'S A SHAMETO STAY SHUTAWAY IN THECOUNTRY. YOUCAN FINALLYBREATHE! When these walks in the garden took place after dinner, only one thing had the power to draw her back inside: To tease her, since my grandfather was forbidden any liqueurs, my great-aunt would make him drink a few drops.GO AHEAD,AMADEE.BATHILDE! COME STOPYOUR HUSBAND FROMDRINKING ANY BRANDY! Alas! I was unaware that, far more than her husband's slight dietary slips, it was my own lack of will power, my delicate health, the uncertainty they cast on my future that sadly worried my grandmother during the course of those perambulations ... My sole consolation, when I would go upstairs to sleep, was that Mama would come up to kiss me once I was in my bed. But this goodnight lasted for so little time ... I got to where I hoped that it would came as late as possible, so the moment of respite when Mama had not yet come might be prolonged. But on the whole, those evenings when my Mama spent so little time in my room, were sweet indeed when compared to those when there were guests for dinner and when, because of that, she would not come up to say goodnight. Our company was usually limited to Monsieur Swann, who, besides a few passing strangers, was about the only person who ever came to our house, sometimes for a neighborly dinner (less often since his unfortunate marriage, for my parents did not wish to welcome his wife), sometimes after dinner, just dropping in ...A VISITOR?WHO COULDTHAT BE?DON'T WHISPER, NOTHING'S MOREUNPLEASANT FOR SOMEONE JUST ARRIVING.I RECOGNIZESWANN'S VOICE. Monsieur Swann, although much younger than he, was very attached to my grandfather, who had been one of the best friends of Swann's father ... For many years, however, especially before his marriage, the younger Swarm often came to see us at Combray, ... ... my great-aunt and my grandparents did not suspect that they were receiving one of the most elegant members of the Jockey Club, ... ... the particular friend of the Comte de Paris and the Prince of Wales, ... ... one of the most sought after men in the high society of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. If the conversation fell upon the princes of the House of France:... PEOPLETHATNEITHERYOU NOR IWILL EVERKNOW,AND WE'LL DOJUST FINEWITHOUT,WON'T WE? Thus, my great-aunt used to treat him in an off-hand manner ... handling this otherwise so refined being with a naove roughness of a child playing with a collector's antique with little more care than with a cheap toy. Our social personality is a creation of the thoughts of others. We fill out the physical appearance...