"Ah, now! There's a happy man, if you like, that Jupien," said Francoise, who had a tendency to minimise or exaggerate people's generosity according as it was bestowed on herself or on others. Not that, in this instance, she had any need to exaggerate, nor for that matter did she feel any jealousy, being genuinely fond of Jupien. "Oh, he's such a good man, the Baron," she went on, "such a nice, religious, proper sort of man. If I had a daughter to marry and was one of the rich myself, I'd give her to the Baron with my eyes shut." "But, Francoise," my mother observed gently, "she'd be well supplied with husband, that daughter of yours. Don't forget you've already promised her to Jupien." "Ah! Lordy, now," replied Francoise, "there's another of them that would make a woman happy. It doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, it makes no difference to your nature. The Baron and Jupien, they're just the same sort of person."
Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain, p. 654
This is one of those sections where you can't decide whether Proust is just trying to be funny or simply ironic. Two women are discussing whether M. de Charlus or Jupien would make a better match. Either Proust is proposing that the women are just terribly out of it or they're being terribly clever. Certainly, the Baron and Jupien are just the same sort of person. However, the other way to think of about it is that it speaks to a very different concept of what made a successful marriage. As we've discussed, the idea of marrying for love is a pretty recent concept, and in some parts of the world it still rare. In the end, what did it matter what M. de Charlus or Jupien thought in the true selves at 3:00 in the morning or what they did with their spare time?
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