And finally, one evening, in a corner of the big ballroom that was not even dark, on a sofa, they made no more attempt to conceal what they were doing than if they had been in bed. Two officers, who happened to be nearby with their wives, complained to the manager. It was thought for a moment that their protest would be effective. But they suffered from the disadvantage that, having come over for the evening from Nettehome, where they lived, they could not be of any use to the manager. Whereas, without her even knowing it, and whatever remarks the manager might mkae to her, there hovered over Mlle Bloch the protection of M. Nissim Bernard. I must explain why. M. Nissim Bernard practiced the family virtues in the highest degree. Every year he rented a magnificent villa at Balbec for his nephew, and no invitation would have dissuaded him from going home to dine at his own table, which was really theirs. But he never lunched at home. Every day at noon he was at the Grand Hotel. The fact of the matter was that he was keeping, as other men keep a dance from the corps de ballet, a fledgling waiter of much the same type as to pages of whom we have spoken, and who made us think of the young Israelites in Esther and Athalie. It is true that the forty years' difference in age between M. Nissim Bernard and the young waiter ought to have preserved the latter from a contact that could scarcely have been agreeable. But, as Racine so wisely observes in those same choruses:
Great God, with what uncertain tread
A budding virtue 'mid such perils goes!
What stumbling-blocks do lie before a soul
That weeks Thee and would fain be innocent.
For all that the young waiter had been brought up "remote from the world" in the Temple-Caravanserai of Baltec, he had not followed the advice of Joad:
In riches and in gold put not thy trust.
He had perhaps justified him by saying: "The Wicked cover the earth." However that might be, and albeit M. Nissim Bernard had not expected so rapid a conquest, on the very first day,
Were't in alarm, or anxious to caress,
He felt those childish arms about him thrown.
And by the second day, M. Nissim Bernard having taken the young waiter out,
The dire assault his innocence destroyed.
From that moment the boy's life was altered . . .
Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain, pp. 871-872
I suppose if you name one of the books of your novel Cities of the Plain it should not be particularly surprising that so much of the story revolves around homosexuality, and here is another episode. It picks up where we left off yesterday, with the fleshing out, no pun intended, of the affair between Mlle Bloch and the retired actress which had caused such a scandal. The women had been unable to keep their hands off each other in the ballroom, which Proust, rather cavalierly, had attributed to a desire to scandalize, or at least for attention. From there we delve into the love life of M. Nissim Bernard and his fascination with a young waiter, with the result that the "dire assault his innocence destroyed." We'll talk more about M. Nissim Bernard tomorrow. At this point the thing that amazed me was Proust sprinkling in these references from other works into his story. It's not the desire to include passages alone that impresses me, because I am very guilty of that. Over the years I've had several different versions, most of them lost, of little versions of nothing but quotes from literature that grabbed me when I was reading. I always take extensive notes in all of my books, which is why I'm so averse to loaning them out (although I do all the time, witlessly) for fear that my annotated version won't find it's way home. Sometimes I harvest these notes and create little compilations, partially because I want to capture beauty and also, certainly, out of sheer vanity. So, does this mean that Proust is that big of a nerd? Well, on one level, yes, as all scholars are, even pseudo-scholars such as myself. The thing about this particular example is that I'm assuming that Proust is not carrying around his personal library every place he goes, and he's not doing a quick Google search on his smart phone, which means this is doubtless another example of his extraordinary memory. All of these literary and cultural worlds were perpetually floating around his mind.
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