Self-Portrait of Odette Swann

Self-portrait by Odette Swann 🙃🙂:

🖋️ “Oh no, I’m not clever,” said Odette, thinking it sounded rather nice. Deep down, I’m a gullible sort who believes everything she’s told and gets upset over nothing. (…) ‘No, really, I assure you,’ said Odette, ‘deep down I’m just a very easily shocked little bourgeois woman, full of prejudices, living in my own little world, and above all, very ignorant.’”

— Marcel Proust,
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, 1919 🌺
“Part One: Around Madame Swann”
Pléiade 1954 (ed. Clarac and Ferré), p. 604

Odette Swann holds her Thursday receptions, which in a way rival Madame Verdurin’s Wednesday gatherings. The narrator, who has ‘given up’ on Gilberte 👩🏻‍🦰, continues to frequent the Swanns’ home. There he meets Mrs Cottard, Mrs Bontemps (Albertine’s aunt, who is mentioned but will not appear until Balbec in the second part, ‘Place name: the country’), the Prince of Agrigente (introduced by Charles Swann), the writer Bergotte and, about once a month, Mrs Verdurin. 💐

#MarcelProust #OdetteSwann #OdettedeCrécy #LaDameenRose #GilberteSwann #proustagram