Le roman de Gilberte Swann

Long overshadowed by the psychological dimension of a work that seemed entirely dedicated to exploring the torments of the heart and the mind, Proust's "sense of the social" now appears with obviousness. It is at least easy to read the Research as a succession of show scenes in which, depending on the interactions of the characters, power struggles and prestige between castes and clans unfold. But does not this sharp description of the cross-hairs of a decaying nobility and of a cloistered bourgeoisie come down to a "fun sociology" of the Belle Epoque? And if one found, in this contemporary of the birth of a discipline with which he had yet little affinity, a thought of the original social, able to sharpen our own sociological view? Such is the bold and fertile track that Jacques Dubois invites us to follow here. The small Proustian world to which he introduces us is populated by cleaved, ambivalent figures, like Gilberte Swann, whose "alternative" character is emblematic of the competing legacies of which we are the bearers, to the point that some come to deny d moment to moment the previous versions of themselves. By distilling distilling with humor and finesse the paradoxical sociology that irrigates the great Proustian work, Jacques Dubois offers us a powerful rediscovery.--Translation of page 4 of cover by Seuil.