From: m.driussi@genie.com
Subject: (urth) The lady in pink
Date: Tue, 26 May 98 05:13:00 GMT

Robert Borski,

You =better= write something!

To help you in that direction, I'd like to be the first to remind you
that the mysterious, maybe-prostitute "lady in pink" is a =very=
Proustian detail that I didn't notice before (guess I should re-read
5HC soon).

In Proust's work (REMEMBERANCE OF THINGS PAST, aka IN SEARCH OF LOST
TIME), the "lady in pink" is connected with Marcel's Uncle Adolphe.
On a surprise visit to his uncle, young Marcel blunders into their
still-decorous meeting and is invited to stay and chat a while--they
move into uncle's study (SWANN'S WAY, ch. "Combray," starting from p.
81 in my edition).

Marcel later figures out that she is none other than Odette (a very
major character--she tortures Swan with jealousy and then he marries
her; their daughter Gilberte is "the little red-haired girl" much
beloved by Marcel [pre-Albertine] before she [Gilberte] was wooed by
Charlie Brown of "Peanuts"--er, Robert Saint-Loup [Marcel's best
friend]).

=mantis=

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