À L'ombre De Vautrin: Proust Et Balzac by Mariolina Bongiovanni-Bertini

Abstract

Reviewed by: À L'ombre De Vautrin: Proust Et Balzac by Mariolina Bongiovanni-Bertini Hollie Harder Bongiovanni-Bertini, Mariolina. À l'ombre de Vautrin: Proust et Balzac. Garnier, 2019. ISBN 978-2-406-08382-5. Pp. 209. Although Balzac's manner of depicting characters and illustrating social codes in La comédie humaine has often been compared to that of Proust in À la recherche du temps perdu, Bongiovanni-Bertini expands and enriches this critical tradition in her superb analysis of the Balzacian narrative techniques adopted by Proust to express some of his most profound ideas about literature and human nature. Her careful examination of Balzac's presence in Proust's opus, beginning with Jean Santeuil, under-scores shared elements in the novelists' works, such as textual heterogeneity (where commentaries on morality, politics, and philosophy regularly interrupt conventional storylines), encyclopedic explanations, melodramatic plot twists, linguistic diversity, and the novelty of characters who, transformed by time, reappear over the course of a number of volumes. But the central focus of this comparative study is the notion of déchiffrement, a writing strategy that appears chez Proust, for example, as early as 1903 in a Figaro article where he suggests that an architectural detail of the hôtel of a Parisian salonnière reveals an unsuspected trait of her personality. According to Bongiovanni-Bertini, Proust draws his inspiration for this literary technique largely from Balzac's "Les secrets de la princesse de Cadignan" and the multifarious personnage, Vautrin. In the short story, a veritable "texte-charnière" (47) for Proust, Diane de Cadignan tells complex lies to hide from her lover, Daniel d'Arthez, certain indiscretions in her past, a situation that foreshadows those of Albertine, Odette, and Morel in the Recherche. Like the princess's amoureux, Swann and Charlus are intent on interpreting the inscrutable signs of their loved ones. Unlike d'Arthez, however, the characters in Proust's novel ultimately fail in their attempts to decipher the other. Integral to the act of déchiffrement for both writers are the role of imagination in the experience of love and the impact of suffering on those who fear that at any moment, embarrassing details of their lives may emerge. From Proust's perspective, Vautrin's unique skill in [End Page 213] concealing a multitude of identities and secrets enables him to function as "le déchiffreur de 'l'envers de l'histoire contemporaine'" and represent "la 'vérité selon Balzac'" (118), the same sort of clandestine truth that Charlus elucidates in the world of the Recherche. The baron's gift for deciphering words, gestures, sounds, and images—the legacy of his literary forefather, Vautrin—makes Charlus not only "le plus balzacien des personnages de Proust" (165) but also the "porte-parole de la lecture proustienne de Balzac" (188). In a critical work of such high quality, it is surprising to find a gender error in the title of the first chapter. Nonetheless, this impressive study greatly enhances our understanding and appreciation of Balzac's substantial influence on the forme and fond of the Recherche. Hollie Harder Brandeis University (MA) Copyright © 2020 American Association of Teachers of French