In Search of Lost Time · Chapter
IV explained
The narrator's jealousy is confirmed when he learns that Albertine is intimately connected with Mlle.
What happens
The narrator's jealousy is confirmed when he learns that Albertine is intimately connected with Mlle. Vinteuil and her friend, revealing her as a practicing Sapphist. This discovery shatters his world, plunging him into a new realm of suffering and forcing him to confront the truth he had long dreaded. He persuades Albertine to stay at Balbec, but their relationship is now poisoned by suspicion and the weight of this revelation.
Themes in this chapter
Desire and Illusion
The narrator's idealized image of Albertine shatters as the truth of her desires is revealed, illustrating the painful gap between illusion and reality.
Suffering and Transformation
The narrator's discovery plunges him into a new phase of suffering, which he paradoxically finds almost joyful as it brings a 'great discovery' and forces a transformation in his understanding.
Sexuality and Secrecy
Albertine's hidden Sapphic relationships are exposed, linking to the theme of concealed sexuality and its devastating impact on the narrator.
Characters to notice
- Marcel
The narrator experiences a devastating revelation about Albertine's sexuality, leading to intense jealousy and suffering.
- Albertine Simonet
Albertine is revealed to be a friend of Mlle. Vinteuil and her companion, confirming the narrator's suspicions about her Sapphic tendencies.
- Andrée
Andrée is mentioned as a possible object of Albertine's affections, contributing to the narrator's unease.
- Vinteuil
Vinteuil's daughter and her friend are central to the revelation about Albertine's past, linking back to the narrator's memory of Montjouvain.
- Doctor Cottard
Cottard's earlier words about Albertine are confirmed by the narrator's discovery.
- Marquis de Cambremer
Cambremer tries to persuade the narrator to stay at Balbec, unaware of the emotional turmoil driving his departure.
Key passages
“And yet this deluge of reality that engulfs us, if it is enormous compared with our timid and microscopic suppositions, was anticipated by them.”
The overwhelming truth, though far greater than our small guesses, was hinted at by them.
The narrator reflects on how his vague suspicions prepared him for the shocking reality.
“Albertine the friend of Mlle. Vinteuil and of her friend, a practising and professional Sapphist, was, compared to what I had imagined when I doubted her most, as are, compared to the little acousticon of the 1889 Exhibition with which one barely hoped to be able to transmit sound from end to end of a house, the telephones that soar over streets, cities, fields, seas, uniting one country to another.”
Albertine's true nature as a Sapphist far exceeded my worst suspicions, like the leap from a primitive telephone to a global network.
The narrator uses a technological metaphor to express the magnitude of his discovery.