692
LOUIS AUCHINCLOSS
the,
c~remoni9usness,
the ignorance and the heartlessness of the
pu,c de GueI1l).an,t,es is contrasted with Saint-Simon's portrait ,of
,Louis XIV. Indeed, the Duc qccupies in the novel the same
position at the apex of society that the sun king does ill the
memoirs. Even Albertine loves talking to Marcel about Sai
I1
t–
Simon.,But the character, of course, who revels most in the many
volumes of the prolific duke is the Baron de Charlus. He is the
successor of those great gentlemen in the memoirs who associat,e
with their lackeys because no one else is good enough for them.
As
an expert in his own genealogy and as a zealous watcher of
;my usurped privilege, he excels Saint-Simon himself, for he
-claims precedence for the Guermantes over the House of France.
He brings the past into constant, immediate relation with him–
self ("There are portraits of my uncles, the King of Poland and
,the King of England, by Mignard") and amuses himself at
parties by creating a sort of tableau-vivant out of the memoirs.
We see him at Madame Verdurin's, refusing to rise from
his
ch~r
when his hostess comes over to speak to him, impersonating
,in ,
his
fancy the Marechal d'Uxelles who was so proud as to
~emain
seated, under a pretence of laziness, before the most
distinguished persons at court.
It
is a game which I suspect that
the author himself may have enjoyed playing at Robert de
Montesquiou's or at Comtesse Greffuhle's. And when, at the end
of
Le
Temps
Retrouve,
Marcel describes the great literary work
which he hopes he may be spared long enough to undertake,
,which is, of
cours~,
no other than the one which the reader is
:then completing, he feels it necessary to state that he has no
,intention of reproducing the memoirs of Saint-Simon.
, , Norjs it my intent to imply that he was. That he might
,have .done so, had
~e
chosen, is demonstrated by the brilliant
parody of Saint-Simon in
Pastiches et Melanges,
where he mixes
:c;:haracters from the court of Versailles with his own acquaint–
allces. I do maintain, however, that he dignified and ,excused
his
qWll
snobbishn~
by identifying it with the ,snobbishoess of Saint–
,
~im9n: an~'
by ,consciously adopting .the role of court historian
