From “Sainte-Beuve and Balzac”:
Besides, I must point out that Balzac [ . . . ] conferred privileges on dukes that Saint-Simon, for all his high opinion of dukedoms, would have been quite dumbfounded to see bestowed on them. “The Duke gave Mme. Camusot one of those swift glances by which the lords of the land can analyse a whole lifetime, and often a soul itself. Oh, if the judge’s wife could have known about this ducal gift!” If the dukes of Balzac’s day indeed possessed this gift, it must be admitted things have, as one says, somehow changed.
Proust on Art and Literature, 174–5.
If you’re sick of Proust, this blog will return to its regularly-scheduled disquisition on Rushdie in about a week.
