Albumleaf 190: May 18, 2022 (Bologna) For I felt myself to be alone; things had become alien to me; I no longer had calm enough to break out of my throbbing heart and introduce into them a measure of stability. The town before me had ceased to be Venice . . . I could no […]

Albumleaf 188: February 2, 2022 (Bologna) There are people whose faces assume an unaccustomed beauty and majesty the moment they cease to look out of their eyes. I would run my eyes over [Albertine], stretched out below me. From time to time a slight, unaccountable tremor ran through her, as the leaves of a tree […]

“The Baron Laughs and Françoise Starts Again” Albumleaf 186: December 3, 2021 (Bologna) M. de Charlus, with a tolerant, genial, insolent smile, replied: “Why, that’s not of the slightest importance, here!” And he gave a little laugh that was all his own–a laugh that came down to him probably from some Bavarian or Lorraine grandmother, […]

Albumleaf 183: August 20, 2021 (Bologna) I heard the tick of Saint-Loup’s watch, which could not be far away. The tick changed place every moment, for I could not see the watch; it seemed to come from behind, from in front of me, from my right, from my left; sometimes to die away as though […]