PROUST’S CONCEPTION OF NATURE
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cacher, au delà de ce que je voyais, quelque chose qu’ils invitaient à venir
prendre et que malgré mes efforts je n’arrivais pas à découvrir.”14 Proust
considers nature as a mere extension of his “moi-successifs,” hence the
metamorphosis of flowers into young girls, which after all represent but a
moment in the flux of his being. As he stresses the subjective quality of love,
he emphasizes it in nature, which exists merely because he is there to give
it life and meaning. He transforms it and raises it to the level of art. He
no longer needs to travel widely in order to give the nature in his work
that grandiose, exotic aspect, for each corner of the countryside around
Combray and Balbec will change with the modifications that will take
place within the narrator. Interior seasons matter more than exterior sea-
sons. Nature has become the creation of the artist and not that of God,
as it had been for the Romantics.
Because of his conception of nature, Proust is able to view mankind in
metaphors drawn from botany. Hence the striking title of the section: “A
Γombre des jeunes filles en fleurs.” Curtius describes this title with the ex-
pression “human flora.”15 He goes on to say that the identification of human
beings with botanical terms neutralizes them morally and aesthetically, for
the true plant life is pure and beyond good and evil. Curtius even suggests
that one could divide all French authors into two categories according to
their concepts of society either as fauna or as flora. Proust conceives of
society in botanical terms; he sees it as a living, changing organism and
puts the accent on the earth and its plants, not only on freely growing
flowers and trees, but also on the luxurious hot-house plants: chrysanthe-
mums, catleyas, orchids — flowers which suggest the refinement of French
taste, the luxurious articles produced by French industry catering to the
connoisseur. Swann, for example, sends the Princesse de Parme a basket
of carefully chosen fruits which a cousin of Marcel’s mother selects, not
from one shop, but from different shops each specializing in one particular
fruit. This emphasis on the products of the French soil suggests France’s
close ties to the nourishing earth which adds to Proust's writing additional
historical validity.
Marcel’s last important encounter with nature occurs during a carriage
ride in Balbec and is announced by a profound feeling of joy. This is the
joy connected with Combray, the same joy felt upon discovering the pink
hawthorn. Now a young man, he is literally enchanted by three trees which
seem to remind him that he owes them a service. They beckon him and beg
him to come to their aid. “Je regardais les trois arbres, je les voyais bien,
mais mon esprit sentait qu’ils recouvraient quelque chose sur quoi il n’avait
pas prise, comme sur ces objets placés trop loin dont nos doigts, allongés
au bout de notre bras tendu, effleurent seulement par instant l’enveloppe
sans arriver à rien saisir.”15 This scene contains a double movement: that