【Paintings in Proust】Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1891—92 (p.199)
雖然《追憶似水年華》七大冊沒有任何一冊或一個章節像是〈斯萬之路〉或〈蓋爾芒特家那邊〉那樣以德‧夏呂斯 (M. de Charlus) 為名,但這個角色的重要性以及塑造出來的人物個性早已成為文學典範。
與普魯斯特同時代的文壇前輩 Robert de Montesquiou 伯爵,在生前雖然一直不想對號入座 (普魯斯特本人亦未曾證實),但德‧夏呂斯這號人物影射的相似度確實讓他們難以駁斥。
直到小說最後,夏呂斯男爵中風了,印象最深的是以下這一段,彷彿「死亡」也成為一種競賽:
他以一種幾乎是凱旋而歸的冷酷無情,用微微結巴、帶有墳墓般沉悶回聲的千篇一律的聲音重複道:「漢尼拔·德·布雷奧代,死了!安東萬·德·穆西,死了!夏爾·斯萬,死了!阿達爾貝·德·蒙莫朗西,死了!博宗·德·塔列朗,死了!索斯泰納·德·杜多維爾,死了!」每一次,「死了」這個詞落到這些死人身上,猶如想把他們在墳墓裡埋得更深的掘墓人扔出的一鏟更加沉重的泥土。
(p.189 追憶似水年華 VII 重現的時光 聯經版 1992)
【TEXT】
I had no one else to turn to but M. de Charlus, who had withdrawn to a room downstairs which opened on to the garden. I had plenty of time (as he was pretending to be absorbed in a fictitious game of whist which enabled him to appear not to notice people) to admire the deliberate, artful simplicity of his evening coat which, by the merest trifles which only a tailor’s eye could have picked out, had the air of a ‘Harmony in Black and White’ by Whistler; black, white and red, rather, for M. de Charlus was wearing, suspended from a broad ribbon over his shirt-front, the cross, in white, black and red enamel, of a Knight of the religious Order of Malta. (Sodom and Gomorrah)
我只有求助於德·
(p.59 追憶似水年華 IV索多姆和戈摩爾 聯經版 1992)
下一則: 【Paintings in Proust】The Swing, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
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