The introduction to M. Brichot in the second part of Swann’s Way. In pulling the English I found that Moncrieff took greater than usual liberties here but I like his phrasing.
For he had the sort of curiosity and superstitious worship of life which, combined with a certain scepticism with regard to the object of their studies, earns for some intelligent men of whatever profession, doctors who do not believe in medicine, schoolmasters who do not believe in Latin exercises, the reputation of having broad, brilliant and indeed superior minds. He affected, when at Mme Verdurin’s, to choose his illustrations from among the most topical subjects of the day when he spoke of philosophy or history, principally because he regarded those sciences as no more than a preparation for life, and imagined that he was seeing put into practice by the “little clan” what hitherto he had known only from books, and perhaps also because, having had instilled into him as a boy, and having unconsciously preserved, a reverence for certain subjects, he thought that he was casting aside the scholar’s gown when he ventured to treat those subjects with a conversational licence which in fact seemed daring to him only because the folds of the gown still clung.
Car il avait cette curiosité, cette superstition de la vie qui, unie à un certain scepticisme relatif à l’objet de leurs études, donne dans n’importe quelle profession, à certains hommes intelligents, médecins qui ne croient pas à la médecine, professeurs de lycée qui ne croient pas au thème latin, la réputation d’esprits larges, brillants, et même supérieurs. Il affectait chez Mme Verdurin de chercher ses comparaisons dans ce qu’il y avait de plus actuel quand il parlait de philosophie et d’histoire, d’abord parce qu’il croyait qu’elles ne sont qu’une préparation à la vie et qu’il s’imaginait trouver en action dans le petit clan ce qu’il n’avait connu jusqu’ici que dans les livres, puis peut-être aussi parce que, s’étant vu inculquer autrefois, et ayant gardé à son insu, le respect de certains sujets, il croyait dépouiller l’universitaire en prenant avec eux des hardiesses qui, au contraire, ne lui paraissaient telles, que parce qu’il l’était resté.
Extracts 