Reading Group on Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust

This reading group is dedicated to Marcel Proust’s Sodom and Gomorrah, the fourth volume of his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time.

Our Narrator inadvertently learns of Baron Charlus’ homosexuality after witnessing an argument between Charlus and Jupien his tailor (and lover)- through this altercation, his eyes are opened to the sexual undercurrents of aristocratic Parisian society, with both Narrator and reader becoming voyeurs to this secret world. Simultaneously, Albertine, whom the Narrator believes himself to be in love with, reappears in his life; whilst he continues to grieve the loss of his beloved grandmother.

The last volume of In Search of Lost Time to be published during Proust’s lifetime, the fourth instalment heralds a departure from the bucolic charms of Combray into a more mature world of sexual desire and sexual jealousy.

You can find information on the book in English on the British publisher’s website.