List of Characters
This list is adapted from "A Guide to Proust" found in the Modern Library edition of Time Regained.
I acknowledge a debt to Terence Kilmartin, D.J. Enright, and the editors of that edition. Who's Who in Proust is another resource and includes a Guermantes family tree. Spoiler Warning: some of the descriptions below include details revealed late in novel.


  • G----: writer; visits Mme de Villeparisis, which he regards as "tiresome duty"; frequently invited to the Duchesse de Guermantes', whom he considers a "woman of intelligence"
  • Gallardon [gah’-yarh-donh], Marquise de, née Courvoisier: her favorite subject of meditation is her kinship with the Guermantes, "from which she derived both publicly and in private a good deal of glory not unmingled with shame, the most brilliant ornaments of that house remaining somewhat aloof from her"
  • Gallardon, Dowager Duchesse de: mother-in-law of the Princesse de Gallardon; confuses Aristotle with Aristophanes
  • Galopin: pastrycook at Combray; Françoise reports to Aunt Léonie that he as brought back a new dog from Lisieux
  • Gardener at Combray: aligns the garden path's too symmetrically according to the Narrator's grandmother; views revolution as better than war
  • Gardener at La Raspelièere: groans beneath the Verdurin's yoke and has mixed feelings about the Marquise de Cambremer
  • Gaucourt, Mme de: sister of M. de Cambremer; suffers from fits of breathlessness
  • Gibergue: friend of Saint-Loup at Doncières
  • Gilbert: see Guermantes, Prince de
  • Gilberte [zheel-bairte’]: daughter of Swann and Odette
  • Gineste, Marie: sister of Céleste Albaret; lady's-maid at Balbec; "more regularly rapid and staccato" than her sister
  • Girl (tall and handsome): admired by Narrator as she serves café au lait to passengers on the train to Balbec
  • Girl ("glorious"): joins the train at Saint-Pierre-des-Ifs and smokes a cigarette
  • Girl (with blue eyes): met by Swann in a brothel
  • Girl (blond): gazes at the Narrator in the restaurant at Rivebelle
  • Girl: as she gets into a motor-car in the Bois, her build reminds the Narrator of Albertine
  • Girl (little poor): taken home by the Narrator after Albertine's departure
  • Girl (little): repairing bicycle in the Bois
  • Girl (little): says good-bye to Gilberte on the Champs-Elysées, "evoking all the more forcefully the girl whom it labeled in that it did not merely refer to her, as one speaks of someone in his absence, but was directly addressed to her"
  • Girls (two): friends of Léa, whom Albertine stares at in the mirror in the Casino at Balbec
  • Girls (three): in the Bois, "like three immortals leaning against the clouds or the fabulous coursers upon which they perform their mythological journeys"
  • Girls at Balbec: members of "the little band"
  • Gisèle: member of the little band; in her rasping makes a remark "with more sarcasm than sympathy" when Andrée jumps over an old gentleman
  • Glass-Vendor (young Venetian): a "genuine Titian" with whom Narrator has a liaison
  • Goupil, Mme: her tardiness of Elevation a matter of speculation for Françoise and Aunt Léonie
  • Governess (Gilberte's): wears a blue feather in her hat
  • Grandfather of the Narrator (Amédée): a great friend of Swann's father
  • Grandmother of the Narrator (Bathilde or Mme Amédée)
  • Great-Aunt of the Narrator, cousin of the Narrator's grandfather and mother of Aunt Léonie; teases the Narrator's grandmother about the grandfather drinking brandy
  • Great-Grandfather of the Narrator: referred to contemptuously by Mme Verdurin for his stinginess
  • Great-Uncle of the Narrator: pulls on the Narrator's curls
  • Grigri: see Agrigente, Prince d'
  • Grouchy, M. de: arrives late to the Guermantes' dinner and offers the Duchesse de Guermantes a "six brace of pheasant"
  • Grouchy, Mme de: wife of the above; daughter of the Vicomtesse de Guermantes
  • Guastalla, Duc de: son of the Princesse de Parme; Charlus' cousin
  • Guastalla, Albert, Duc de: son of the Princesse d'Iéna; Charlus ridicules his title
  • Guermantes [gair’-mahnte], Basin, Duc de: Prince de Laumes before inheriting his dukedom on the death of his father, brother of Charlus and the Comtesse de Marsantes
  • Guermantes [gair’-mahnte], Oriane, Duchesse de: married to the above, her cousin; formerly Princesse de Laumes
  • Guermantes, Gilbert, Prince de: cousin of the Duc de Guermantes: obsessed with rank and birth; becomes persuaded of Dreyfus' innocence
  • Guermantes, Princesse Marie de, née Duchesse en Bavière, known as Marie-Gilbert or Marie-Hedwige: wife of the above, sister of the Duke of Bavaria; has a unrequited passion for Charlus
  • Guermantes, Baron de: friend of the Duc de Châtellerault; attends Mme de Villeparisis' salon
  • Guermantes-Brassac, Mlle de: niece of the Princesse de Guermantes; rumored to be engaged to Saint-Loup
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Mark Calkins © 2007
Page last updated: May 25, 2005