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.


  • Pages at the Grand Hotel, Balbec: the "arborescent" page, the "squinting" page, the "hat-doffing" page, and the "handsome" page whom the lift-boy resembles
  • Palancy, Marquis de: Swann finds he resembles a Ghirlandaio's Old Man with his Grandchild; "with his huge carp's head and goggling eyes [he] moved slowly through the festive gathering, periodically unclenching his mandibles as though in search of his orientation, [he] had the air of carrying about upon his person only an accidental and perhaps purely symbolical fragment of the glass wall of his aquarium, a part intended to suggest the whole, which recalled to Swann, a fervent admirer of Giotto's Vices and Virtues at Padua, that figure representing Injustice by whose side a leafy bough evokes the idea of the forests that enshroud his secret lair"
  • Park-Keeper in the Champs-Elysées
  • Parme, Princesse de: gives the most splendid parties in Paris; "devoid of snobbishness as are most truly royal personages and by contrast eaten up with pride in and passion for charity which rivaled her taste for what she believed to be the Arts"
  • Pastry-Cook: stared at by Albertine, whom she ignores
  • Percepied, Doctor: the Narrator composes his first literary essay in his carriage
  • Périgot, Joseph: Françoise's young footman in Paris who takes pleasure in moving house
  • Peruvian (young): conceives a violent hatred for Mme de Mortemart
  • Philosopher, Norwegian: guest of the Verdurins at La Raspelière
  • Pianist (young): patronized by the Verdurins (Dechambre?)
  • Pierre, M.: historian of the Fronde at the salon of Mme de Villeparisis
  • Pierre: club doorman who writes Charlus an intimate letter
  • Piperaud, Dr.: Combray doctor
  • Picquart, Georges-Marie, later General and Minister of War (1854-1914): one of the principal actors in the Dreyfus case; frequents Mme Verdurin's salon
  • Plassac, Walpurge, Marquise de: calls on her cousin the Duc de Guermantes, with her sister Mme de Tresmes, to report on Amanien d'Osmond's state of health; one of the women with the "walking-sticks"
  • Poictiers, Duchesse de: cousin of Saint-Loup, who recommends her to the Narrator as a substitute in his affections for the Duchess de Guermantes
  • Poiré, Abbé: Dreyfusist priest confided in by both the Prince and the Princesse de Guermantes
  • Poix, Princesse de: intimate friend of the Duchess de Guermantes
  • Pommelière, Marquise de la: nicknamed "la Pomme"
  • Poncin, M.: senior judge from Caen, on holiday at Balbec; becomes Commander of the Legion of Honour
  • Poncin, Mme: wife of the above; has misapprehensions about Mme de Villeparisis and the Princesse of Luxembourg
  • Portefin, Berthe, Duchesse de: helps Mme de Villeparisis with her theatricals
  • Poullein: Guermantes footman, prevented from going to see his fiancée
  • Poussin, Mme: lady from Combray on holiday at Balbec with her daughters, nicknamed "Just You Wait"
  • Publisher from Paris, visits La Raspelière; "not smart enough for the little clan"
  • Pupin, M., daughter of: schoolgirl at Combray
  • Putbus, Baroness: described by the Duchesse de Guermantes as "the dregs of society"; arrives in Venice on the day of the narrator's departure
  • Putbus, Maid of Baroness: said by Saint-Loup to be partial to women and frequent brothels; the Narrator desires her; Théodore's sister
Return to Top


Mark Calkins © 2007
Page last updated: May 25, 2005