Proust Marcel – The Prisoner – In Search of Lost Time 5: “Albertine has settled in the narrator’s apartment. The life of the two young people is gradually organized alongside the faithful Françoise. For some time, the narrator has suspected Albertine of being attracted to women. Maladement jealous, he institutes with her a surveillance of every moment, in the fear that she gives appointments to women. He is well aware that Albertine may sometimes feel like her prisoner. The young man goes back to the Verdurins where he finds the members of the little clan with pleasure. With time, his relations with Albertine go through ups and downs. Her love for her feeds a jealousy that makes him unhappy, especially when she seems to escape him and he feels her as foreign. Between them, disputes are becoming more and more frequent and violent. It happens more and more often to Albertine to look tired and sad, as if she lived in a prison, and to show signs of impatience, while defending herself from being unhappy. One morning, Francoise suddenly enters the narrator’s room and announces that Albertine has asked for her trunks and left the apartment early in the morning. »(Proust, his characters)

Fifth volume of In Search of Lost Time, The Prisoner was published in 1923, one year after the death of the author.