From: Peter Stephenson <pws@ibmth.df.unipi.it>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: Belated Flowers
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 13:45:33 +0200

"Roy C. Lackey" wrote:
> On their way to
> the little river they "passed through a hawthorn hedge whose spotted white
> blossoms seemed from a distance to present an insurmountable barrier..." All
> the sources I've seen list the hawthorn meaning as "hope". What do you make
> of that?

Aha, that sounds to me distinctly Proustian.  It may agree with the time
themes present in that particular episode (starting at the begining of the
chapter with the comparison with the Atrium of Time).  Proust has a long
description of a hawthorn hedge in one of the earlier books --- I think it
may even be along the way to Swann's place as mentioned in the title of
book one.  My Proust's a long way away, however, and I can't rememeber the
detailed theme of his description.  May someone can do us a favour?
(Anyone for a `soomarising Prowst' competition?  Come to think of it, I've
got the original French with me somewhere, which I suspended reading for
reasons which might be obvious if you look at my email address.  But if I
can find my French dictionary as well, I'll report back...)

corncrake

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