# Duc de Guermantes (Basin) — In Search of Lost Time character guide

> Duc de Guermantes (Basin) in In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Basin, the Duc de Guermantes

**First appearance:** 0013-volume-iii-the-guermantes-way

## Snapshot

Basin, Duc de Guermantes, wears his ancient name like armor, bluff and vain, more at home among his estates and mistresses than in his wife's scintillating wit.

## Who they are

The Duc embodies the Guermantes name as inherited grandeur: proud of his lineage, indifferent to art, and serenely convinced of his own importance. His marriage to the far cleverer Oriane is a study in mismatched temperaments, and his casual philandering and social vanity expose the coarser grain beneath the family's legendary prestige. He matters as the living proof that the magical name the narrator worshipped from afar belongs to a very ordinary, very self-satisfied man.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/characters/m_de_guermantes_duc
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