# Duchesse de Guermantes (Oriane) — In Search of Lost Time character guide

> Duchesse de Guermantes (Oriane) in In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Oriane, the Duchesse de Guermantes

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

## Snapshot

Oriane de Guermantes rules Parisian society with a wit so quick it turns cruelty into charm, and a name the narrator has worshipped since boyhood.

## Who they are

As the reigning Duchesse de Guermantes, Oriane presides over the most exclusive salon in Faubourg Saint-Germain, dispensing invitations and snubs with equal artistry. The narrator's long-cherished fantasy of her collides with the real woman: brilliant, restless, and capable of casual indifference to those who adore her. Her blend of aristocratic glamour and sharp, almost theatrical intelligence makes her the magnetic center of the social world he is struggling to enter.

## Links

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