# Madame Verdurin — In Search of Lost Time character guide

> Madame Verdurin in In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mme. Verdurin, Verdurin, the Verdurin

**First appearance:** 0005-swann-in-love

## Snapshot

Self-appointed high priestess of a Parisian artistic salon, she rules her 'little clan' with charm, jealousy, and a tyrant's instinct for exclusion.

## Who they are

Mme. Verdurin presides over the faithful—Cottard, the pianist, the painter, and eventually Odette—rewarding loyalty with intimacy and punishing absence as betrayal. Her salon is a closed church whose creed demands that no other drawing-room could possibly amuse; those who waver are expelled without mercy. She matters because she stages the social comedy of belonging, and because her possessiveness helps shape the very affair between Swann and Odette that the narrator will later dissect.

## In the story

### [Volume II: Within a Budding Grove](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/chapters/volume-ii-within-a-budding-grove)

The domineering hostess of the artistic salon.

### [Madame Swann at Home](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/chapters/part-i-madame-swann-at-home)

Madame Swann retains habits from the 'little nucleus' of the Verdurin circle, such as shouting to be heard by all the faithful.

### [Cities of the Plain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/chapters/volume-iv-cities-of-the-plain)

Madame Verdurin's salon serves as a backdrop for social maneuvering and the exposure of hidden relationships.

### [II (Continued)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/chapters/part-ii-ii-continued)

Hosts the musical evening; insists on violin music; takes aspirin after listening to music; welcomes Charlus and Morel to dinner.

### [II (Continued)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/chapters/part-ii-ii-continued)

Hosts the party but feels slighted by the guests; her sullen immobility contrasts with her inner pride.

### [Flight of Albertine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/chapters/part-ii-iii-flight-of-albertine)

Madame Verdurin is referenced as part of the social circle the narrator visits, triggering Albertine's angry reaction.

### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/chapters/endnotes)

Noted for using the word 'tapette' unaware of its popular meaning.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/characters/madame_verdurin
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_search_of_lost_time_se/characters