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In In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu), lesbianism—referred to by Proust using the biblical archetype of Gomorrah (in contrast to “Sodom” for male homosexuality)—is a driving force of suspicion, jealousy, and existential dread for the Narrator.

While male homosexuality in the novel is treated with sociological detail and botanical categorization, female homosexuality is framed as an elusive, unprovable secret world that tortures the male protagonist because he can never truly enter or control it.

How Lesbianism is Portrayed in the Novel

1. The Primordial Trauma: Montjouvain and Mlle Vinteuil

The motif of Gomorrah is introduced early in Swann’s Way (Du côté de chez Swann). The young Narrator accidentally spies through a window at Montjouvain and witnesses Mlle Vinteuil (the daughter of a deceased, revered composer) and her female lover.

• Sadism and Desecration: The scene involves psychological sadism: Mlle Vinteuil’s lover spits on the portrait of Mlle Vinteuil’s late father before they engage in sexual acts.
• The Blueprint for Jealousy: This traumatic primal scene haunts the Narrator for the rest of his life. It establishes lesbianism in his mind as a realm of dark, cruel secret intimacy that exists completely apart from men.

2. Albertine and “Gomorrah”

The core narrative arc involving female homosexuality centers on Albertine Simonet, the Narrator’s primary love interest.

• The Elusive “Little Band” (la petite bande): Albertine is introduced at Balbec alongside a group of seaside teenage girls. Their intense physical closeness, shared glances, and private code signal to the Narrator that they belong to a closed world of female desire.
• Obsessive Paranoia and Imprisonment: When the Narrator discovers that Albertine was a friend of Mlle Vinteuil’s lover, he is seized by agonizing jealousy. He effectively imprisons Albertine in his Paris apartment (La Prisonnière), hiring chaperones to track her movements.
• An Unreachable World: For the Narrator, Albertine’s attraction to women represents a realm he can never possess. A man can compete with another male rival, but he cannot compete with the fundamental alternative of female-female intimacy. Her sexuality remains an enigma that survives even her unexpected death in La Fugitive.

3. Social and Artistic Networks

Proust depicts lesbianism as a vast, subterranean network spanning all social classes—from bourgeois girls like Albertine and Andrée to noble figures like the Duchesse de Guermantes’s circle and actress Léa. Unlike the lonely, tragic outcast framing often applied to male inverts, Proust presents women in Gomorrah as forming cohesive, self-sufficient, and mutually protective communities.

Proust’s Sources of Inspiration

Proust drew from both his personal life and the literary/artistic milieu of Belle Époque Paris to craft his depiction of Gomorrah.

                  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
                  │        PROUST'S INSPIRATIONS            │
                  └────────────────────┬─────────────────────┘
                                       │
         ┌─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┐
         ▼                             ▼                             ▼
┌──────────────────┐          ┌──────────────────┐          ┌──────────────────┐
│  Biographical    │          │    Literary      │          │   Belle Époque   │
│   Transposition  │          │   Influences     │          │    Social World  │
└────────┬─────────┘          └────────┬─────────┘          └────────┬─────────┘
         │                             │                             │
  • Alfred Agostinelli          • Baudelaire's "Femmes        • Natalie Clifford Barney
  • Transposition of              Damnées"                      • Liane de Pougy
    male lovers to              • Balzac's "La Fille          • Renée Vivien's salon
    female characters             aux yeux d'or"

1. Biographical Transposition (“The Albertine Strategy”)

The most widely accepted biographical source for Albertine is Proust’s secretary, chauffeur, and intense love interest, Alfred Agostinelli.

• Many scholars argue that Proust transposed his own real-life obsession with young men into heterosexual or lesbian dynamics to make the novel acceptable to mainstream 1910s publishers and readers.
• By turning a male object of desire (Agostinelli) into a woman (Albertine) who is secretly attracted to women, Proust added a double layer of deception and jealousy to the narrative.

2. Belle Époque Salon Culture and Famous Sapphic Figures

Belle Époque Paris had a visible, celebrated lesbian subculture, particularly among upper-class women and artistic elites, which Proust observed firsthand:

• Natalie Clifford Barney: The wealthy American heiress who ran an influential salon on the Rue Jacob in Paris, openly celebrating lesbian love and Sapphic poetry.
• Liane de Pougy & Émilienne d’Alençon: Famous demimondaines and courtesans whose highly publicized female affairs were the talk of Parisian high society.
• Proust moved in these same elite social circles and drew upon the rumors, rivalries, and romantic networks of these women to construct the social fabric of Gomorrah.

3. Literary Precedents: Baudelaire and Balzac

Proust’s framing of lesbianism was deeply influenced by 19th-century French literature:

• Charles Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal originally included a famous poem titled “Delphine et Hippolyte” (under the section header Femmes Damnées). Baudelaire framed lesbian love as tragic, melancholic, and spiritually damned—a vision that directly influenced the dark, fatalistic tone of the Montjouvain scene.
• Honoré de Balzac: In La Fille aux yeux d’or (The Girl with the Golden Eyes), Balzac treats lesbianism as a secretive, exotic, and dangerous underworld—establishing a literary precedent that Proust expanded into a comprehensive psychological study.