Abstract: The article examines legal metaphors and figurative comparisons that allow us to imagine the world of the French aristocracy of the period of the Third Republic in M. Proust's novel. The terms of constitutional, administrative, international public and civil law, as well as banking law as part of business law are identified. The author examines Marcel's imaginative understanding of high society through legal concepts. The subject of the study is the specific legal terms of the text. The purpose of this work is to analyze the layers of the artwork, allowing us to present the features of the world of French aristocrats in a republican environment. The article uses methods of semantic, linguistic-stylistic analysis and linguistic commenting. It is shown that the aristocrats' rejection of the Republic is expressed, among other things, through their rejection of the new legal system, and through an ironic attitude towards its institutions. On the contrary, reverence for the cultural stratum of the irrevocably departed period of absolute monarchy is one of the distinctive characteristics of the Guermantes, people of their close social circle and even their servants. Legal terms contrasting these two epochs also introduce a complex and ambiguous antithesis, important for M. Proust's texts as a whole, between what is and what seems. The distrust of the aristocrats of the period of the Third Republic to the new legal reality turns out to be one of the distinctive features that allow them to maintain their clannishness, despite the apparent democracy in choosing a circle of communication and openness to change.

Abstract: This article reviews the stylistic functionality of legal lexicon in the second volume of M. Proust's novel “In Search of Lost Time”. By means of general and field specific (civil, constitutional, international, criminal and financial) legal lexicon, the author describes various spheres of life that are far from the jurisprudence – human sensory systems, visual arts, social graces of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy, as well as friendship and romantic relationship of Marcel and Albertine. The article employs the methods of lexical, semantic and linguostylistic analysis. The novelty of this research consists in the analysis of functionality of specific lexicon in the literary text. The author highlights certain types of social relations, which are described via comparison with legal situations, as well as related metaphors and comparisons from other areas of life.