The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1857-1880

by Gustave Flaubert

Overview

Having been acquitted of the charge of “outrage of public morals and religion” brought against him upon the publication Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert found himself, in 1857, a celebrity and one of the most admired literary men of his day.

Francis Steegmuller’s volume of Flaubert’s letters from the years culminating in that triumph was hailed by the New York Times as “brilliantly edited and annotated…a splendid, intimate account of the development of a writer who changed the nature of the novel.” It went on to garner widespread critical acclaim and to win an American Book Award for Translation.

Now, in the second volume, we see Flaubert in the years of his fame—the years in which he wrote Salammbô, L’Éducation sentimentale, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, Three Tales, and the unfinished Bouvard and Pecuchet. In writing the novels, Flaubert followed his precept, “An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere,” but in these letters of his maturity he gives full scope to his feelings and expresses forceful opinions on matters public and private.

We see Flaubert traveling to Tunisia to document the exotic Salammbô, then calling on his own memories and those of his friends to bring to life the Revolution of 1848 and the loves of his hero Frederic Moreau in the pages of L’Éducation sentimentale, which many today consider his greatest novel. Flaubert is taken up by the Second Empire Court of Napoleon III and Eugenie, and becomes a lifelong friend of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte. But the most powerful feminine presence in this volume is the warm, sympathetic George Sand, with whom he maintains a fascinating correspondence for more than ten years. This dialogue on life, letters, and politics between the “two troubadours,” as they called themselves, reveals both of them at their idiosyncratic best.

The deaths of Flaubert’s mother, of his closest friend and mentor, Louis Bouilhet, and of Théophile Gautier, Sainte-Beuve, and other intimates, and Flaubert’s financial ruin at the hands of his beloved niece Caroline and her rapacious husband, make a somber story of the post war years. Despite these and other losses, Flaubert’s last years are brightened by the affection of Guy de Maupassant, Zola, and other younger writers.

Together with Francis Steegmuller’s masterly connecting narrative and essential annotation, these letters, most of which appear here in English for the first time, constitute an intimate and engrossing new biography of the great master of the modern novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674526402
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/31/1982
Series:	Letters of Gustave Flaubert, 1857-1880 Series
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Francis Steegmuller is the author of more than twenty books and a recipient of numerous awards and honors. His translation of Madame Bovary is an acknowledged classic. In 1982 the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters awarded him its Gold Medal for Biography.

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. The Writing of SalammbÔ, 1857-1862

II. The Battle of SalammbÔ, 1862-1863

III. Interlude: Society, 1863-1866

IV. The Beginning of l'Éducation Sentimentale, 1863-1866

V. Enter George Sand. The Completion and Reception of l'Éducation Sentimentale, 1866-1869

VI. Interlude: Early 1870

VII. The War and the Commune, 1870-1871

VIII. The Temptation of Saint Anthony. The Beginning of Bouvard and Pécuchet. Le Candidat. Three Tales, 1872-1877

IX. The Last Years. Bouvard and Pécuchet, 1877-1880

Appendix I: Flaubert's Niece Caroline

Appendix II: "Reply to a Friend" by George Sand

Appendix III: The Broken Friendship: Flaubert and Laporte

Appendix IV: The Pavilion at Croisset

Works of Related Interest

Index

Editorial Reviews

[Steegmuller’s] ear is so keenly attuned to the modulations of this correspondence and his craft is so accomplished that the English text is, as it were, transparent and trans-vocal. It is the voice of Flaubert we hear or, more precisely, the oral qualities of his epistolary style. Steegmuller plays Flaubert for us the way a musician plays the music of a master.

Victor Brombertn Scholar

These letters have the same fascination and compelling narrative drive as those in the first volume… We have, in the guise of letters, what comes close to being a full-fledged biography.

Howard Moss Book World

Steegmuller…is again a deft, witty and indefatigable commentator, stitching Flaubert’s correspondence together with all the background information we need in order to appreciate it. Among his many fine asides, Mr. Steegmuller tells us that Proust disliked the style of Flaubert’s letters even more than that of his novels; that Gide kept his volumes of them beside his bed like a bible.

New York Times - Anatole Broyard

Steegmuller’s connecting narrative and his annotations make this second volume as rich and attaching as the first. And, for once, Flaubert is seen alive and enacting himself.

The Atlantic - V. S. Pritchett

These letters have the same fascination and compelling narrative drive as those in the first volume… We have, in the guise of letters, what comes close to being a full-fledged biography.

Washington Post Book World - Howard Moss

[Steegmuller’s] ear is so keenly attuned to the modulations of this correspondence and his craft is so accomplished that the English text is, as it were, transparent and trans-vocal. It is the voice of Flaubert we hear or, more precisely, the oral qualities of his epistolary style. Steegmuller plays Flaubert for us the way a musician plays the music of a master.

American Scholar - Victor Brombert

[Steegmuller's] ear is so keenly attuned to the modulations of this correspondence and his craft is so accomplished that the English text is, as it were, transparent and trans-vocal. It is the voice of Flaubert we hear or, more precisely, the oral qualities of his epistolary style. Steegmuller plays Flaubert for us the way a musician plays the music of a master.
— Victor Brombert

American Scholar

Steegmuller's connecting narrative and his annotations make this second volume as rich and attaching as the first. And, for once, Flaubert is seen alive and enacting himself.
— V. S. Pritchett

The Atlantic

These letters have the same fascination and compelling narrative drive as those in the first volume...We have, in the guise of letters, what comes close to being a full-fledged biography.
— Howard Moss

Washington Post Book World

Steegmuller...is again a deft, witty and indefatigable commentator, stitching Flaubert's correspondence together with all the background information we need in order to appreciate it. Among his many fine asides, Mr. Steegmuller tells us that Proust disliked the style of Flaubert's letters even more than that of his novels; that Gide kept his volumes of them beside his bed like a bible.
— Anatole Broyard

New York Times