The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857

by Gustave Flaubert

Overview

Gustave Flaubert wrote to his mistress, Louise Colet: “An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.” In his books, Flaubert sought to observe that principle; but in his many impassioned letters he allowed his feelings to overflow, revealing himself in all of his human complexity. Sensuous, witty, exalted, ironic, grave, analytical, the letters illustrate the artist’s life—and they trumpet his artistic opinions—in an outpouring of uninhibited eloquence.

An acknowledged master of translation, Francis Steegmuller has given us by far the most generous and varied selection of Flaubert’s letters in English. He presents these with an engrossing narrative that places them in the context of the writer’s life and times. We follow Flaubert through his unhappy years at law school, through his tumultuous affair with Louise Colet; we share his days and nights amid the temples and brothels of Egypt, then on to Palestine, Turkey, Greece, and Rome. And the letters chronicle one of the central events in literary history—the conception and composition of what has been called the first modern novel, Madame Bovary. Steegmuller’s selection concludes with Flaubert’s standing trial for immoral writing, Madame Bovary’s immediate popular success, and Baudelaire’s celebration of its psychological and literary power.

Throughout this exposition in Flaubert’s own words of his views on life, literature, and the passions, readers of his novels will be powerfully reminded of the fertility of his genius, and delighted by his poetic enthusiasm. “Let us sing to Apollo as in ancient days,” he wrote to Louise Colet, “and breathe deeply of the fresh cold air of Parnassus; let us strum our guitars and clash our cymbals and whirl like dervishes in the eternal hubbub of forms and ideas!”

Flaubert’s letters are documents of life and art; lovers of literature and of the literary adventure can rejoice in this edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674526365
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	02/25/1980
Series:	Harvard Paperbacks Series
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.95(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

Reflections: Gustave Flaubert's Correspondence

I. The Billiard Table, The Collége, 1821-1840

II. The Law, 1840-1843

III. Breakdown, Travel, Mourning, 1844-1846

IV. Louise Colet I, 1846-1848

V. Voyage en Orient, 1849-1851

VI. Louise Colet II: Madame Bovary, 1851-1855

VII. Publication, Trial, Triumph, 1856-1857

Appendix I: A Self-Portrait of Louise Colet

Appendix II: Flaubert and Syphilis

Appendix III: A Letter from Maxime DuCamp

Works of Related Interest

Index

What People are Saying About This

Deserves to be reread and cherished by all admirers of the finest and most fastidious of French novelists...The love-letters to Louise Colet are so packed with subtle observation and profound psychological insight that, despite their spontaneity, they are works of supreme literary art. Francis Steegmuller's translations of these and of the letters from the Orient are beyond praise--as vivid in English as in the original French. His critical and historical text is extremely illuminating throughout, and I have been amazed and enthralled by this splendid contribution to our knowledge of a literary colossus, so completely objective in his other writings. Here we may see the total man...without his impassive mask.

Harold Acton

Deserves to be reread and cherished by all admirers of the finest and most fastidious of French novelists...The love-letters to Louise Colet are so packed with subtle observation and profound psychological insight that, despite their spontaneity, they are works of supreme literary art. Francis Steegmuller's translations of these and of the letters from the Orient are beyond praise--as vivid in English as in the original French. His critical and historical text is extremely illuminating throughout, and I have been amazed and enthralled by this splendid contribution to our knowledge of a literary colossus, so completely objective in his other writings. Here we may see the total man...without his impassive mask.

Leon Edel

An enchanting book, one that combines so happily the art of the biographer and the art of the translator--and Francis Steegmuller is a master of both. Once one starts reading Flaubert's love letters, it's difficult to stop.

Editorial Reviews

Deserves to be reread and cherished by all admirers of the finest and most fastidious of French novelists… The love-letters to Louise Colet are so packed with subtle observation and profound psychological insight that, despite their spontaneity, they are works of supreme literary art. Francis Steegmuller’s translations of these and of the letters from the Orient are beyond praise—as vivid in English as in the original French. His critical and historical text is extremely illuminating throughout, and I have been amazed and enthralled by this splendid contribution to our knowledge of a literary colossus, so completely objective in his other writings. Here we may see the total man…without his impassive mask.

Harold Acton

An enchanting book, one that combines so happily the art of the biographer and the art of the translator—and Francis Steegmuller is a master of both. Once one starts reading Flaubert’s love letters, it’s difficult to stop.

Leon Edel