FLAUBERT decides not to publish Salammbô opposite Les Misérables.

Gustave Flaubert (1821.1880)

Autograph letter signed to Paule Sandeau

Four pages in-8° on blue paper.

[Croisset]. October 21 [1861]

“It seems to me very presumptuous and quite stupid to want to attract public attention during the entire time that Les Misérables will be published. »

Superb letter from Flaubert on the verge of completing the writing of Salammbô which he does not wish to see published at the same time as the Hugolian masterpiece announced for the beginning of 1862.

Referring to the completion of his novel, Flaubert reveals his conception of creation and literary art: “ Success is not my business. It is that of chance & the wind that blows. », and dreams of travel: “ My red skin blood (…) starts to boil as soon as I find myself in the open air. »

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“What a kind letter you wrote to me! It is not possible to read anything more amiable and charming. I was delighted & touched. Everything you tell me about my book is very encouraging and very good. But what will result? I'm starting my last chapter tomorrow, which I hope to have finished by the end of January. As for the publication it is very probable (between us) that it will be postponed until next fall or next; unless my publisher (I don't know which one) wants to risk it, anyway. But it seems to me very presumptuous and quite stupid to want to attract public attention during the entire time that Les Misérables will be published. Now, if the 8 volumes appear every month, two by two, starting in February, it will be a matter of four months which sends me back to June, a detestable time. So.

This summer I was counting on a little money to get some fresh air. It is only on this side that the thing hurts me. Because I have no typographical illness - As soon as I have finished a book it becomes completely foreign to me, having left the sphere of ideas which made me undertake it - So when Salammbô is copied - & re-corrected I will I'll put it in the bottom of the cupboard and think no more about it - very happy to immediately engage in other exercises. Come what may! Success is none of my business. It is that of chance & the wind that blows.

I only take into account intentions. This is why I value myself, mine being high & noble. & this is why I defended the sweet Vacquerie. If he doesn't have more talent – ​​is it his fault? I keep all my hatred & all my disdain for people who do decent and successful things. – and I prefer a hunchback, a dwarf and even a moron from Valais than any ordinary môsieu. Not everyone can be ridiculous. Are you sure that in twenty-five years La Camaraderie , or La Calumnie ^* , will be more admired than Les Funerals de l’Honneur  ^** ? Let's talk about something else, the subject is not happy.

I have just indulged in medical reading on thirst and hunger, – and I have read among others the thesis of Doctor Savigny , the doctor on the raft of La Méduse ^*** .  Nothing is more dramatic, atrocious, frightening. What is the providential meaning of all these tortures? But I know something much more distressing for humanity . This is the Jessie of Mr. Mocquard ^**** . Tell me a little about it. What ideas! what language! what a design! I lack expressions to express my horror. You are right to love traveling. It's the funniest way to be bored, that is to say, to live, that there is in the world. This taste, when one indulges in it, quickly becomes a vice – an insatiable thirst. How many hours have I wasted in my life dreaming by my fireside, of long days spent on horseback in the plains of Tartary or South America. – My red skin blood (you know that I am descended from a Natchez or an Iroquois) starts to boil as soon as I find myself in the open air, in an unknown country. I have had a few times – (and the last among others, it was three years ago, near Constantine) a kind of delirium of freedom where I came to the point of screaming out loud , in the intoxication of Blue, Solitude & Space. – & yet I lead a reclusive & monotonous life, an almost cellular & monastic existence. Which side is the vocation?

I congratulate you on having had a happy holiday – about your dear son, whom “I love in you” as people of the Church would say. Write me long letters where you will say everything that comes into your head. The more there are, the better. I think of you very often & very deeply – & I really want to see you again. I kiss your hands. Gve ^Flaubert . »

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^* La Calomnie and La Camaraderie ou la courte scale are two plays by Eugène Scribe performed at the Théâtre-Français.

^** The Funeral of Honor , drama by Auguste Vacquerie performed at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin).

^*** Jean-Baptiste-Henri Savigny, Observations on the effects of hunger and thirst experienced after the sinking of the king's frigate “La Méduse” in 1816.

^**** Jessie, novel by Jean-François-Constant Mocquard.

Flaubert correspondence. Pleiades. Volume III, pp. 185 to 187. (The said volume mistakenly indicates the date November 28, 1861).