Guy de MAUPASSANT, frustrated by FLAUBERT, launches into “Une Vie”.

Guy de Maupassant (1850.1893)

Autograph letter signed to his mother, Laure Le Poittevin.

Four pages in-8° illustrated with two drawings.

Paris. February 15, 1878. Autograph envelope.

“The aforementioned Flaubert was very clumsy for me. »

Maupassant, eager to see his drama The Betrayal of the Countess of Rhune represented in the French comedy, finds himself trapped in his efforts with Sarah Bernhardt and her master and friend Gustave Flaubert.

After a few demands for stewardship (illustrated with two small pen drawings) and a harsh criticism from Caroline Commanville (Flaubert's niece), Maupassant confirmed to his mother that he was working on his first novelistic work: A Life.

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“I saw Sarah Bernhardt, my dear mother, and I found her very kind , too much even, because she announced to me, as I was leaving, that she would present my drama to Perrin [Emile Perrin, administrator of the Comédie Française] and that she was keen to get me a letter from him. But I learned the next day that Flaubert had taken the play to the aforementioned Perrin and I fear that Sarah Bernhardt, thus breaking her nose with her director, would come back furious with me. Finally, I will try to see her again tomorrow to explain things to her.

I could not hope that she would attempt this approach herself. Now, when she told me this, she had only read the first act of my drama. Had she even read it? Well, whether she knew him or not, she seemed to be enchanted by it. However, all this is the bottle with ink and it is impossible to know what will come out of it. Is it a good thing, is it a misfortune that the play was presented by Flaubert? We will see.

The aforementioned Flaubert was very awkward for me. I could perhaps have been appointed sub-librarian of the School of Fine Arts, the salary would not have been much higher than those I currently have at the ministry; but the position is morally much superior, I was free and I had leave every year from August 1st ^to October ^1st . Despite my assertions, he thought it impossible, waited, hesitated, and the rug was pulled out from under us. As soon as it comes to practical things, this dear Master no longer knows how to go about it, he asks platonically and never actually, does not insist enough and above all does not know how to seize the moment. Finally, he is fooled although he does not admit it, and I hope he will be happier another time.

I will deliver to the railway at your address (postage prepaid) next Wednesday or Thursday, a packet of shirts of mine, with worn out fronts, and new fronts. I am being asked a crazy price here to fix these shirts which, new, cost me four francs seventy-five - I ask you to have them patched up at my expense by Anastasie or someone else - we will have to make do with the new breastplates attached to sending three double buttonholes.  

The collar will have to be widened by almost a centimeter and not very clear in front - that is to say that the new plastron will have to rise a little less high than the old one, be more flared - i.e. [ In the margin two sketches representing the old shirt and the new shirt indicate the requested changes]. When the work is finished, please send these shirts back to me by rail. I'll pay you back at Easter.

I received notice from Mr. de Longperrier that I no longer had to take care of your lace; the committee will notify me by letter when it is necessary to present them for its examination. So be calm in this regard. Mme Brainne, with whom I spoke at length yesterday, gave me a portrait of Mme Commanville, the conclusion of which struck me greatly - she is, she says, incomprehensible - follows courses in physiology and metaphysics, is devout and republican, cold as marble, inaccessible to most sufferings and passions, spends hours alone with Father Dido and hours alone with his naked models - she is intolerant, infallible, of supreme reason. This is how Madame de Maintenon absolutely had to be. This comparison is absolutely fair. It's Madame de Maintenon.

I am working hard on my novel and I hope that I will have a good piece of it done before the summer ; because you know that I don't make much progress once this season arrives. Finally, with many delays, I will still definitely finish by next year's day. And maybe I will be finished long before then. Farewell, dear beloved mother, I embrace you with all my heart. Your son, Guy de Maupassant. Compliments to the maids; If I had anything new, I would write to you immediately. »

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The drama.

The dramatic play The Betrayal of the Countess of Rhune was composed by Maupassant at the end of 1876. Submitted to Flaubert for advice and corrections in February 1877, the play (based on the war of succession in Brittany and on the love affairs players of the Countess of Rhune) was completed at dawn in 1878.

Refused by the Comédie Française, the play never met the public and was only published in 1927 by Pierre Borel and Léon Fontaine in the work Le Destin tragique de Guy de Maupassant , published by Éditions de France.

The first novel.

On December 10, 1877, Maupassant wrote to Flaubert: “… I will have finished redoing my drama (completely reworked) — around January 15. Finally, I will submit it to you shortly after your return. I also made a plan for a novel that I will begin as soon as my drama is finished. »

This is the very first evocation of Une vie . Encouraged by his master, he confided to his mother, in a letter dated January 21, 1878: “Flaubert […] was very enthusiastic about the proposed novel that I read to him. He said to me: “Ah! yes, this is excellent, this is a real novel, a real idea. » Before getting down to it definitively, I'm going to work on my plan for another month or six weeks.

Probably influenced by the romantic verve of his naturalist friends, Maupassant had to enter completely into literature with the publication of his first novel. However, he did not foresee that his work would only appear five years later.

Considered one of his masterpieces, Une vie initially appeared in serial form in the pages of Gil Blas then in volume by Victor Havard in 1883.

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. Guy de Maupassant. Correspondence, volume I, pp.151.153. Jacques Suffel, The Circle of the Bibliophile, Évreux, 1973.

. Guy de Maupassant. Marlo Johnston. Éditions Fayard.