Gustave FLAUBERT marvels at the genius of La Fontaine and Hugo.

Gustave Flaubert (1821.1880)

Autographed letter signed to Paule Sandeau.

Four octavo pages on blue paper. Croisset. Thursday. [November 24, 1859].

Slight trace of red wax on the first sheet and some foxing.

Flaubert Correspondence. Pléiade. Volume III, pp. 57-58.

"Have you read The Legend of the Ages ? How beautiful it is! I was dazzled by it. What a genius , what a colossus that Father Hugo was!"

Madame Bovary's father, busy writing Salammbô, marvels at the genius of his elders La Fontaine and Hugo.

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"It's me! How are you? I'm bored not having heard from you! Where are you now & how is your life going? Write to me a little.".

As for me, I have absolutely nothing to tell you, except that in a month I hope to rush to the Rue du Cherche-Midi. My days pass in monastic monotony and regularity. I am alone now (my mother is in Paris). I see no one and hear nothing—from time to time, a tugboat passes beneath my windows. The Seine murmurs, the tall, leafless trees sway, and at night the wind rustles. That's all. I am lost in endless, bottomless daydreams and reading. This summer I studied medicine, military art, and so on; a whole host of quite useless things. One idea leads to another, and I let myself drift along without giving much thought to my work. That's why it's taking me so long to write a book. "My latest little one," however, has progressed. Now I can see the end of it. I hope you like it! For I value your literary opinion very much. How will you accept this web of extravagances? In any case, the attempt is honest. I did what I believed was right , but we are only worth something through our aspirations .

I'm currently a little troubled by the idea of ​​a trip to China. It would be easy to go with the French expedition. – And I won't hide from you that I would gladly abandon my work and my projects to go to the land of screens and Nanking, if I didn't have a mother who is getting old and whom this departure would finish off. This is the second time I've missed out on China!

Traveling (though it's a sad pleasure) is still the best thing in life—since everything else here below is impossible: art, love, and so on, and even well-being —I mean perfect health of body and soul—which I wish for you, as they say at the end of sermons. But I seem gloomy? Perhaps it's the influence of Moloch (whose sanctuary )—or perhaps that of my thirty-eighth birthday, which will be in a fortnight? Alas, yes!

"Ah! If only my heart dared to rekindle!"

Will I no longer feel any charm that stops me?

Have I outgrown the time for love?

As our immortal fabulist, the inimitable La Fontaine, said.

Have you read The Legend of the Ages ? How beautiful it is! I was dazzled. What a genius , what a colossus this Hugo was! But all this must appeal very little to the general public? As long as you don't use some trick to ensnare them, they elude you, this general public. The further we go, the more talent will distance itself from them.

In this rabble of onlookers and wretches that make up the Grand'ville, exceptions must however little it may be worth – and allow me to kiss both your hands, telling myself everything to you, G ^ve Flaubert.