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

Gustave Flaubert (1821.1880)

Autograph letter signed to Paule Sandeau.

Four pages in-8° on blue paper. Croisset. THURSDAY. [November 24, 1859].

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

Flaubert correspondence. Pleiades. Volume III, pp. 57-58.

“Have you read The Legend of the Ages ? How beautiful it is ! I was amazed. What a Cabire , what a colossus that Father Hugo is! »

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

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" It's me ! How are you ? It annoys me not to have any news from you! Where are you now & how is your life going? So 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 rue du Cherche-Midi. My days pass in monastic monotony and regularity. – I am alone now – (my mother is in Paris). – I don’t see anyone & I don’t hear anything – from time to time, a tugboat passes under my windows. The Seine murmurs, the tall leafless trees sway, and during the night the wind rustles. That is all. I am lost in daydreams & endless readings. This summer I studied military medicine, etc. ; a bunch of very useless things. One idea leads to another and I let myself go with the flow without thinking too much about my work. That's why I've been writing a book for so long. “My last little one” has, however, moved forward. Now I see the end. As long as you like it! Because I value your literary esteem very much. How will you accept this web of extravagance? In any case the attempt is honest. I did what I thought 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 leave with the French expedition. – and I won't hide from you that I would very easily give up my work and my work to go to the land of screens and nankeen, if I didn't have a mother who is starting to get old and that this departure would be the end of it. This is the second time I've missed China!

Traveling (although it is a sad pleasure) is still the best thing in life – since everything here below is impossible: art, love, etc., & even Well-Being – I mean perfect health of body & soul, – that I wish you – as they say at the end of the Sermons. But I'm gloomy, it seems to me? Perhaps it is the influence of Moloch (whose sanctuary ) – or perhaps that of my thirty-eightth birthday which will ring in two weeks? Unfortunately, yes !

“Ah! if my heart dared to burst into flame again!

Will I no longer feel the charm stopping me?

Have I spent the time to love? »

As our immortal fabulist says, the inimitable La Fontaine.

Have you read The Legend of the Ages ? How beautiful it is ! I was amazed. What a Cabire , what a colossus that Father Hugo is! But all this must appeal very little to the right audience? As long as it is not taken by a vice, it escapes you, this good public. The further we go, the more talent will separate itself from it.

In this collection of onlookers and miserable people who make up the Grand'ville, exceptions must – You know that there is a little corner where my thoughts often turn. Accept it, for worth – and allow me to kiss both your hands, while telling myself everything to you, G ^ve Flaubert. »