Gustave FLAUBERT – The Marquis de Sade & Bouvard and Pécuchet.

Gustave Flaubert (1821.1880)

Autograph letter signed to “his old Bab” [Edmond Laporte]

Two pages in-8°. EL stamp from the Laporte collection.

[Paris] – Sunday. 1 hour at night. » [27.28 January 1878]

Sheets raised to the central fold. Two traces of red marker on the 1st ^sheet .

Pléiade correspondence, Volume V, page 353.

"Old Bab, Bardou [x] is leaving here, where he had dinner. I took him into my office alone and spoke to him about you again, insisting as much as possible so that it would be over with. Here is his response: I promise you that I am thinking of your recommendation. Soon there will be a complete overhaul in the Fine Arts and I will find something good for him. Before leaving I spoke to him again about old Laporte, and his last word was "don't be afraid." In addition, he told me something to find him at home, alone . It is to go there at 6 p.m. I will take advantage of it [ Édouard Laporte, whom Flaubert nicknamed "el bab", an Arabic expression meaning "the door", was then looking for a job. Flaubert had contacted Agénor Bardoux, Minister of Public Instruction since 1877, who would soon intervene on Laporte's behalf and enable him to find a position in the administration.

Another story: he undertakes to receive the famous Féerie! [The Castle of Hearts, a fairy tale written by Flaubert in collaboration with Louis Bouilhet and Charles d'Osmoy, which was not presented on stage but appeared in La Vie moderne in several issues from January 24 to May 8, 1880] Within 8 days – I will give him the m [anu] s [crit] that I believed was in Croisset, & that I found in the bottom of my cupboard since he left. If it succeeded, it would be a fortune for your giant [Gustave Flaubert thus refers to himself] ! Finally, I found a guy who has all the editions of the old man [the Marquis de Sade] ! With a letter of recommendation, we will go to him whenever you want!

I continue to read excessively but I am not making progress! because I do not know how to present my historical criticism. Let us hope that my understanding will be cleared in a few days. [passage from his book Bouvard et Pécuchet which follows the story of the Revolution, when the two characters are seized by the "need for truth for its own sake"]. The story of the Féerie, inevitably, will make me go often to B [ardoux] & I will activate your affair. No news from d'Osmoy. He has a very sick child. As he is a third in "Le Château des cœurs" we will meet again. I am eating myself up thinking of you , whom I embrace..."