FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880). - Lot 66

Lot n° 66
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Result : 2 767EUR
FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880). - Lot 66
FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880). L.A.S. "your G.", Monday morning 4 ½ h. [March 14, 1853], to Louise COLET; 4 pages in-4, envelope. Letter by Flaubert and Louis Bouilhet about the poem L'Acropole d'Athènes by Louise Colet. "Finally here is the finished work. We have been at it since 2 p.m. without stopping, except for an hour before dinner. - I am hopeful. It will go well. We have singularly simplified the task for you, because I believe it is completely finished. B. [Bouilhet] is looking for the last line. It was sublime. The whole piece has been redone by him. & he had an idea that I dare to call Dantesque & obeliskal. It is, in connection with the Barbarians, to speak delicately of the abbé Gaume. The gnawing worm finds there a maggot that bites its tail. B. thinks that this subject of The Acropolis could well have been given in hatred of the attacks to the classical ideas to the ancient studies. These Messrs. then will be tickled at their sensitive place. Admire the last verse which is of a Casimir Delavigne completed "& Midas today still judges Apollo." (Midas had donkey ears for having preferred Pan to Apollo.) Now to reward us for our pick which has been mediocre, have the whole thing recopied (for you & for us), as we have corrected or redone it, & send it to me immediately. I will take it to B. & we'll see if there's anything left to say - the whole .../... will become clearer to us. - But I would be very surprised if this poem had not all the chances now. The excellent verses abounded in it we made them stand out. Those who had the dirty face, were cleaned, and the swarm of the mediocre expelled without pity. To you, a thousand kisses & good hope. Your G. " Then Louis BOUILHET takes up his pen: " Dear Muse, you are quite right, we three form a bundle that no one will break; I am late with you, by two letters - but I have just written you more than forty bad verses - we are almost even. Farewell - I fall asleep, and kiss you from the bottom of my heart. [...] Love does not torment me too much, and I am much more worried about my Fossils. - I cannot help noticing with what complacent intensity you speak of Ephebes - It is not reassuring for the rest of us, who are beginning to lose our down"... Flaubert adds this Nota : " Vandals & Germans we are not sure if the V. and the G. have really been in Athens. - Inform you about it. In any case it is necessary for us there because of the blond women, the barbarians of the North, such as Huns (well hard), Scythes, Goths, etc. Vandal, on the other hand, might not be taken into account (even if it is a historical inaccuracy) because of its double meaning? Besides, it is necessary to make sure of it"... Correspondence (Pléiade), t. II, p. 266.
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