FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880). - Lot 80

Lot n° 80
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FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880). - Lot 80
FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880). L.A.S. "Gve Flaubert", Croisset January 23 [1866], to Marie- Sophie LEROYER DE CHANTEPIE in Angers; 3 pages in-8 on blue paper, envelope (repaired cracks, traces of pasting). Beautiful letter against stupidity, to his admirer, during the writing of L'Éducation sentimentale. [Marie-Sophie LEROYER de CHANTEPIE (1800-1888), a provincial woman of letters, an old maid, maintained, from her town of Angers, an assiduous and admiring correspondence with Flaubert and G. Sand. Sand]. "You are quite wrong to call me a comforter, dear lady! I would like to deserve this title, but what can I do for you, except to send you the assurance of a very deep sympathy! I thought you were busy with a great historical work on Angers ? I was hoping that your mind would find calm in this wise work. It is not the case, alas, and I am saddened by this. Force yourself to study facts, things, nature at last! Although you are in the modern philosophical stream, the Middle Ages suffocate you. You hold on to it by multiple attachments! And once again, in spite of everything, flee your country, leave your house as if it were on fire and all your habits which are deadly. - Don't be complacent about your pains. You taste too much - as Montaigne would say - that delicacy which is in the lap of melancholy. You are surprised by the fanaticism and imbecility that surround you. That one is wounded by it, I understand it but surprised, no! There is a base of stupidity in humanity which is as eternal as humanity itself. The education of the people, & the morality of the poor classes are, I believe, things of the future. But as to the intelligence of the masses, that is what I deny, whatever may happen - because they will always be masses. What is considerable in history is a small herd of men (three or four hundred per century, perhaps) - & which from Plato to the present day has not changed. - These are the ones who have done everything & who are the Conscience of the world. As for the lower parts of the social body, you will never raise them - when the people no longer believe in the Immaculate Conception they will believe in turntables. You have to console yourself with that & live in an ivory tower. - I know it's not a happy thing. But, with this method, one is neither a dupe nor a charlatan. He leaves for Paris, until the end of May. "I worked a lot this winter. - I finished the first part of my novel. - When will the whole thing be finished? That's what I don't know" Correspondence (Pléiade), t. III, p 478 (incomplete).
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