Lot n° 91
Estimation :
6000 - 8000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 10 168EUR
FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880). - Lot 91
FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880).
5 L.A.S. "Gve Flaubert", Croisset 1876- 1879, to Guy de MAUPASSANT; 1, 1, 1, 2 and 2 pages in-8 (trace of repair to the 2nd).
Beautiful correspondence to his "son" and disciple.
July 19 [1876]. Work on the Three Tales.
"Well, & this little heart, what becomes of it? & then the life? & then the brain? Give me news of you, don't forget your old GveFlaubert who works in a gigantic way! - Every day I see the sun rise. I don't receive anyone, I don't read any newspaper, I don't know what's going on in the world, - & I'm yelling, in the silence of the office, like a maniac. I will have finished my Parrot by the end of August, then I will start Herodias. Don't imitate my laconism, that is to say, send me a real epistle"...Thursday [November 23, 1876]. On Balzac [Maupassant gave an article on Balzac's Correspondence in La Nation of November 22: "Balzac d'après ses lettres"] "To speak to you seriously about your article on Balzac, I would have to read the volume. It seems to me too short, given the subject matter? and there must be other parts to indicate than the corners of tenderness (if however a corner can be tender, pardon the metaphor). As for the style, I don't see a comma to change, - & you support the Principles. This great man was neither a poet nor a writer, which did not prevent him from being a great man. I admire him less now, much less than I used to, - being more and more hungry for perfection, but maybe I am wrong. [...] You won't see me before New Year's Day. I'm digging, like 30 thousand negroes - very slowly and with great difficulty"...Tuesday [December 3, 1878]. On the fairy tale The Castle of Hearts. "The uncertainty of your position, my dear friend, adds to all my sorrows! - What a lot of trouble! My God! What a lot of trouble! Try to see Bardoux, whatever the cost, because it is intolerable! such a wait. Dalloz did not deign to answer me but made me write by his secretary! that my work [Le Château des cœurs] "did not fit within the framework of the Review" - besides "the house (that of the Monitor) is mine". It is as beautiful as Charpentier making me write by his wife that he admires St Antoine, but cannot publish St Julien ". Flaubert instructs Maupassant to go and get the manuscript of the fairy tale from Ernest Daudet.
Croisset March 7 [1879]. On the pension that Jules Ferry is going to pay him, and that Flaubert, ruined, hesitates to accept. "My dear friend, I thank you for warning me of what is happening. The intentions of the Minister penetrate me with gratitude to the marrow. It is not so much the thing in itself as the delicate way in which he does it! What have I done to deserve all this? But an invincible repugnance stops me. Of all that I had, I kept nothing but pride. Don't take it away from me! I could no longer write. A pension disguised as a "tribute" would be intolerably burdensome for me. The "honorary title" that would accompany it would smell too much of pity. Note that this nomination must be inserted in the Official Gazette! Then I fall back into the hands of Messrs. journalists. The measure would be criticized, discussed, & your friend scorned. If all this, title & pension, could be kept secret, I would accept temporarily with the intention (or even the promise on my part) - to renounce it, - in case of better fortune, - a hypothesis which can be realized from one moment to another, - by the death of an old aunt of Caro. Then the Commanvilles would give me back what they have made me lose. I would not like to appear to your Minister as a grumpy, stupid peacock.
- What to do! Since he is full of such goodwill, would it not be possible to obtain from him the promise of the first good place vacant in a library? By good, I mean a place like the ones you were telling me about the other day
- (Beaux-Arts, Sèvres, Élysée) - from five to six thousand francs. & little work. - That would be more suitable for me than the favor that is being proposed. To sum up, my good man, if I am to appear in the Official, that is to say, to receive publicly, whatever the name by which it is disguised, an alms, beg these gentlemen not to do anything with it. It would be too much to treat me as an invalid! I would immediately become one.
Sunday 9 [March 1879]. On the matter of the pension. "Since you tell me that this pension will be ignored by everyone, I resign myself, because necessity forces me to do so. You tell me, however, that "no newspaper will be able to protest, so natural does the thing seem to everyone" and moreover "I think that no publicity will be given to this measure". So you are not sure? How do you reconcile these two assertions? On the other hand, you tell me several times that it will be a secret. In short, if I am sure of course, that the thing will happen between the ministry & me, only, I accept - with gratitude - & on the condition (in my consc
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