Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen in 1821, the son of a distinguished surgeon and a doctor's daughter. After three unhappy years of studying law in Paris, an epileptic attack ushered him into a life of writing. Madame Bovary won instant acclaim upon book publication in 1857, but Flaubert's frank display of adultery in bourgeois France saw him go on trial for immorality, only narrowly escaping conviction. Both Salammbo (1862) and The Sentimental Education (1869) were poorly received, and Flaubert's genius was not publicly recognized until Three Tales (1877). His reputation among his fellow writers, however, was more constant and those who admired him included Turgenev, George Sand, Victor Hugo and Zola. Flaubert's obsession with his art is legendary- he would work for days on a single page, obsessively attuning sentences, seeking always le mot juste in a quest for both beauty and precise observation. His style moved Edmund Wilson to say,'Flaubert, by a single phrase - a notation of some commonplace object - can convey all the poignance of human desire, the pathos of human defeat; his description of some homely scene will close with a dying fall that reminds one of great verse or music.' Flaubert died suddenly in May 1880, leaving his last work, Bouvard and Pecuchet, unfinished.
"There was Flaubert the romantic and Flaubert the realist. We know
the latter as the author of Madame Bovary, that unflinching work of
social scrutiny. But the former is on full display in the writer’s
salacious, sarcastic, funny and at times brilliant
correspondence....Steegmuller was an eminent scholar of French
literature, and in his hands the letters emerge not only as an
excellent primary-source biography of one of the great artists of
the 19th century but as a great 19th-century work in themselves."
—Max Norman, The Wall Street Journal
“It’s impossible to think of any other writer who proved such a
large influence on two seemingly antithetical schools of
fiction—both the 'realistic novel' and the 'romance'...it may be
the final irony of his existence that readers who grow up today
knowing his name rarely have the patience and attention to enjoy
his work as much as it deserves.” —Scott Bradfield, The New
Republic
“The Letters...covers all of Flaubert’s life, from the first
letters to school chum Chevalier through correspondence with Ivan
Turgenev and Guy de Maupassant written only days before Flaubert’s
death in May, 1880, with explanatory passages and appendices from
Steegmuller...if, instead of conclusions, though, sustenance for
intellectual and artistic life are sought, Flaubert’s letters will
never fail to nourish with a beautiful image or well-balanced
phrase, especially if on the topic of art itself.” —Eric
Vanderwall, On the Seawall
"When I...read the Letters—brilliantly linked and edited by
Steegmuller so that they still make Flaubert's best biography—I
found them untouched by time, written as if from the next postal
district only yesterday." —Julian Barnes
"That Flaubert, as a writer and as the kind of writer he was, was
born rather than made is plainly indicated by the first few letters
in Francis Steegmuller’s excellent new selection. . . . All
Flaubert is in these first five pages of letters, in embryo." —D.J.
Enright, London Review of Books
"Steegmuller . . . is again a deft, witty and indefatigable
commentator, stitching Flaubert’s correspondence together with all
the background information we need in order to appreciate it. Among
his many fine asides, Mr. Steegmuller tells us that Proust disliked
the style of Flaubert’s letters even more than that of his novels;
that Gide kept his volumes of them beside his bed like a bible."
—Anatole Broyard, The New York Times
"These letters have the same fascination and compelling narrative
drive as those in the first volume. . . . We have, in the guise of
letters, what comes close to being a full-fledged biography."
—Howard
Moss, The Washington Post Book World
"Steegmuller’s connecting narrative and his annotations make this
second volume as rich and attaching as the first. And, for once,
Flaubert is seen alive and enacting himself." —V. S. Pritchett, The
Atlantic
"[Steegmuller’s] ear is so keenly attuned to the modulations of
this correspondence and his craft is so accomplished that the
English text is, as it were, transparent and trans-vocal. It is the
voice of Flaubert we hear or, more precisely, the oral qualities of
his epistolary style. Steegmuller plays Flaubert for us the way a
musician plays the music of a master." —Victor Brombert, American
Scholar
"Deserves to be reread and cherished by all admirers of the finest
and most fastidious of French novelists. . . . The love-letters to
Louise Colet are so packed with subtle observation and profound
psychological insight that, despite their spontaneity, they are
works of supreme literary art. Francis Steegmuller’s translations
of these and of the letters from the Orient are beyond praise—as
vivid in English as in the original French. His critical and
historical text is extremely illuminating throughout, and I have
been amazed and enthralled by this splendid contribution to our
knowledge of a literary colossus, so completely objective in his
other writings. Here we may see the total man . . . without his
impassive mask." —Harold Acton
"An enchanting book, one that combines so happily the art of the
biographer and the art of the translator—and Francis Steegmuller is
a master of both. Once one starts reading Flaubert’s love letters,
it’s difficult to stop." —Leon Edel
“For many, the perversions of artists have made the word artiste a
synonym for moral depravity. The letters of Flaubert and James
Joyce—whose literary works provoked obscenity trials—are filled
with so much.” —Joshua Hren, The Hedgehog Review
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