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AN EXTRAORDINARY LETTER TO LOUISE COLET DURING THE FINAL DAYS OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH INSIGHTS INTO HIS PHILOSOPHY OF WRITING, THE COMPLETION OF MADAME BOVARY, AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS "MUSE". On Louise Colet: "Louise Colet was truly Flaubert's muse and a midwife for his Emma Bovary. It is to her that the hermit of Croisset chronicled, in over a hundred letters, the progress of his first published novel: It is exclusively to Louise that he wrote his famous reflections about the craft of literature - prophetic passages that would become the most familiar credos of twentieth-century modernism. "Throughout the phase of their correspondence. Flaubert so often sought Louise's advice on details that her daughter and literary executor, Henriette Colet Bissieu, would later demand. that her mother's collaboration in Madame Bovary be officially acknowledged." (Francine du Plessix Gray, Rage & Fire: A Life of Louise Colet, Pioneer Feminist, Literary Star, Flaubert's Muse, pp. 199-201.) Flaubert's Letters: Flaubert wrote wonderfully evocative letters and his correspondence as a whole has often been hailed as a literary masterpiece, holding a rightful place alongside his novels. Michael Dirda has noted that "the correspondence of Gustave Flaubert soars above all other works in setting forth the proper ideals and accompanying rigors of art", Enid Starkie thought that the letters "in the future, [would] become Flaubert's most popular and widely-read book, the one in which he has most fully distilled his personality and wisdom" and André Gide connected with the letters on such a personal level, claiming that "for more than five years his correspondence took the place of the Bible at my bedside. It was my reservoir of energy". (Dirda, Washington Post, "Flaubert on Travel, Sex, and Writing"; Starkie, Flaubert the Master; Gide, in Steegmuller, ed., The Letters of Gustave Flaubert). This Letter: It is April 18, 1854, three years into the writing of Madame Bovary, when Gustave Flaubert pens this letter to his lover Louise Colet. He doesn't know it yet, but it will be over 2 1/2 years before he completes his work. He also does not know that this is one of the final letters he will write to his "muse"; there will be one four days later on April 22 and one on April 29. And despite the promise he makes to Colet in this letter: "You will see me in three weeks at the latest," the two lovers will never see each other again, thus ending their eight-year affair. The letter offered here is remarkable for several reasons. First of all, despite the fact that we are days from a breakup after an eight-year relationship, Flaubert's words are deeply emotional: "your joys and sorrows are mine. I would like to see you above all happy, happy in every way," and declaring that if he could find someone who would bestow happiness upon her, he "would journey barefoot to find him." These sound more like the words of a person about to book a ticket to see his lover rather than a prelude to a breakup. Also extraordinary about this letter is the insight it offers into the composition of Madame Bovary. Flaubert's dedication to the process necessary for realism leads him to taking a deep dive into making sure the medical details are correct in Madame Bovary, as he reports that "I journeyed to Rouen to consult my brother regarding foot anatomy and the pathology of clubfoot." Upon his visit, he realizes that "revisions and adjustments are needed" to his original descriptions in the draft of Madame Bovary. Here we see that although Flaubert was enslaved by his own commitment to style, he was more committed to truth as he explains in the letter how he originally wrote about the surgery:"I had crafted something comical, a stylistic movement of such beauty that it moved me to tears for two hours. Yet it was pure fantasy, inventing the unheard-of." Then in a moment of great self awareness he explains: "It is a challenge to render technical details both literary and lively whi. Seller Inventory # 2874
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