Selected Letters

by Gustave Flaubert, Geoffrey Wall (Translator)

Spanning Flaubert's life from adolescence to his years of fame as a writer, this collection of letters is a compelling portrait of the artist. There are early letters imbued with the intensity of adolescent friendships; reports from the Orient that bring to life an exotic place where the picturesque, the sentimental, and the erotic gloriously coexist; and accounts of the writing of Madame Bovary that meticulously chronicle Flaubert's creative process. Letters to Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Ivan Turgenev, Emile Zola, and Guy de Maupassant offers a glimpse into nineteenth-century literary life; while those letters to George Sand bring to light a deep, abiding friendship. In the correspondence between Flaubert and his lover Louise Colet, Geoffrey Wall suggests in his Introduction, we witness an erotic game, a highly charged form of illicit intercourse.

Genres: Nonfiction, France, Classics, French Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realism strives for formal perfection, so the presentation of reality tends to be neutral, emphasizing the values and importance of style as an objective method of presenting reality". He is known especially for his debut novel Madame Bovary (1857), his Correspondence, and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

More great literary letters! The third book of letters in a row to get the five-star treatment.

While this collection of letters fascinated me as a whole, it was the early letters sent to his sweetheart Louise Colet and school friend Ernest Chevalier that interested me the most, simply because this was the time of Flaubert's life that I knew nothing about. Some of the later letters to George Sand, Victor Hugo, Ivan Turgenev and others were also so passionately written, and it becomes clear in some of them that he didn't think highly of the bourgeois, in fact he hated them. Towards the end of the book the letters become more poignant, and show him in differing emotions, with the final correspondence between Guy de Maupassant and Ivan Turgenev after Flaubert's death being very moving.

I only now wish I'd started reading literary letters long before now, as there are so many other writers and famous historical figures whose letters I'm sure would interest me.

[Miloš · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moj život, o kom sam mislio da bude tako lep, tako ponosan, tako širok, tako ljubavnički, biće kao i drugi, jednolik, smišljen, glup; svršiću prava, položiću ispite, pa ću posle otići da dostojanstveno završim da živim u kakvom malom mestu u unutrašnjosti kao što su Ivto ili Dijep, sa zvanjem pomoćnika kraljevskog prvobranioca. Jedna luda koja je sanjala o slavi, ljubavi, lovorikama, putovanjima, Istoku, i šta ja znam! Sve što svet najlepše ima, onako skromno, dao sam unapred sebi. Ali ću imati, kao i drugi, samo nezgoda u životu i jedan grob posle smrti, a trulež kao večnost".

[Jacob Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as good as any biography, I imagine, and much better written; a good half of this is devoted to Flaubert's youth and spares much of his correspondences on his famous novels, but this is no disappointment. Instead, we get to see the young, arch-romantic Flaubert in the height of his wonderful romances and oriental journeys, and thereafter develop into the hard-nosed analyst of his maturity. Great fun

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that made me want to learn to read French. Not that there is anything lacking in Steegmuller's translation, (it is engaging and steeped in Flaubert's style and context), it was just that "Selected" word -- there were letters that survived that I could not read because I did not understand French and that must not be allowed to remain so!

[Angus · Rating 3 out of 5]

shows a glimpse of Flaubert's intellect but this particular edition is rather cheap. The translation is a bit rough around the edges, the selection is fairly slight and the discourse between correspondents is only presented unilaterally, when in some instances you really would like to know what Flaubert was responding to, or how people responded to him.

[Dionysius the Areopagite · Rating 5 out of 5]

'As I set out so shall I return, except there are a few less hairs on my head and considerably more landscapes within it.'

[Mahdhi Osman-Penrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

not sure if this is same edition as the one i read, also '53 and also 320 pages but translated by francis and not geoff. a deeply moving writer, even his neurosis seemed sacred to me, and i will remember him for a long time.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just the thing to brighten up one long summer ago for me at UCLA. Brilliant insight into the turmoil of a genius mind.

[matt Sandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

not sure if this is the version I have. He says really incredible/beautiful things about art. Makes for good occasional reading cause its letters. Provinces/Paris/the Levant are the scenery.