BIB_ID
444452
Accession number
MA 14427.4
Creator
Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-1880, sender.
Display Date
Rouen, France, 1847 March 20
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Description
1 items (4 pages) ; 22.8 x 17.6 cm
Notes
Written on black-edged mourning stationery.
Place of writing from Flaubert's "Correspondence" (Paris : Gallimard, 1973).
With a note from Colet written in ink under the date: juste un moi après la scène de l'hotel ("Just a month after the scene in the hotel").
Forms part of a collection of 15 letters from Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet (see MA 14427.1-15).
Place of writing from Flaubert's "Correspondence" (Paris : Gallimard, 1973).
With a note from Colet written in ink under the date: juste un moi après la scène de l'hotel ("Just a month after the scene in the hotel").
Forms part of a collection of 15 letters from Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet (see MA 14427.1-15).
Provenance
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Summary
Flaubert is saddened by the realization that Colet's and his temperaments are incompatible. He adds that he has burned his hand and it has become insensitive, like his soul. In response to Colet's asking if he can still conjure up her image, he responds that he sees her only as a sad apparition. He asks why she wasn't created to be a flighty woman who takes only pleasure from life, who can enjoy it without causing distress to others. Why didn't she come along six or eight years earlier, when he was the right man for her? He says that she needs and loves illusion--but do we really love anything else? A man of contradictions, he is conflicted as to whether he loves art or her. He closes by mentioning that his brother-in-law is going crazy and that he (Flaubert) is bad company right now.
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