Flaubert and the Centrality of Literature: An Analysis of the Correspondence with Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie

Abstract

For a total of twenty years (1856–76), Gustave Flaubert corresponded with a woman whom he would never meet and who had first written to him to express her admiration for his novel, Madame Bovary. These forty-five letters are among the most fascinating and important that he was to write, reflecting on his life, on art and esthetics, and on his determined dedication to the practice of writing. The letters to Marie-Sophie Leroyer de Chantepie occupy a central role in Flaubert's Correspondence, between the long series of letters he wrote to two other women, Louise Colet and George Sand. They are all dominated by the idea of the centrality of art, literature, and the activity of writing, and of the subordinate status of all other experiences and interests.

Keywords:

• commitment to writing
• letters
• Flaubert
• woman writer Leroyer de Chantepie

Notes

Gustave Flaubert to Marie-Sophie Leroyer de Chantepie, January 23, 1858 in Gustave Flaubert, Correspondance, 2: 794. Flaubert is referring here to the novel Salammbô, which he was working on at the time. All references to Flaubert's and Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie's letters, which are published in this volume of his Correspondence, appear in the main text of this article as 2, followed by the relevant page numbers. Subsequent volumes of this edition are referred to as 3, 4, and 5.

On the life and work of Marie-Sophie Leroyer de Chantepie, see James Smith Allen, especially Chapter 3: “A Provincial's Devotions: Marie Leroyer,” 48–79. See also Martine Reid, especially Chapter 2: “Reconnaissance (avec Mlle Leroyer de Chantepie,” 47–80; and Daniel Brizemur. It is also interesting to read Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie's own published review of Madame Bovary, reprinted in: “Ecrits de Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie.” There is valuable information on Marie-Sophie Leroyer de Chantepie and on her relationship with Flaubert in Hermia Oliver, Geoffrey Wall, especially 230–231; Frederick Brown, especially 347–355; Rosemary Lloyd; and Gisèle Séginger.

On Flaubert's correspondence with Louise Colet, see Janet Beizer. An equally interesting analysis of his correspondence with George Sand appears in Martine Reid, Chapter 3: “Troubadoureries,” 81–118.

Flaubert recommends the reading of Montaigne once again on June 6, 1857: “Lisez Montaigne, lisez-le lentement, posément! Il vous calmera” (2: 731). Of all the writers he mentions in these letters, Flaubert reserves expressions of particular admiration for Victor Hugo: “Une chose magnifique vient de paraître: La Légende des siècles, de Hugo. [ … ]” (3: 45). In January 1862, out of respect for the great writer, Flaubert resolved to delay the publication of Salammbô because of the imminent publication, in book form, of Hugo's Les Misérables. See 3: 198.