FLAUBERT

Lot 455
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2000 - 3000 EUR
FLAUBERT
FLAUBERT (Gustave). Autograph letter, addressed to [Louise Colet]. Rouen, January 1847]. 4 pages in-4°. Beautiful love letter from the novelist to his mistress the poet Louise Colet (1810-1876). It testifies to their mutual attachment, to the care Flaubert takes to reassure his friend, while sharing intimate thoughts with her. Several formulas and innuendoes, however, reveal a certain ambiguity of feelings that give this letter a remarkable breadth. He replies to his correspondent, and from the very first lines, the tone is set: "Your letter this morning [...] would have softened tigers and I am not a tiger, go! I am a poor, simple, easy and good man, "all undulating and diverse," sewn up with pieces and pieces, full of contradictions and absurdities. If you don't understand anything about me I don't understand much more myself. All this is too long to explain and too boring. But let's come back to us: since you love me I still love you. I love your good heart, so ardent and lively [...]". [...] Hey, I love you too, read this word that you are greedy for and that I repeat every line. And further on: "Your memory makes me weak, your letters move me and I open them with a flutter [...]. [...] But perhaps you are right, I am cold, old, jaded, full of whims and nonsense, and perhaps selfish too! Who isn't? [...]. I'm like the macaroni and cheese that runs out and stinks; you have to get used to it [...] to be able to taste it. You get used to it in the long run, after many times your heart has come to your lips [...]. " Further on, He thanks her for sending him a Volney book, wrapped in a pretty scarf that he promises to wear. And ends on a postscript, where it is a question of Maxime Du Camp, concerned about the sadness that Louise Colet seems to feel. (G. Flaubert, Correspondance, Bibl. de la Pléiade, t.1, p.426).
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