Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Publisher's note
- Acknowledgement
- Abbreviations and conventions
- Introduction
- 1 The Flaubert dates
- 2 The colours of time in the first Education sentimentale
- 3 Conception, birth, death in Madame Bovary
- 4 Heads and tails in Salammbô
- 5 Two-timing in L'Education sentimentale
- 6 The Hundred Days of Bouvard et Pécuchet
- 7 Petit dictionnaire de Flaubert
- Conclusion
- Diachronic and synchronic charts
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in French
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Publisher's note
- Acknowledgement
- Abbreviations and conventions
- Introduction
- 1 The Flaubert dates
- 2 The colours of time in the first Education sentimentale
- 3 Conception, birth, death in Madame Bovary
- 4 Heads and tails in Salammbô
- 5 Two-timing in L'Education sentimentale
- 6 The Hundred Days of Bouvard et Pécuchet
- 7 Petit dictionnaire de Flaubert
- Conclusion
- Diachronic and synchronic charts
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in French
Summary
«Il aura peut-être choisi le jour?» se disait tout bas Mâtho.(1, 746).
Those, such as Bovet, Dumesnil, Descharmes, Fay and Coleman, Bopp and Gothot-Mersch, who have studied the question of time in Flaubert have been unanimous in their concern for the number of irregularities in the chronologies of Flaubert's works. The verdict seems unanimous that Flaubert was more concerned with the establishment of a seasonal atmosphere, relating to the time of writing or to the character's mood, than with the establishment of a consistent linear progression. The pathetic fallacy explains all.
However, all who have studied the plans of Flaubert's works are also aware of a particularly cunning level of personal involvement on Flaubert's part in the treatment of contemporary or historical detail: it is the manipulation of the marginal which often impresses. De Biasi, in his study (in the edition) of the carnets de travail, observes:
un clin d'oeil ludique à usage purement personnel, comme on en rencontre un peu partout dans les textes de cet écrivain «impersonnel» qui s'amuse à disséminer dans ses récks des détails (des «noms» en particulier) qui ne peuvent faire sens que pour lui-même. Seul un examen approfondi des «sources» biographiques et des documents de genèse permet d'en déceler la trace, occasionnelle (comme c'est le cas ici) ou plus profonde lorsqu'il s'agit de messages «cryptés» qui concernent des détails plus personnels ou plus anciens. (De Biasi, 425).
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- Where Flaubert LiesChronology, Mythology and History, pp. 1 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996