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The Comic Sense of Flaubert in the Light of Bergson's Le Rire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
It is easy to overlook the comic as a major aspect of Flaubert's novels. A reader may well find that the impression they leave with him is one of tragedy and human frustration, transfigured by an amazingly unfaltering perception of the visual universe, made significant by psychological and philosophical penetration, and conveyed in a style of beauty and finality. Irony is unescapable, but the definitely comic may seem secondary. Some will continue to find this so as their familiarity with Flaubert increases, the more readily in that the conflicting sensations he evokes can be ascribed to his fondness for le grotesque triste. Other readers, however, become aware of a pervasive and profound sense of the comic, of which the grotesque triste is perhaps the climactic manifestation but far from the only one. Whereas most comedy attains its maximum effect at first presentation, Flaubert's depends rather on the thorough acquaintance of the reader with all the details and implications of the material. So closely is it knit to other elements that we often first realize its existence only when the attention we had originally given to the beauty or poignancy of a passage relaxes, permitting a fresh emphasis and a more detached viewpoint. Yet this new comic vision rather reinforces than destroys our original emotions. It is only on the greatest levels of literature that we find this intimate association of comedy with tragedy, and seldom are they as fundamentally united as in Flaubert.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1940
References
1 Le Rire, essai sur la signification du comique (Paris: Alcan, 1900).
2 His admiration for Spinoza, his scepticism toward all systems, and his fondness for the concept of the néant (e.g., Corr., i, 311) are among the reasons for not considering Flaubert's beliefs too closely in accord with those of Bergson.
3 Mémoires d'un fou (Œuvres de jeunesse, i, 489). Page references here are to the Conrad edition of Flaubert's Œuvres complètes (Paris, 1921–36). The following abbreviations are used: MB, Madame Bovary; ES, L'Education sentimentale; TSA, La Tentation de Saint Antoine; BP, Bouvard et Pécuchet; DIR, Dictionnaire des idées reçues; Corr., Correspondance
4 TS, pp. 187–191.
5 Le Rire, p. 133.
6 Corr., ix, 3.
7 See R. Dumesnil, Gustave Flaubert, l'homme et l'œuvre, and especially appendix A (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1932).
8 Le Rire, p. 8.
9 MB, p. 301.
10 Le Rire, p. 21.
11 Ibid., p. 20.
12 Corr., ii, 185. For other social hopes or wishes: Corr., vi, 33; vii, 80–82; vii, 170.
13 Corr., iv, 374.
14 Le Rire, p. 4.
15 Corr., viii, 372.—Les Hauts Faits de M. de Ponthau (Paris: Derveaux, 1880).
16 Corr., ii, 407; vi, 139.
17 Corr., i, 261–262.
18 Le Rire, p. 204.
19 E. Seillière, Le Romantisme des Réalistes: Gustave Flaubert (Paris: Plon, 1914), 100–107; E. Maynial, La Jeunesse de Flaubert (Paris: Mercure de France, 1913).
20 Smarh, Œuvres de jeunesse, ii, 56.
21 ES, p. 102.
22 Le Rire, p. 21.
23 Le Rire, pp. 24–26.
24 BP, p. 2.
25 Ibid.
26 Le Rire, p. 29.
27 MB, p. 157.
28 Le Rire, p. 29.
29 MB, p. 58.
30 MB, p. 12.
31 Le Rire, p. 30.
32 Œuvres de jeunesse.
33 Le Rire, p. 34.—“Mon père, à la fin, m'avait défendu d'imiter certaines gens” . . . etc.—Corr., i, 362.
34 Le Rire, p. 35.
35 BP, p. 32.
36 BP, p. 72.
37 MB, p. 195.
38 BP, p. 69.
39 Final line.
40 MB, p. 101.
41 Le Rire, p. 39.
42 MB, p. 20.
43 MB, pp. 2–3.
44 MB, p. 39.
45 MB, pp. 110–112.
46 ES, p. 548.
47 TSA, p. 636—Flaubert had materials for a longer list.
48 ES, p. 151.
49 ES, p. 338.
50 MB, p. 23.
51 ES, p. 353.
52 Corr., viii, 336; ix, 16.
53 Le Rire, p. 169.
54 Ibid., p. 43.
55 ES, p. 167 et seq.
56 TSA, p. 192.
57 BP, pp. 39, 40.
58 BP, pp. 97–98.
59 BP, p. 96.
60 ES, pp. 112–113. Likewise Emma, MB, pp. 81–82.
61 Le Rire, p. 45.
62 ES, p. 48.
63 ES, p. 307. Also ES, p. 519: Il fallait la voir. . .
64 MB, p. 197 et seq.
66 Le Rire, p. 47.
66 D. L. Demorest, A travers les plans, manuscrits, et dossiers de Bouvard et Pécuchet (Paris: Conard, 1931). Esp. pp. 90 ff.
67 Le Rire, p. 52. See Agonies, ix, in Œuvres de jeunesse, i, 411.
68 MB, p. 29.
69 MB, p. 23.
70 BP, p. 88. Also TSA, pp. 121–122: Celui qui gratte son abdomen. . . .
71 MB, p. 121.
72 ES, p. 538.
73 ES, pp. 438, 511, 565, 609.
74 MB, Ch. xi.
75 MB, p. 178.
76 ES, p. 329.
77 BP, p. 99.
78 BP, p. 18.
79 Le Rire, p. 54.
80 Ibid.
81 MB, p. 309.
82 BP, p. 236.
83 MB, p. 159.
84 Le Rire, p. 59.
85 BP, p. 79 et seq.
86 BP, p. 358.
87 BP, pp. 354–355.
88 ES, p. 175.
89 MB, p. 86.
90 MB, p. 57.
91 Le Rire, p. 70.
92 Ibid., p. 70 et seq.
93 MB, p. 23.
94 ES, p. 426. See also Corr., i, 133.
95 ES, p. 600.—Note, in addition to these examples, the image of the diable à boudin, MB, p. 229.
96 MB, p. 60.
97 Salammbô, p. 69.
98 BP, p. 142.
99 Le Rire, p. 80.
100 ES, p. 436.
101 MP, p. 331. Also MB, p. 458, M. Bournisien . . .
102 ES, p. 52. Also ES, p. 143, Comme un architecte . . .
103 BP, p. 277. Also p. 221.
104 ES, p. 234.
105 ES, p. 74.
106 ES, p. 480.
107 MB, p. 156, has a literal, yet also symbolic, use of this image.
108 BP, pp. 104–106.
109 MB, pp. 110–112.
110 Le Rire, p. 91.
111 BP, pp. 50, 65, . . . 238.
112 MB, p. 12.
113 MB, p. 444. Also ES, p. 467; et maintenant. . .
114 MB, p. 51. Also ES, p. 60: Venez-vous . . .
115 Le Rire, p. 114.
116 Edited by E.-L. Ferrère (Paris: Conard, 1913).
117 Demorest, A travers les plans . . .
118 ES, p. 515.—Much of the material of the Dictionnaire is also in the novels.
119 D. L. Demorest, L'Expression figurée et symbolique dans l'oeuvre de Gustave Flaubert (Paris: Conard, 1931).
120 Le Rire, p. 117.
121 MB, p. 197.
122 MB, p. 185.
123 MB, p. 344.
124 ES, p. 435.
125 MB, pp. 101–102, 107, 110, 204.
126 ES, p. 151.
127 ES, p. 461.
128 La Découverte de la vaccine, in Œuvres de jeunesse, iii, 355.
129 MB, p. 444. Also, of course, most of what Homais says.
130 Le Rire, p. 181 et seq. “Les honneurs déshonorent, le titre dégrade, la fonction abrutit.”—Corr., viii, 184–185.
131 ES, p. 544.
132 ES, p. 438.
133 BP, p. 64.
134 MB, p. 100.—This suggests Gargantua's inability to decide between tears and laughter at the death of his wife and the birth of his son (Pantagruel, iii). But Rabelais' dilemma is more human and natural.
135 Le Rire, p. 142.
136 Ibid., p. 147.
137 Ibid., p. 170.
138 “Les, œuvres les plus belles sont celles où il y a le moins de matière; plus l'expression se rapproche de la pensée, plus le mot colle dessus et disparaît, plus c'est beau.”—Corr., i, 345.
139 Corr., ii, 378.
140 Le Rire, p. 169.
141 Ibid., pp. 189–190— For a good example of this in Flaubert, see BP, p. 109: tout le bois et toute la houille . . .
142 Le Rire, p. 191. Viz. ES, p. 546: Elle l'apercevait. . .
143 Ibid., pp. 191–192.
144 TSA, p. 192.
145 Un Cœur simple, last sentence.
146 Bouvard et Pécuchet, passim.
147 Madame Bovary, last sentence.
148 “ma vie, c'est une pensée.”—Mémoires d'un fou, in Œuvres de jeunesse, i, 485.