FLAUBERT, Gustave (1821-1880)

FLAUBERT, Gustave (1821-1880)

Autograph letter signed « Gve Flaubert » to Paule Sandeau
Croisset près Rouen, Sunday [26th August 1860], 1 p. in-8°
Period fold makrs, tiny spots, small tear on central fold

Facetious and flirtatious, Flaubert is impatient not to have received an answer from his correspondent

---

« Eh bien, c’est joli ! voilà trois semaines que j’attends une lettre de vous. pas de nouvelles, rien !
Comment ! Je me transporte à Bellevue afin de jouir de la vôtre (Pardon).
J’endure une chaleur africaine & la soif comme dans le désert. Je me rabats sur l’institut etc. enfin j’ai passé une journée abominable à courir après vous – vainement – & vous ne me dites pas que vous en êtes un peu fâchée.
Vous qui ne passez pas votre journée à écrire, – envoyez moi une très longue lettre.
Je m’ennuie de vous. J’ai bien envie de voir vos jolis yeux, votre jolie bouche & je vous baise les deux mains très longuement. Voilà tout ce que j’avais à vous dire, depuis que je suis
tout à vous
Gve Flaubert »

---

Very close to Jules and Paule Sandeau, Flaubert maintained a rich correspondence with the couple until his death in 1880. It is not known whether Paule Sandeau and Flaubert were lovers. The ambiguous tone of this letter might leave no doubt if one were not aware of the writer’s flirtatious tone among women.

Here is what Caroline Commanville, Flaubert’s niece, says about it in her memoirs Heures d’autrefois (Hours of the past), published 1999:

“As for his wife [Paule Sandeau], in spite of the enormity of the appendage she wore in the middle of her face, and a nasal voice, she was rather a beautiful person, pleasant, tall, slender, with slow and graceful gestures; She kept her drawing-room in the best order, talking to everyone and being aware of everything. She had taken a liking to me, and would have liked to have me often in her house; To lead me into the world was his desire. My grandmother still resisted, and her refusal to let me accompany her to a ball at the Tuileries brought tears to my eyes, when I was seventeen. In the desire to take care of myself, there was, I have since guessed, the desire to display his intimacy with my uncle. How far this intimacy has gone, I cannot say. She was certainly very coquettish with him, but he, I believe, distrusted her; He was in a way afraid of the ascendancy that a woman of this ambitious character might gain over him.”

This testimony contrasts radically with that of Maxime Du Camp, a close friend of Flaubert’s:

On August 5, 1861, he sent Flaubert a letter that may seem unequivocal as to Paule Sandeau’s feelings for Caroline’s uncle: “I saw Mother Sandeau several times before I left [for Baden-Baden]: she really has a lot of affection for you, and she touched me, she stirred my old heart by the good way she speaks of you. She is a very good woman, gentle and helpful; but I agree with you, there’s that damn nose; Since you told me about it, it seems to me to be longer than it used to be. I think he’d be happy to have a snack with you. Baste! Make an effort and break her, nose or no nose, what does it change? Fuck her doggy style, the bun will hide the nose. (Pleiade III, Appendix I, p. 840).