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Gustave Flaubert and Charles Baudelaire—Their Correspondence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

L. Gardner Miller
L. Gardner Miller*
Affiliation:
Strasbourg, France
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Extract

Charles Baudelaire was born April 9, 1821; Gustave Flaubert, December 12 in the same year. Their families belong to a cultivated and wealthy bourgeois class which offers to them all the advantages of such a milieu. They grow up during the time that French Romanticism attains the quintessence of its literary expression; their intelligence is stimulated by their reading of Victor Hugo's dramas, those of Alexandre Dumas, Sr., and of Théophile Gautier's poetry. At school, both are mediocre students who excel each in one scholastic exercise—Flaubert is awarded first prize in history, Baudelaire third prize in Latin poetry. They are too preoccupied with literature, too conscious of the first awakenings of their latent genius. Having no respect for their professors, they spend their time as best suits their fancy. Flaubert writes letters to his cherished friend, Ernest Chevalier: Lundi soir, 15 avril 1839, classe du sire Amyot, théorie des éclipses, lequel a l'esprit bougrement éclipsé.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , June 1934, pp. 630 - 644
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1934

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References

1 R. Descharmes, Gustave Flaubert, sa vie, son caractère, ses idées avant 1857, Chap. 1.—E. Crépet, Charles Baudelaire—Œuvres Posthumes—Etude Biographique.

2 G. Flaubert, Correspondance, Edition du Centenaire, Librairie de France, i, 34.

3 Ibid., i, 47.

4 Crépet, Op. cit., p. xv. The author wishes to express his thanks and appreciation to M. Jean Pommier of the University of Strasbourg for his interest and suggestions in the preparation of this article.

5 Lemonnier, Enquêtes sur Baudelaire (Paris, 1719), Chap. 1.

6 Commanville, Souvenirs Intimes, p. viii.

7 Flaubert, op. cit., p. 134.

8 (Paris, 1912), p. 29.

9 Théodore de Banville, Mes Souvenirs, p. 87.

10 Flaubert, op. cit., i, 51.

11 Crépet, op. cit., p. xvi.

12 Flaubert, op. cit., ii, 397.

13 Flaubert, op. cit., ii, 251–271.

A. Zevarès, Les Procès Littéraires au XIXe Siècle (Paris, 1924), pp. 71–100.

14 Flaubert, op. cit., ii, 268–269.

15 Flaubert, op. cit., ii, 300–301.

16 Ernest Seillière, Baudelaire (Paris, 1931), p. 85.

17 Flaubert, op. cit., i, p. 429.

18 Ibid., i, 204.

19 Ibid., i, 468.

20 Lemmonier, op. cit., p. 46.

21 Flaubert, op. cit., i, 308.

Louis Bouilhet, Festons et Astragales, p. 28.

22 Flaubert, op. cit., i, 411.

23 Ibid., ii, 303.

24 Ibid., ii, 310.

25 Flaubert, op. cit., ii, 311.

26 Zevaès, op. cit., pp. 101–151.

27 Baudelaire, Lettres, p. 136.

28 Baudelaire, L'Art Romantique—Madame Bovary, p. 407.

29 Ibid., p. 408.

30 Flaubert, op. cit., i, 163.

31 Baudelaire, op. cit., p. 409.

32 Descharmes-Dumesnil, Autour de Flaubert (Paris, 1922), i, 67.

33 Baudelaire, op. cit., p. 415.

34 Ibid., p. 416.

35 Thibaudet, Gustave Flaubert (1922), p. 112.

36 Baudelaire, op. cit., pp. 420–421.

37 Baudelaire, Mon cœur mis à nu, lxxx. Crépet, op. cit.

38 Baudelaire, L'Art Romantique, p. 422.

39 Flaubert, op. cit., ii, 317.

40 For this letter and the following one which do not appear in the Correspondence, Edition du Centennaire, Descharmes-Dumesnil, I am indebted to M. Jacques Crépet who gradiously called my attention to them. Manuscrit Autographe, May, 1928.

41 Baudelaire, Les Paradis artificiels, édition critique, de Jacques Crépet, pp. 309–310.

42 A second edition which will appear in 1861.

43 Baudelaire, Lettres, p. 268.

44 Flaubert, op. cit., ii, 420.

45 Baudelaire, op. cit., p. 268.

46 Flaubert, op. cit., ii, 492.

47 Flaubert, op. cit., ii, 492.

48 Baudelaire, Lettres, pp. 333–334.

49 Ibid., p. 336.

50 Baudelaire, Lettres, p. 347.

51 Sainte-Beuve, Nouveaux Lundis (Paris, 1867), iv, 31–95.

52 Baudelaire, op. cit., p. 461.

53 Ibid., p. 523.