FLAUBERT (Gustave). Autograph letter signed to [Ivan Tourgué - Lot 72

Lot n° 72
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FLAUBERT (Gustave). Autograph letter signed to [Ivan Tourgué - Lot 72
FLAUBERT (Gustave). Autograph letter signed to [Ivan Tourguéniev]. Croisset], "Wednesday" [22 January 1879]. 3 pp. in-8. "Still the gout, my dear old man! & the death of your brother! EVERYWHERE PAINS, SORROWS! TROUBLE & SADNESS! IT IS TIME TO GO! AS FOR ME, I HAVE ONLY THIS IDEA LEFT. LET'S GET IT OVER WITH. LIFE IS TOO HARD. But you're not going to set out in this horrible cold? Sick as you are! Wait a little. On the other hand, don't lose your inheritance. MONEY IS USEFUL. NOW THAT I HAVE NONE AT ALL, I AM STRONGLY CONVINCED OF THIS TRUTH. You ask me if it is necessary for me to stay in Croisset until the end of February - necessary, no, but necessary. My poor niece has sold her lodgings, & I am leaving mine to them till the "business" is finally settled. Nice things"! After that, what will become of me? I do not know. It is hard at my age. That's what it is, my good man, to have nieces you love. I HAVE GIVEN ALL TO OBEY THE PREJUDICE OF HONOUR. In short, the hope of restoring our fortune is lost forever. Dream on. Your loneliness is not comparable to mine. You live with intelligent and charming people [the couple formed by Pauline and Louis Viardot]. But I, my dear friend, have not seen a single person since January 2nd. My mornings and evenings are spent alone with my dog. Note that I don't even write, since I only read - & read metaphysics! - not anything else - and then when I'm sick of this drudgery, I have as a distraction the idea of my misery, which is beginning to be felt indeed. It would have been a good relaxation for my heart and nerves to have a long tête-à-tête with my dear friend, the great Tourguéneff! You must do without it, but at least write to me. You have not been kind this summer. You left me too long without news. Whatever happens, I shall be in Paris in March - and I intend to stay there until the end of May. I need for B & P. [BOUVARD AND PÉCUCHET] scientific information which I cannot obtain elsewhere - WHAT A BOOK! WHAT AN OVERWHELMING BURDEN! & PERHAPS THE CONCEPTION OF IT IS VICIOUS? PERHAPS IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE A NOVEL WITH THIS IDEA? IT IS TOO DELIBERATE. THERE NEVER WERE TWO SUCH MEN? - Another subject of inner turmoil. Regulus was nothing to me, I can believe it [Roman general who was tortured in Carthage]. I HAVE READ SOME OF THE ACCOUNTS OF L'ASSOMMOIR. HIS (PECUNIARY) SUCCESS, WHICH I WISH FOR ZOLA, PROVES NOTHING ABOUT NATURALISM, since it is a melodrama - very ordinary, & it does not establish our friend as a playwright, since the play is not his own [the play was taken from the novel by William Busnach and Octave Gastineau]. HIS FAMOUS ARTICLE HAS GIVEN RISE TO IDIOTIC CLAMOUR, & THAT IS WHY HE IS NOT DECORATED - HOW SILLY! BUT WHAT IS NOT SILLY? STARTING WITH ME, & ESPECIALLY ME! Well, farewell. Let's hope we'll see each other in the spring, each more cheerful. And don't forget your old Gve Flaubert who cherishes you. "Provenance: Viardot collection (dry stamp).
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