Grassy undulations marked the cliffs
composed of soft brown earth that,
in hardening, had turned into
a wall of gray rock.
They stumbled over the sticky grasses
sometimes leaping over crevasses.
Bouvard sat near the bank and
contemplated the waves,
thinking of nothing,
fascinated,
inert.
Bouvard And Pecochet
Footnotes
The 21st Century image of Port en Bessin is from here.
Bouvard and Pecochet were there in the 19th Century.
If less than one million and one artists and writers were influenced by–
or descended from–Flaubert's novel, I will eat my beret!
The most obvious descendent in American culture
is the films of Laurel and Hardy.
The most obvious descendent in American culture
is the films of Laurel and Hardy.
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Flaubert's "quotes" spark like his "white linens".
ReplyDeleteWhy do his narratives choke like the dry dust
from the French country roads settling on teeth?
I partially agree with you
Delete(the part of me that prefers
Kate Chopin's THE AWAKENING
to Flaubert's EMMA BOVARY).
Rather than think Flaubert's narratives
choke like the dry dust
from the French country roads
I mostly think his narratives
slowly squeeze the pus
out of the pimples
PS
Our English teacher friend, "Starbucks Sarah,"
is a master teacher of the Chopin story,
which is set in New Orleans.
Regarding the "white linen" comment,
ReplyDeletewhat Flaubert once said was:
The better a work is,
the more it attracts criticism.
It is like the fleas who rush
to jump on white linens.