Melville House Books

Gustav Flaubert

A trove of letters written by Gustave Flaubert have been discovered in the attic of an English farmhouse, reports Alison Flood in a story for The Guardian.

Biographer David Waller says he was invited to the house to look at two chests of family papers belonging to the family’s ancestor Gertrude Tennant. “They hadn’t been opened for the last 50 years,” Waller says. “It was quite an amazing experience. I delved in and found a package labelled ‘letters from distinguished persons: do not throw away’.”

As it turned out, the “distinguished persons” included Oscar Wilde, Henry James, Victor Hugo and William Gladstone, as well as Flaubert.

Although the letters are rather passionate, it’s unclear if Flaubert and Tennant had a love affair. Tennant met Flaubert when she was a young woman on a family trip to France, and she stayed in touch for decades, although there were long lapses. Such as, perhaps, after he sent her a copy of Madame Bovary, and she wrote back, “I will tell you straight that I am astonished. [How could] you, with your imagination and admiration for everything that is beautiful take pleasure in writing something so hideous as this book!”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.