In the second draft of my translation, I looked at ten others, eventually an eleventh, the most recent. As I made extensive comparisons, trying to arrive at good solutions in meaning, vocabulary, and construction, I came to know five or six of them quite well. The great variety among the translations depends, of course, on two factors: how each translator handles expressive English and how liberally or narrowly each defines the task of the translator.
Curiously, in the case of a writer as famously fixated on his style as Flaubert was, many of the translations do not try to reproduce that style, but simply to tell this engrossing story in their own preferred manner. And so the reader in search of Madame Bovary has a wide choice: Gerald Hopkins’s 1948 version, with added material in almost every sentence; Francis Steegmuller’s nicely written, engaging version, smoother than Flaubert’s, with regular restructuring of the sentences and judicious omissions and additions (1957); the stolidly literal, sometimes inaccurate version by the very first, Eleanor Marx Aveling (1886), which caused Nabokov much indignation in his marginal notations but to which he resorted in teaching the novel; that version as revised (not always happily) by Paul de Man (or, rumor has it, by his unacknowledged wife), who chose to omit the italics, for example. There is Madame Bovary with fewer of those pesky semicolons, with serial “and”s supplied, with additional metaphors. There is a version in which Charles is made to sob on the last page, another in which he is made to say “Poor thing!” when his first wife dies. There is even Flaubert complete with the involuntary repetitions that he so disliked.
Perhaps Flaubert was mistaken when he believed that the success of the book would depend entirely on its style—since various of his translators over the years have composed deeply affecting versions that do not reproduce it. Yet he would not listen, but was infuriated, when Zola remarked that there was more to the book, after all, than its style.
It should be noted that painstaking as Flaubert was about certain features of the prose, he was quite casual when it came to others, particularly pronoun reference and capitalization. Where ambiguous pronoun references are not utterly confusing, they have been retained as he wrote them. As for his inconsistency in capitalization (as in the frequent variation of “Square” and “square”), I have also chosen to retain it. This inconsistency was apparently not the result of an editorial oversight, since the original French text went through numerous editions by different hands in which it remained, surviving even into the most definitive 1971 Gothot-Mersch edition. Evidently, either Flaubert did not care, as Proust believed he simply did not care about certain pronoun references, or, perhaps more likely, he capitalized instinctively, unthinkingly. In any case, since it is part of the experience of the French reader, I have let it stand.
Flaubert also regularly wrote sentences containing what is called the comma splice, in which clauses are strung together in a series, separated only by a comma and without a conjunction. The clearest example of this is one of the shortest sentences, near the end of the novel: “Night was falling, rooks were flying overhead.” One effect of this construction is to give each clause equal weight and value. Another effect is sometimes to speed the action forward, speed our thoughts as readers forward through time or material, so that even the full stop at the end of the sentence seems a momentary pause. Then again, sometimes the construction counter-balances lyrical or dramatic material by the subtlest hint of a certain matter-of-factness. It is a habit of Flaubert’s that I have chosen to retain.
One last note: there is a sentence near the beginning of the novel that perhaps cries out to be “improved” by having a fully parallel structure: “He was a boy of even temperament, who played at recess, worked in study hall, listening in class, sleeping well in the dormitory, eating well in the dining hall.” Again, the imbalance has been left as it is in French.
A Note on the Endnotes
The notes at the back of the present volume attempt to be as detailed and extensive as is reasonably possible. They go beyond explaining mysterious references that would be difficult to research, such as “Pulvermacher hydroelectric belts” and Homais’s remedies, and clarifying historical references, as to King Henri IV, “the Béarnais.” Erring on the side of inclusiveness, they define such domestic items as fabrics and types of carriages, medical practices such as bloodletting, distinctive social signals such as the yellow gloves worn by dandies, and so forth. Most of these latter sorts of notes are meant to identify the multitude of things deeply embedded in the customs and culture of the time in which the novel is set, things that would have been self-evident to its readers at the time of its publication. Flaubert, after all, deliberated long and hard about what should be included and what should be left out of this assiduously pruned novel, so we must assume he had strong reason to specify cambric, barege, and twill, or landau, berlin, and tilbury, and even took pleasure in specifying them; we should therefore, perhaps, make some attempt to understand what they are. Similarly, pastimes such as whist and trente et un or common sights in the street, such as the stone bornes—sometimes guard stones, sometimes milestones or boundary markers—should at least be not entirely opaque to the twenty-first-century reader. That reader is therefore asked to forgive instances where more explanation is given than is needed: if you were raised Catholic, you will know perfectly well what genuflection is; if not, then perhaps not.
The notes are provided “blind”—that is, without marks on the pages of the text—so that they will not intrude between the reader and the experience of the novel. It should be possible to enjoy the book uninterrupted, but if more background information is wanted, it is available.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Barnes, Julian. Flaubert’s Parrot. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
Brombert, Victor. The Novels of Flaubert: A Study of Themes and Techniques. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966.
Brown, Frederick. Flaubert: A Biography. New York: Little, Brown, 2006.
Flaubert, Gustave. Bouvard and Pécuchet, tr. Mark Polizotti. Includes Dictionary of Accepted Ideas. Champaign, Ill.: Dalkey Archive Press, 2005.
———. Correspondance II (juillet 1851–décembre 1858), ed. Jean Bruneau. Paris: Éditions Gallimard (Éditions de la Pléiade), 1980.
———. The Letters of Gustave Flaubert 1830–1857, selected, edited, and translated by Francis Steegmuller. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979, 1980.
———. Madame Bovary: moeurs de province. Paris: Éditions Garnier Frères, 1971. Edited by Claudine Gothot-Mersch. Some of the material in the present introduction was developed in response to the rich and extensive discussion of the novel in Madame Gothot-Mersch’s introduction, which itself draws on previous critical work.
———. A Sentimental Education, tr. Robert Baldick. New York: Penguin Books, 1964. Other English translations also available.
Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. Pages from the Goncourt Journals, tr. Robert Baldick. New York: New York Review of Books, 2007.
James, Henry. “Gustave Flaubert” in Notes on Novelists, with Some Other Notes. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1914.
Lottman, Herbert. Flaubert: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1989.
Maraini, Dacia. Searching for Emma: Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary, tr. Vincent J. Bertolini. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lectures on Literature, ed. Fredson Bowers. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.
Proust, Marcel. “Marcel Proust évoque Flaubert,” in La Nouvelle Revue Française, January 1, 1920.
Steegmuller, Francis. Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1939, 1966.
Thirlwell, Adam. Miss Herbert. London: Jonathan Cape, 2007.
Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Perpetual Orgy: Flaubert and Madame Bovary, tr. Helen Lane. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986.
Wood, James. How Fiction Works. New York: Farr
ar, Straus & Giroux, 2008.
Zola, Émile. “Gustave Flaubert,” in Les Romanciers naturalistes (1881). In Oeuvres complètes. Paris: F. Bernouard, 1928.
CHRONOLOGY
1821 December 12: Gustave Flaubert born at the Hôtel-Dieu, in Rouen; his father is head (“chief surgeon”) of the hospital. His brother, Achille, is eight years old.
1824 Birth of Caroline Flaubert, his sister, who was to become his close friend.
1825 Coronation of Charles X, an unpopular, reactionary, repressive monarch.
1830 The July Revolution, marking the end of the Restoration; accession of Louis-Philippe to the throne of France, supported by the discontented upper bourgeoisie and the liberal journalists. His reign, the “July Monarchy,” will last until 1848; Algeria is conquered toward the end of it. After the February Revolution of 1848, he will abdicate, fleeing to England and later dying there. He is known as the “Citizen King” because of his bourgeois manner and dress.
Flaubert is eight years old.
1831 Flaubert writes precociously impressive pieces such as his Éloge de Corneille (In Praise of Corneille), as well as numerous theater pieces performed at home.
1832 Flaubert enters the Collège Royal, soon to be a boarder. Reads and admires Don Quixote.
1834 His friendship with Louis Bouilhet begins.
1836 Writes several stories. In Trouville, meets the woman he will love for most of his life, though this love is probably never consummated: Elisa Foucault, ten years older and soon to marry Maurice Schlésinger. She is very likely the model for the heroine of L’Éducation sentimentale (A Sentimental Education).
1837 More writings, including “Passion et Vertu” (Passion and Virtue), one source of Madame Bovary. First publication.
1838 Writes “Mémoires d’un fou” (Memoirs of a Madman), an autobiographical narrative.
1840 Receives his baccalaureate degree. Takes a trip to the Pyrenees, Marseille, and Corsica with family friend Dr. Cloquet.
1841 Registers as law student in Paris, while continuing to live at home.
1842 Writes Novembre (November), his second autobiographical narrative. Moves to Paris. Passes his first bar exam in December.
1843 Becomes friends with Maxime Du Camp. Fails his second bar exam. Begins writing first version of L’Éducation sentimentale. Frequents the salon of Louise Pradier, wife of a sculptor; some aspects of her life will inspire material in Madame Bovary.
1844 Falls from a carriage during a seizure, exhibiting the first symptoms of a disease that is most likely a form of epilepsy. Gives up his law studies for good. Family acquires house in Croisset and moves there.
1845 Completes first version of L’Éducation sentimentale. He and his family accompany his sister, Caroline, on her honeymoon trip to Italy. In Genoa, he sees and is struck by the painting The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Pieter Brueghel the Younger.
1846 Death of his father, then of his sister. Settles at Croisset with his mother and his niece Caroline, whom he will help to raise. During a trip to Paris, meets Louise Colet, who becomes his mistress.
1847 Trip to Brittany with Du Camp, an account of which he writes entitled Par les champs et par les grèves (By Fields and Shores).
1848 February Revolution; end of July Monarchy, abdication of Louis-Philippe. Flaubert witnesses the “February days” with Louis Bouilhet and Maxime Du Camp. Memories of these scenes will provide material for a later version of L’Éducation sentimentale. First quarrel with Louise Colet. Begins La Tentation de Saint Antoine (The Temptation of Saint Anthony).
1849 Reads Saint Antoine aloud to Bouilhet and Du Camp, who do not like it. Departure for the Orient with Du Camp.
1850 Travels in Egypt, Beirut, Jerusalem, Constantinople, Greece.
1851 Travels in Greece and Italy. Returns to Croisset and begins writing Madame Bovary on September 19.
1854 Last friendly correspondence with Louise Colet. Relationship ends.
1856 Finishes writing Madame Bovary in March. Publication of the novel in La Revue de Paris in six installments October 1–December 15. Resumes work on Saint Antoine.
1857 One-day trial of Flaubert and the editors of the Revue, on charges of offenses against public morality and religion. Acquittal delivered one week later. Publication of Madame Bovary in book form by Michel Lévy in April. Begins his exotic historical romance, Salammbô.
1858 Visits Carthage and Tunisia, researching Salammbô.
1859–62 Writes Salammbô. Frequent visits to Paris. Salammbô appears in November 1862.
1863 Begins correspondence with George Sand; meets Ivan Turgenev.
1864–69 Works on L’Éducation sentimentale. Social life includes Princesse Mathilde, Prince Napoléon, the Goncourt brothers, George Sand, Ivan Turgenev.
1866 Named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
1869 Death of Bouilhet. Publication of L’Éducation sentimentale.
1870 Embarks on the third version of Saint Antoine. Franco-Prussian War begins. Becomes lieutenant in the Garde Nationale. Prussians stay at Croisset in November.
1871 Insurrection in Paris. Sees, socially, Victor Hugo, Théophile Gautier, Alphonse Daudet, Guy de Maupassant, Émile Zola.
1872 Death of Flaubert’s mother. Completion of La Tentation de Saint Antoine (third version).
1873 Growing friendship with de Maupassant.
1874 Publication of La Tentation de Saint Antoine. Flaubert prepares to begin writing Bouvard et Pécuchet.
1875 In order to help his niece Caroline and her husband out of a desperate financial situation, Flaubert ruins himself: he will be hard up for the rest of his life. He begins writing the story “La Légende de Saint Julien Hospitalier” (The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaler).
1876 Completes “Saint Julien,” writes “Un Coeur Simple” (A Simple Heart), and begins “Hérodias.” Death of Louise Colet. Death of George Sand.
1877 Publication of Trois contes (Three Tales). Flaubert goes back to work on Bouvard et Pécuchet, which will remain unfinished at his death.
1879 Awarded an honorary position paying three thousand francs per year, which allows him to survive.
1880 May 8, Flaubert dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at age fifty-eight.
1881 Publication of the unfinished Bouvard et Pécuchet, along with the Dictionnaire des idées reçues (Dictionary of Accepted Ideas).
To
MARIE-ANTOINE-JULES SÉNARD
Member of the Paris Bar
Ex-President of the National Assembly
and Former Minister of the Interior
My dear and illustrious friend,
Allow me to inscribe your name at the very beginning of this book, even before its dedication; for it is to you, above all, that I owe its publication. By its inclusion in your magnificent presentation of my case, this work of mine has acquired for me an unforeseen authority. Accept here, therefore, the homage of my gratitude, which, however great it may be, will never reach the height of your eloquence and your devotion.
Paris, April 12, 1857 Gustave Flaubert
TO LOUIS BOUILHET
PART I
[1]
We were in Study Hall, when the Headmaster entered, followed by a new boy dressed in regular clothes and a school servant carrying a large desk. Those who were sleeping woke up, and everyone rose as though taken by surprise while at work.
The Headmaster motioned us to sit down again; then, turning to the study hall teacher:
“Monsieur Roger,” he said to him in a low voice, “here is a pupil I am entrusting to your care; he is entering the fifth. If his work and his conduct are deserving, he will be moved up to the seniors, as befits his age.”
Still standing in the corner, behind the door, so that one could hardly see him, the new boy was a fellow from the country, about fifteen years old, and taller than any of us. His hair was cut straight across the forehead, lik
e a village choirboy’s, his manner sensible and very ill at ease. Although he was not broad in the shoulders, his suit jacket of green cloth with black buttons must have pinched him around the armholes, and it showed, through the vents of its cuffs, red wrists accustomed to being bare. His legs, in blue stockings, emerged from a pair of yellowish pants pulled tight by his suspenders. He wore stout shoes, badly shined, studded with nails.
We began reciting our lessons. He listened to them, all ears, as attentive as though to a sermon, not daring even to cross his legs or to lean on his elbow, and at two o’clock, when the bell rang, the teacher was obliged to alert him, so that he would get in line with us.
We were in the habit, when we entered the classroom, of throwing our caps on the floor, so that our hands would be free; from the doorsill, we had to hurl them under the bench, in such a way that they struck the wall, making a lot of dust; it was the thing to do.
But either because he had not noticed this maneuver or because he had not dared go along with it, after the prayer was over, the new boy was still holding his cap on his knees. It was one of those head coverings of a composite order, in which one can recognize components of a busby, a lancer’s cap, a bowler, an otter-skin cap, and a cotton nightcap, one of those sorry objects, indeed, whose mute ugliness has depths of expression, like the face of an imbecile. Ovoid and stiffened with whalebones, it began with three circular sausages; then followed alternately, separated by a red band, lozenges of velvet and rabbit fur; next came a kind of bag terminating in a cardboard-lined polygon, covered with an embroidery in complicated braid, from which hung, at the end of a long, excessively slender cord, a little crosspiece of gold threads, by way of a tassel. It was new; the visor shone.