Portrait of Signora Morrocchi by Antonio Puccinelli, 1859 AKG Images / De Agostini Picture Lib./G.Nimatallah
December 12, 1821. They hang on to the trellis that supports the vine and watch the flies swirl around the corpses in the dissection amphitheater.
Its windows overlook the garden of the pavilion, a wing of the Hôtel-Dieu in Rouen.
Gustave and his little sister Caroline were born there, he in 1821, she two and a half years later.
They live there with their parents and Achilles, their older brother, but he does not participate in any of their games.
He only thinks of one thing, to follow in the footsteps of his father who is the hospital's chief surgeon.
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When Dr Achille-Cléophas Flaubert surprises his two younger children clinging to the trellis, he drives them away, even if he is not opposed to the very young children knowing that existence has an end.
Always the same.
And anyway, how could we hide from them that death is for every human being a fatal outcome, while from the windows of the pavilion, they constantly see the sick on their stretchers and their families in tears?
Does that prevent Gustave and Caroline from playing, from being read tales by Julie, the servant, from running, from laughing in the billiard room on the first floor when their friend, Ernest Chevalier, whose grandparents live? in front of the Hôtel-Dieu, makes a thousand and one faces?
Moreover, Gustave is never left out of antics.
His mother, the gentle and discreet Caroline, encourages him.
She often calls him
"my big nonsense teller
.
"
Moreover, the pavilion is not a gloomy house.
The Flauberts like to entertain and are part of the upper middle class in Rouen.
We gladly go to the theater, to the many local festivals, we stay in a country house owned by Dr Flaubert, and we never fail to go to the seaside in summer.
Until now, Caroline Flaubert has been in charge of cadet training.
Gustave had some difficulty in learning to read and to master the spelling.
But since then, he has made up for it, even if he still makes a few mistakes.
We constantly find him scribbling in a notebook, or even with his nose plunged into a book that the grandfather of his friend Ernest would have recommended.
Soon he will join the Royal College of Rouen in eighth grade.
We can not say that from this perspective, he shows a lot of enthusiasm.
When his father asks Gustave what he would like to become when he grows up, he invariably replies that he wants to write books, stories, plays and receive a thousand bravos.
Like those reserved for him by Caroline and Ernest when he invents characters and stages them.
Dr Flaubert isn't too worried about it.
But he quickly realized that his younger brother would give him a hard time before embarking on an honorable career.
“Gustave devours whatever comes to hand.
Victor Hugo, to whom he dedicates boundless admiration, Alexandre Dumas,
Cervantes'
Don Quixote
, Chateaubriand, Alfred de Vign
y »
Irina de Chikoff
Busy with his letter writing activities, his readings and his historical creations, Gustave did not see the time pass.
But one morning in May 1832, he had to come back to boring reality and go to college.
He doesn't like most of the students because he finds them brutal.
He sighs throughout the long hours of study.
Two teachers will however capture the attention of the schoolboy.
One teaches history, the other literature.
They themselves quickly detect unusual capacities in their pupil and will advise him, guide him in his reading.
Gustave devours whatever comes to hand.
Victor Hugo, to whom he has boundless admiration, Alexandre Dumas,
Cervantes'
Don Quixote
, Chateaubriand, Alfred de Vigny.
He shamelessly plunders them in his own writings.
He also got into the habit of noting the nonsense that adults say.
Almost all the adults, except his parents and Amédée Mignot, Ernest's uncle.
Over time, he will discover Montaigne, Rabelais and Goethe.
He passionately read
La Confession d'un enfant du siècle
by Alfred de Musset and adopted the romantic postures of his time.
We must be disenchanted.
He will be.
Isn't happiness in fashion?
His first love for Elisa Schlésinger, a young bride met in Trouville, will be unhappy and will inspire him
Les Mémoires d'un fou
.
Is disgust with life a form of elegance?
He professes it without renouncing his satirical verve.
A new friend, five years her senior, soon enters her life.
Alfred Le Poittevin, whose mother is close to Caroline Flaubert, is an enthusiastic young man.
Passionate.
Tortured.
This will in no way prevent him from initiating his younger brother to the brothels of Rouen.
This article is from the
Figaro Hors-Série Flaubert, the fury to write
. Discover Flaubert's eventful life, his friendships, his work, his characters, his quest for the perfect style in all the kiosks and on the
Figaro Store
.
Portrait of Signora Morrocchi by Antonio Puccinelli, 1859 AKG Images / De Agostini Picture Lib./G.Nimatallah
