Le laboratoire de création de Gustave Flaubert, une expression de la lenteur, de la patience pour le travail d’orfèvre
Gustave Flaubert's creative laboratory, an expression of slowness and patience for the work of a goldsmith

Author(s): Diana Rînciog
Subject(s): French Literature, Theory of Literature, Stylistics
Published by: Editura Junimea
Keywords: style; creation; research; letters; Benedictine effort;
Summary/Abstract: Work was a watchword in Gustave Flaubert’s life. The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, considered the laboratory of his fictional creation, “the oeuvre of the oeuvre”, frequently mentions the famous “test of loud declamation” («épreuve du gueuloir»), “the pangs of style” signifying careful consideration while writing for many hours, especially during the night, a genuine modus vivendi. Flaubert endeavours to think deeply in order to write well, since writing well is his aim and he does not hide it; that is why writing a book takes him five years on average! It is his way of purging himself, of being more Olympian. In fact, Flaubert puts in a Benedictine effort, like a jewelry maker, finding the first sentence slowly and with difficulty, at times even summarizing a whole idea, searching the libraries unhurriedly (for his last work, Bouvard and Pécuchet, he had consulted an impressive number of books, about 1500).

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