This book opens crucial new perspectives on the vexed question of chronology in Flaubert's work. Critics have struggled long and hard with the apparent inconsistencies in his writing, but Claire Addison's study reveals that the situation is far more subtle, complex and intriguing than hitherto supposed. She argues that Flaubert's manipula- tion of dates is deliberate, and that what have previously been dismissed as inadvertent errors are in fact evidence of the strong presence of Flaubert's personal mythology in his work, creating links between his family life, events in historical Europe, and events in the life of his literary characters. This altogether original reading goes far beyond what traditional methods of literary history allow us to perceive of the link between the life and work of the author. CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN FRENCH 48 WHERE FLAUBERT LIES CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN FRENCH GENERAL EDITOR: Malcolm Bowie (All Souls College, Oxford) EDITORIAL BOARD: R. Howard Bloch (University of California, Berkeley), Terence Cave (St John's College, Oxford), Ross Chambers (University of Michigan), Antoine Compagnon (Columbia University), Peter France (University of Edinburgh), Christie McDonald (Harvard University), Toril Moi (Duke University), Naomi Schor (Harvard University), Michael Sheringham (University of London) Recent titles in this series include 44 JAMES H. REID Narration and Description in the French Realist Novel: The Temporality of Lying and Forgetting 45 EUGENE W. HOLLAND Baudelaire and Schizoanalysis: The Sociopoetics of Modernism 46 HUGH M. DAVIDSON Pascal and the Arts of the Mind 47 DAVIDJ. DENBY Sentimental Narrative and the Social Order in France, 1760-1820: A Politics of Tears 48 CLAIRE ADDISON Where Flaubert Lies: Chronology, Mythology and History 49 JOHN GLAIBORNE ISBELL The Birth of European Romanticism: StaeVs De L'Allemagne 50 MICHAEL SPRINKER History and Ideology of Proust: A la recherche du temps perdu and the Third French Republic 51 DEE REYNOLDS Symbolist Aesthetics and Early Abstract Art: Sites of Imaginary Space 52 DAVID B. ALLISON, MARK S. ROBERTS and ALLEN S. WEISS Sade and the Narrative of Transgression 53 SIMON GAUNT Gender and Genre in Medieval French Literature 54 JEFFREYMEHLMAN Genealogies of the Text: Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Politics in Modern France A complete list of books in the series is given at the end of the volume. WHERE FLAUBERT LIES Chronology, mythology and history CLAIRE ADDISON University of Queensland CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521420167 © Cambridge University Press 1996 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1996 This digitally printed first paperback version 2006 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Addison, Claire. Where Flaubert lies: chronology, mythology and history / Claire Addison. p. cm. - (Cambridge studies in French: 48) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 42016 4 (hardback) 1. Flaubert, Gustave, 1821—1880 — Criticism and interpretation. 2. Time in literature. I. Title. II. Series. PQ2250.A33 1996 843'.8-dc20 95-32383 CIP ISBN-13 978-0-521-42016-7 hardback ISBN-10 0-521 -42016-4 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-03107-3 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-03107-9 paperback With affection and gratitude, to Blanche Yvonne and Thomas Joseph Addison Contents Publisher's note page x Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations and conventions xii Introduction i 1. The Flaubert dates n 2. The colours of time in the first Education sentimentale 22 3. Conception, birth, death in Madame Bovary 48 4. Heads and tails in Salammbo 88 5. Two-timing in UEducation sentimentale 130 6. The Hundred Days oiBouvard et Pecuchet 187 7. Petit dictionnaire de Flaubert 216 Adolphe Schlesinger 216 Alfred/Frederic 225 Auguste/Gustave 231 Bonaparte /Beauharnais 239 Emma/Emilie 253 Flaubert/Sophocle(s) 263 Rose/Hortense 269 Conclusion 282 Diachronic and synchronic charts 284 Bibliography 375 Index 383 IX Publisher's note The author of this book died just after the manuscript was delivered for press, and a number of people have been instru- mental in carrying out certain tasks which would ordinarily have been performed by the author herself. Particular gratitude is due to Professor P. M. Cryle and his colleagues at the Department of Romance Languages, University of Queensland, Dr Adrianne Tooke of Somerville College, Oxford, and Pro- fessor Malcolm Bowie of All Souls' College, Oxford, for their help in seeing the book through to publication.