1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,040 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,799 Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So, while I was 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:22,080 Speaker 1: working on research for our recent episode on Tayefield Steinlen, 5 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:25,920 Speaker 1: I was reminded while I was looking at the history 6 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:30,280 Speaker 1: of French censorship of the trial of Gustave Flaubert during 7 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:36,440 Speaker 1: the French Second Empire, regarding his novel Madame Beauvrie and 8 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,559 Speaker 1: I have rather fond memories of studying that book. I 9 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:41,960 Speaker 1: have feelings about it. We'll talk about them on Friday. 10 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:46,360 Speaker 1: Madame Bovarie, as we'll say, because it's a little easier 11 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: than saying the French accent every time. Is today considered 12 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 1: a classic, and it's, you know, pretty tame in nature, 13 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: But when it was written in the eighteen fifties not 14 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 1: considered tame. It fell under the accusing of the French 15 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:05,120 Speaker 1: government for its sexual content. So for today, first we're 16 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: going to talk a bit about Gustave Flaubert himself and 17 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: then bring his life story to the point where he 18 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:15,679 Speaker 1: found himself on trial for writing a book that was 19 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: accused of being immoral that was really pretty early in 20 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: his career as a writer, and then we'll talk a 21 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:24,160 Speaker 1: little bit about the effects of the trial and his 22 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:26,520 Speaker 1: life after it. I feel like I should say this 23 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:29,679 Speaker 1: is for someone like me that's read a lot about 24 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:35,240 Speaker 1: Gustave Flaubert. This feels very much not comprehensive. I'm like, oh, 25 00:01:35,319 --> 00:01:37,440 Speaker 1: I lef so much out. Even so it's a little 26 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: bit longish. So just know, if you are a Flaubert scholar, 27 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:42,720 Speaker 1: You're going to be like, you left so much out, 28 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: and I'm gonna be like, I know, baby, I need 29 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: That's what's up. So. Gustave Flaubert was born December twelfth, 30 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:55,560 Speaker 1: eighteen twenty one in Rule France. His father, Aquille Cleofa Flaubert, 31 00:01:55,720 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: was a surgeon. His mother, and Justine Caroline Flurio, was 32 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 1: from a family that could trace its roots back hundreds 33 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 1: of years in the history of Normandy. Doctor Flaubert accumulated 34 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:12,000 Speaker 1: wealth and property, but throughout his career he remained dedicated 35 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: to caring for Ruen's poor and indigent. He was known 36 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: as an outgoing man who excelled as a teacher to 37 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 1: the students at Hotel Dieu, where he was the head 38 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:26,080 Speaker 1: of surgery. The Flabers also accumulated a lot of wealth 39 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:30,800 Speaker 1: through real estate. A quill Kliophi purchased the land whenever 40 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: he could, and then he rented that land out for farming. Yeah, 41 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:39,400 Speaker 1: he really was much wealthier than a doctor in his 42 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,920 Speaker 1: particular role would normally be because he was very smart 43 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:46,640 Speaker 1: about investing. So by the time Gustav was born, the 44 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:50,320 Speaker 1: Flobers had welcomed several children, but they had tragically lost 45 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: several as well. First, they had a son named Akilla 46 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:57,000 Speaker 1: after his father, and then they had a daughter who 47 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: died as an infant. Their seconds so Emil Klopha died 48 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:06,080 Speaker 1: at eight months, and their third son, Jules Alfred, was 49 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:10,800 Speaker 1: born in eighteen nineteen. That was two years before Gustave. Sadly, 50 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:14,280 Speaker 1: Jules died in the autumn of eighteen twenty two, leaving 51 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:17,919 Speaker 1: only Akille and Gustave at that point. And then finally 52 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: they had a daughter named Caroline, who was born two 53 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 1: and a half years after Gustave. His mother understandably grieved 54 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:30,080 Speaker 1: deeply for all of these losses, and she also developed 55 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:33,360 Speaker 1: what's described as a pretty high level of anxiety about 56 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 1: her remaining children because she was afraid something would happen 57 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,360 Speaker 1: to them, and that anxiety was something those kids were 58 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:43,400 Speaker 1: very much aware of. In addition to that, the family 59 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: lived adjacent to the hospital. They were in like an 60 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: apartment that was connected directly to the facility, and that 61 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 1: meant that the children that Gustav and his siblings made 62 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: friends with were patients, and the Flaubert kids became very 63 00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 1: acquainted with loss, as many of those friends died from 64 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: their illnesses. Additionally, the children were allowed to freely roam 65 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:07,360 Speaker 1: the hospital, so they often saw the kinds of things 66 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:11,240 Speaker 1: that most parents would probably want to shield their children from, 67 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:14,000 Speaker 1: and they even went with their father on visits to 68 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: mental asylums when he made medical visits there, maybe trying 69 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,480 Speaker 1: to get a break from all the anxieties and sorrows 70 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:25,320 Speaker 1: of this day to day life. Gustavs said to have 71 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: sought out adults around him who were good at telling stories. 72 00:04:29,839 --> 00:04:32,839 Speaker 1: One was a young woman named Julie who was hired 73 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:35,080 Speaker 1: to help with the children and to help around the house. 74 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:40,600 Speaker 1: Another was a neighbor named Mignon, and Monsieur Mignon told 75 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 1: him stories of Don Quixote, which left a very strong 76 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:48,120 Speaker 1: impression on the young boy. Flaubert later wrote quote, I 77 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: find all my roots in the book I learned by 78 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: heart before learning how to read Don Quixote. Apparently it 79 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:58,279 Speaker 1: took him a while to learn how to read because 80 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:01,560 Speaker 1: he preferred to have people just read to him. But 81 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:05,039 Speaker 1: once he did learn, he was a voracious reader. He 82 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:08,920 Speaker 1: also started writing letters to just about everyone he knew 83 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: as a child. Yeah, these are also the kinds of 84 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:16,599 Speaker 1: letters that you would not associate with a child's writing. 85 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: He wrote like long letters about his inner thoughts and 86 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:24,280 Speaker 1: like what was going on in the world around him. 87 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:28,800 Speaker 1: Like they sound much more informative than many letters that 88 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 1: I would certainly write today. At the age of ten, 89 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,800 Speaker 1: Gustave went to boarding school, although that school was still 90 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 1: quite close to his home, but he did board there 91 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,159 Speaker 1: and he was there for the next eight years. When 92 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: he was still a teenager of sixteen, he published his 93 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:48,360 Speaker 1: first piece in a local literary review titled Le Kolibri 94 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:51,839 Speaker 1: that means the hummingbird. It is unclear to me what 95 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:56,039 Speaker 1: the subject of that early writing was. He also completed 96 00:05:56,040 --> 00:06:00,919 Speaker 1: his first novel that year, memoir Don fu or Memoirs 97 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:05,120 Speaker 1: of a Madman. This was about a married woman eleven 98 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:08,080 Speaker 1: years older than him, who he was obsessed with. It 99 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: was based on his real life about a woman named 100 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:15,600 Speaker 1: Elisa Slessinger who had no idea. This teenager thought that 101 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:18,520 Speaker 1: he was in love with her. He did not publish 102 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 1: this manuscript or anything else for decades. Yeah, it does 103 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:27,600 Speaker 1: come back in a different way, but that is very fascinating. 104 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:32,240 Speaker 1: I apparently Schlessinger, who he came to know later in life, 105 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:35,440 Speaker 1: did not find out until like thirty five years later 106 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:38,919 Speaker 1: that she was the subject of this book, or that 107 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: he had been just obsessed with her as a teenager. 108 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:44,560 Speaker 1: When he was still a teen he also became friends 109 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:48,159 Speaker 1: with the pessimist philosopher Alfred le PoID Vein, and the 110 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:52,160 Speaker 1: two men remained lifelong friends. Early on in his life, 111 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:57,760 Speaker 1: Flaubert developed this very strong sensibility in which he absolutely 112 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:01,920 Speaker 1: loathed things like cliche and what he called yde requieu 113 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:07,000 Speaker 1: preconceived ideas, and he started compiling a list of these things, 114 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:11,000 Speaker 1: basically anything that was often repeated as known wisdom that 115 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:13,960 Speaker 1: he thought was stupid. This may be the thing that 116 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 1: makes me feel the most affinity for Gustafabert. We'll talk 117 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,400 Speaker 1: about it on Friday. There was a very real degree 118 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:23,800 Speaker 1: of intellectual snobbery to Flobert even as a child and 119 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:26,840 Speaker 1: as a teen, and he and Le Poitvin came up 120 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,360 Speaker 1: with an imaginary character that they named simply le Gesson, 121 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:34,160 Speaker 1: and he kind of became the bourgeois embodiment of every 122 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:38,000 Speaker 1: stupid thing that they heard people saying. Flaubert was thrown 123 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 1: out of school the year he was supposed to graduate. 124 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: It's not one hundred percent clear what happened here, but 125 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:48,280 Speaker 1: the prevailing theory is that when the schools well liked 126 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:51,920 Speaker 1: philosophy teacher took a leave due to illness, Gustav and 127 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 1: his friends were just at odds with the substitute, and 128 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 1: things escalated to the point that the boys were removed. 129 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 1: They were allowed to sit for their final exams, though, 130 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:05,400 Speaker 1: and Gustav passed. Flaubert was sent on a trip to 131 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: the Mediterranean as a reward. Yeah he went with like 132 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:10,720 Speaker 1: a family friend, and it was a two month trip. 133 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:16,280 Speaker 1: Just before his twentieth birthday, Flaubert began studying law in Paris. 134 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:20,040 Speaker 1: He did not find Paris to his liking, and he 135 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:23,440 Speaker 1: didn't really want to be a lawyer. He had known 136 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:25,680 Speaker 1: from the time that he learned to read and write 137 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:27,800 Speaker 1: that what he wanted was to be a writer, but 138 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:31,000 Speaker 1: his parents wanted him to study for some sort of vocation. 139 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,040 Speaker 1: He went along with this, although he said, even if 140 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 1: I graduate, I'm not going to study. I'm not going 141 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 1: to practice law. So whatever, I'm placating you. But by 142 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:44,080 Speaker 1: the time Flaubert was twenty two, he was actually having 143 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:47,360 Speaker 1: a lot of difficulties with his law studies, and he 144 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:51,200 Speaker 1: started having some pretty frightening health issues. He had a 145 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:54,480 Speaker 1: seizure one night in January eighteen forty four while he 146 00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:57,480 Speaker 1: was riding in a carriage with his brother, and they 147 00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:00,199 Speaker 1: went to his father's house, where he had several more 148 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:04,720 Speaker 1: Years later, he wrote about these attacks this way quote. 149 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 1: Each attack was like a hemorrhage of the nervous system, 150 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:13,240 Speaker 1: seminal losses from the pictorial faculty of the brain, one 151 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: hundred thousand images cavorting at once in a kind of fireworks. 152 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:21,200 Speaker 1: It was a snatching of the soul from the body. Excruciating. 153 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: I am convinced I died several times. But what constitutes 154 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:30,680 Speaker 1: the personality? The rational essence was present throughout. Had it 155 00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:33,000 Speaker 1: not been, the suffering would have been nothing, for I 156 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:36,640 Speaker 1: would have been purely passive, whereas I was always conscious, 157 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:40,120 Speaker 1: even when I could no longer speak. Thus my soul 158 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:44,320 Speaker 1: was turned back entirely on itself, like a hedgehog wounding 159 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:48,440 Speaker 1: itself with its own quills. Because this started at a 160 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:50,840 Speaker 1: time in his life when he was very stressed, it 161 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:54,280 Speaker 1: has sometimes been reported as sort of a nervous breakdown, 162 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:59,720 Speaker 1: although other reads of the situation specifically say he had epilepsy. 163 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:02,840 Speaker 1: To a letter he wrote to his friend La Poitevin, 164 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:06,480 Speaker 1: he was bled in three places at once before he 165 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:11,120 Speaker 1: regained consciousness, But writing to his friend about what had happened, 166 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 1: Flaubert was really astonishingly upbeat. After mentioning that he was 167 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:19,679 Speaker 1: being sent to the seashore for a rest, he notes 168 00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: that he must sound boring, but that if he's going 169 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:25,920 Speaker 1: to have old men's illnesses quote, I must be allowed 170 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:29,800 Speaker 1: to drivel on the way they do. He did try 171 00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:32,400 Speaker 1: to return to school in Paris briefly, but then he 172 00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:35,440 Speaker 1: had another seizure which sent him back home to Ruon 173 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:40,120 Speaker 1: and ended his law study. His father purchased a home 174 00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:43,080 Speaker 1: in Croisse, outside of Ruon, so he could live at 175 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:46,680 Speaker 1: a more peaceful place. At this point it seemed like 176 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,199 Speaker 1: he would be just taken care of by a paid staff. 177 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:53,000 Speaker 1: The family had wealth they could afford to do that, 178 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:54,400 Speaker 1: and that would be the case for the rest of 179 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:57,040 Speaker 1: his life. But it also meant that he could turn 180 00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:01,400 Speaker 1: his attention entirely to writing. Coming up, we'll talk about 181 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:04,439 Speaker 1: Flaubert's approach to writing, but first we will have a 182 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 1: quick sponsor break. A recurrent aspect of Flaubert's work is 183 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,240 Speaker 1: that he would often revisit earlier writing to try to 184 00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:24,200 Speaker 1: make use of it by editing it and shaping it 185 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:27,880 Speaker 1: into something better. And this began right away, early in 186 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:30,480 Speaker 1: this phase of life where he started to write in earnest. 187 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:33,640 Speaker 1: Most of us who did any writing in our teens 188 00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 1: probably consider that work to be juvenile and not worth 189 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:38,600 Speaker 1: our time if we did not set it on fire 190 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:41,160 Speaker 1: or throw it out. But that is not how it 191 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:45,559 Speaker 1: worked for Gustav Flaubert. Recall that first manuscript that we 192 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:48,200 Speaker 1: talked about that he wrote about the older woman he 193 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:52,040 Speaker 1: had fixated on. He took that character of the older 194 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:55,120 Speaker 1: woman and his fixation and he retooled them into a 195 00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 1: new work called Novembre, which also was not published. One 196 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:02,120 Speaker 1: of the things he is notorious about as being a perfectionist, 197 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:04,880 Speaker 1: he did not want anyone to see any of his 198 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:07,720 Speaker 1: works until he was one hundred percent happy. He often 199 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:11,920 Speaker 1: recopied them over and over, editing as he went. But 200 00:12:12,040 --> 00:12:14,920 Speaker 1: he then adapted the story again to drop it into 201 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:18,520 Speaker 1: a larger narrative about the French Revolution that was titled 202 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:23,280 Speaker 1: Legucacion Sentimental. But though he finished the first version of 203 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:25,559 Speaker 1: that in the early eighteen forties, it would be more 204 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:29,360 Speaker 1: than twenty years before he revised it again and finally 205 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:32,760 Speaker 1: published it. And this kind of ongoing revision was something 206 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:35,160 Speaker 1: he did throughout his life, and as we'll see, near 207 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,480 Speaker 1: the end of his life, he sometimes went way back 208 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:41,200 Speaker 1: to work that one might not even consider that useful 209 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:44,960 Speaker 1: for such a thing. At the beginning of eighteen forty six, 210 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:49,079 Speaker 1: Flaubert's father died. Then just two months after he lost 211 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:52,880 Speaker 1: his father, his sister Caroline, who was only twenty one, died. 212 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:57,400 Speaker 1: She had spent two months having complications from childbirth before 213 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: her death. Gustav and his sister were very close, so 214 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:05,840 Speaker 1: this loss just devastated him. He decided to raise her daughter, 215 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:08,800 Speaker 1: so he took the baby and his widowed mother to 216 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:12,600 Speaker 1: live in his home in Clisse. Yeah, his niece was 217 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:15,480 Speaker 1: also named Caroline, so there's a lot of Caroline's in 218 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:19,160 Speaker 1: this story. The same year that all of those losses 219 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:22,760 Speaker 1: and life changes played out, Flaubert also met the poet 220 00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:26,400 Speaker 1: Louise Colet when he was visiting Paris. He was actually 221 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 1: in Paris to have a sculpture made of his sister 222 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:32,480 Speaker 1: and was carrying her death mask to do it, and 223 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:36,160 Speaker 1: when he went to visit the sculptor, he meets Louise 224 00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:40,240 Speaker 1: and the two of them began a very intense affair 225 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:45,080 Speaker 1: which lasted eight years. She was married. Her husband, musician 226 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:48,360 Speaker 1: Hippolite Colt, was still alive for the first five years 227 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:51,800 Speaker 1: of this affair. Louise had married him to get away 228 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:53,960 Speaker 1: from life in the country and to move to Paris. 229 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: But once she was in Paris, she was definitely not monogamous, 230 00:13:57,520 --> 00:14:01,439 Speaker 1: and Flaubert was not her first affair. The relationship between 231 00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:05,200 Speaker 1: Luis Colet and Gustave Flaubert was tempestuous, and at one 232 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:07,960 Speaker 1: point they did stop seeing each other completely, kind of 233 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,800 Speaker 1: in the middle of their relationship, but they were soon 234 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:13,840 Speaker 1: together again. He spent a lot of time with his 235 00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 1: close friend Maxim du Camp. The two men went on 236 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,160 Speaker 1: a walking tour together through the Loire Valley and along 237 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 1: the coast of Brittany. The journal that Flaubert wrote during 238 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:27,360 Speaker 1: their days is considered by some to be some of 239 00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:31,400 Speaker 1: his finest work. It was not published in his lifetime, 240 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:35,400 Speaker 1: but after his death, with the title Parles Champ at 241 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:39,880 Speaker 1: Parle Greve, which is Through Fields and along Shores. In 242 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine, Flaubert, his friend du Camp and another friend, 243 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:47,960 Speaker 1: poet Louis Bouiller, met up so that Flaubert could read 244 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:50,840 Speaker 1: the other two a novel that he had been working on, 245 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:53,560 Speaker 1: and he read it aloud to them over the course 246 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:56,960 Speaker 1: of several days a reported thirty two hours of reading, 247 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:01,560 Speaker 1: and the reception to this was not good. His friends 248 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:05,160 Speaker 1: are described as being just utterly brutal in their criticism. 249 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:08,400 Speaker 1: He was, in fact advised to throw the whole thing 250 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:12,120 Speaker 1: in the fire and never speak of it again. This 251 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:15,760 Speaker 1: was the first time he had shared his novel writing 252 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:18,600 Speaker 1: with anyone, and although it must have been incredibly painful 253 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,680 Speaker 1: to have his two close friends very harshly criticize it, 254 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:25,440 Speaker 1: he and Ducamp remained very close. The two young men 255 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:28,000 Speaker 1: actually went on a tour of Europe and Northern Africa 256 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:31,240 Speaker 1: right after this. Flaubert is said to have come home 257 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 1: from that trip with syphilis, which he got while visiting 258 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:38,320 Speaker 1: a brothel abroad. Flaubert's next project was the work that 259 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:43,400 Speaker 1: would eventually become Madame Bovarye. It too had roots in 260 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:47,080 Speaker 1: earlier writing, including a piece from eighteen thirty seven called 261 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:51,040 Speaker 1: Passion and Virtue. There appear to have been a lot 262 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:54,080 Speaker 1: of influences that went into the creation of the character 263 00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 1: of Emma Bovary, and different accounts of the author's life 264 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 1: and work will cite one or another, or sometimes multiple. 265 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:05,360 Speaker 1: For instance, Flaubert is said to have been pointed at 266 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:08,520 Speaker 1: the true story of doctor Eugene de Lamar and his 267 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:14,200 Speaker 1: wife Veronique Delphine Couturier. Veronique was bored by her life 268 00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: as the spouse of a country physician, and she engaged 269 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:21,680 Speaker 1: in a life of debauchery and infidelity, which ultimately consumed 270 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:24,600 Speaker 1: her until her death by suicide in her mid twenties. 271 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: This is really close to the Madame Bowerie story, but 272 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:32,160 Speaker 1: there are other similar stories that Flaubert also knew, some 273 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:36,840 Speaker 1: of personal acquaintances of women who found their bourgeois lives 274 00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:41,240 Speaker 1: stultifying and who longed for more and sought out affairs 275 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:43,680 Speaker 1: to try to bring a spark into their lives that 276 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:47,360 Speaker 1: they had been longing for. As for Flaubert, he always 277 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:50,200 Speaker 1: told anyone who asked who Madame Bowerie was based on 278 00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:54,080 Speaker 1: that it was himself, famously quoted almost everywhere you can 279 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:58,560 Speaker 1: find as Madame Beauvarie semoi. And the truth is that 280 00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:02,600 Speaker 1: his most famous character is probably an amalgam of all 281 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:06,080 Speaker 1: of these things, as there are pretty keen parallels to 282 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:08,960 Speaker 1: all of them within the story in terms of details. 283 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:12,879 Speaker 1: There were women he knew and knew about who found 284 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:16,040 Speaker 1: that the life of a wife was far less romantic 285 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:18,880 Speaker 1: than the books they had read growing up were leading 286 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:22,080 Speaker 1: them to believe. And Eugene de la march is said 287 00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:25,200 Speaker 1: to have been one of Flobert's father's students, so there 288 00:17:25,359 --> 00:17:28,800 Speaker 1: may have been a personal connection to that story. And 289 00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:31,760 Speaker 1: like his heroine, Flobar lived a life where the main 290 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:34,760 Speaker 1: male figure he knew was a doctor, and the young 291 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:38,280 Speaker 1: Gustave found the average life around him in that scenario 292 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:43,439 Speaker 1: lacking in originality and stimulus. But also who among us 293 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,720 Speaker 1: has not had that similar feeling at some point in 294 00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:51,159 Speaker 1: their lives right? That really does explain the appeal of 295 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:54,600 Speaker 1: this novel story. A lot of people can relate to 296 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:58,960 Speaker 1: Emma's longing. Flabar himself wrote that there were people just 297 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:03,000 Speaker 1: like Emma Bovarie crying throughout France. He also wrote to 298 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:06,280 Speaker 1: Louise Colais in eighteen fifty two quote, if my book 299 00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:09,840 Speaker 1: is good, it will gently caress many a feminine wound. 300 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:14,080 Speaker 1: More than one woman will smile as she recognizes herself 301 00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:18,359 Speaker 1: in it. Incidentally, as he was working on the novel 302 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:21,399 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty five, he broke off his affair with 303 00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:24,680 Speaker 1: Louise Colay for the last time, after a period where 304 00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: the two were clearly falling apart. They had a lot 305 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:31,560 Speaker 1: of conflict, his friends were getting involved. He wrote her 306 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:35,200 Speaker 1: a very definitive letter on March sixth, eighteen fifty five, 307 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:39,600 Speaker 1: which read, in its entirety, Madam, I was told that 308 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:41,600 Speaker 1: you took the trouble to come here to see me 309 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:47,480 Speaker 1: three times last evening I was not in and, fearing 310 00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:51,679 Speaker 1: less persistence expose you to humiliation. I am bound by 311 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:54,800 Speaker 1: the rules of politeness to warn you that I shall 312 00:18:54,920 --> 00:19:01,440 Speaker 1: never be. In the story of Madame Bovarie, extremely briefly 313 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:04,960 Speaker 1: is that the main character, Emma, who has spent her 314 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,399 Speaker 1: teenage years in a convent school, is married off to 315 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:11,800 Speaker 1: Charles Bovary, a country doctor who cares for her but 316 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:16,920 Speaker 1: is not exactly passionate. She's grown up reading romance novels. 317 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,320 Speaker 1: She believes she's about to start the life she has 318 00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:22,719 Speaker 1: always dreamed of, only to find that her days are 319 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:26,560 Speaker 1: dull and filled with on Wii. She starts trying to 320 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,480 Speaker 1: find ways to bring more excitement into her life while 321 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:33,600 Speaker 1: simultaneously pushing her husband to pursue a practice in the 322 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:40,280 Speaker 1: city of Ruon. This begins with reckless spending. A merchant 323 00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:45,320 Speaker 1: named Lrux named a ham fistedly offers her a wide 324 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:50,080 Speaker 1: array of expensive luxuries on credit. As she starts getting 325 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:53,040 Speaker 1: a taste of the finer life, she also starts cheating 326 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:58,160 Speaker 1: on her husband, looking unsuccessfully for the thrilling romance she's 327 00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:02,720 Speaker 1: always been looking for. In every instance, the men she 328 00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:06,159 Speaker 1: turns to let her down, and her dealings with both 329 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:10,160 Speaker 1: the merchant and her lovers, she's left used by them. 330 00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:14,280 Speaker 1: But though the reader may initially identify with this longing 331 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:17,680 Speaker 1: that she has, she's revealed not to be a romantic 332 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:22,280 Speaker 1: figure caged in social mores, but a selfish and shallow 333 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:26,760 Speaker 1: person whose actions hurt the people around her. The book 334 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,119 Speaker 1: does not end well for her. The coda of this 335 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:35,600 Speaker 1: novel is purposely unsatisfying, showing the undeserving as being rewarded 336 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:40,400 Speaker 1: and that life is not fair or just. As Flobert 337 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,680 Speaker 1: was working on the book, his friend Maxim Duchamp had 338 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:46,560 Speaker 1: become a member of the Review de Paris and he 339 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: encouraged Flaubert to publish his news story in the literary 340 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:54,160 Speaker 1: journal in installments, and once Flobert was ready, he did 341 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:58,800 Speaker 1: so under the title Madame Beauverie mourd Clovence, beginning on 342 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:02,760 Speaker 1: October first, eighteen fifty six. As we mentioned in our 343 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:06,720 Speaker 1: recent episode on Tea Fieldsteinland, France was going through cycles 344 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:09,840 Speaker 1: in which its laws regarding the press would tighten and 345 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:13,479 Speaker 1: then relax. But by the time the last installment of 346 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:17,080 Speaker 1: Madame Boverie appeared in the Review de Paris on December fifteenth, 347 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:21,959 Speaker 1: Flaubert was in the sights of the French government. His 348 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:26,560 Speaker 1: story was accused of being blasphemous and of offending public morals. 349 00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:30,760 Speaker 1: The formal charge was having committed the misdemeanor of an 350 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:36,000 Speaker 1: outrage against public and religious morals and established customs. There's 351 00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:38,600 Speaker 1: actually an interesting element to this in that the Review 352 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:41,920 Speaker 1: de Paris had actually edited out one of the seamier 353 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:44,440 Speaker 1: parts of the book because they were afraid of being 354 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:47,679 Speaker 1: shut down or punished if they ran it. The author 355 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:50,160 Speaker 1: had told the editors that if something had to be suppressed, 356 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:53,000 Speaker 1: which he wasn't wild about, he wanted that to be 357 00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:56,080 Speaker 1: noted on the page, and they acquiesced. So there was 358 00:21:56,119 --> 00:21:59,000 Speaker 1: a note on that page that read quote, the directors 359 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,320 Speaker 1: have seen the necessity of suppressing a passage here which 360 00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:05,359 Speaker 1: did not seem fitting to the review de parie. We 361 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:09,119 Speaker 1: give notice of it to the author. Had the original 362 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:12,639 Speaker 1: version run, things may have been even more problematic for 363 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:17,160 Speaker 1: Gustave Flaubert. The trial was set for January twenty ninth, 364 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:21,920 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven. On January twentieth, Gustav wrote a letter 365 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:26,560 Speaker 1: to his brother Akille with an absolutely delicious passage that 366 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:29,000 Speaker 1: gives a great insight into where his head was at. 367 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:33,800 Speaker 1: With this quote, the police have blundered. They thought they 368 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:36,800 Speaker 1: were attacking a run of the mill novel and some 369 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:41,560 Speaker 1: ordinary little scribbler. Whereas now, in part thanks to the prosecution, 370 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:46,199 Speaker 1: my novel is looked on as a masterpiece. And for 371 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:49,199 Speaker 1: the author he has for defenders a number of what 372 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:53,320 Speaker 1: used to be called grand Dams. The Empress, among others, 373 00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,720 Speaker 1: has twice spoken in my favor. The Emperor said the 374 00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:00,200 Speaker 1: first time they should leave him alone. And despite all that, 375 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:05,160 Speaker 1: the case was taken up again. Why there begins the mystery. 376 00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:08,840 Speaker 1: While waiting, I am preparing my statement, which is simply 377 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:12,800 Speaker 1: my novel itself. But I am cramming the margins next 378 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:17,679 Speaker 1: to the incriminated passages with embarrassing quotations drawn from the classics, 379 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,840 Speaker 1: to show, by means of that simple parallel, that for 380 00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:24,560 Speaker 1: the last three hundred years there hasn't been a line 381 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:29,320 Speaker 1: in French literature that couldn't be indicted as undermining morality 382 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:34,080 Speaker 1: and religion. Have no fear, I shall be quite calm. 383 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:36,199 Speaker 1: As for not appearing at the trial. That would be 384 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:40,080 Speaker 1: a retreat. I shan't say anything, but we'll stand next 385 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:43,880 Speaker 1: to Senrod, who will need me there. Besides, I can't 386 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 1: afford not to display my criminal countenance to the populace. No, no, 387 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:52,480 Speaker 1: that's a great letter. We will get to the details 388 00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:54,600 Speaker 1: of the one day trial after we hear from the 389 00:23:54,600 --> 00:24:07,520 Speaker 1: sponsors that keep the show going. The lead prosecutor in 390 00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:11,679 Speaker 1: the Madame Bovarie case, Ernespnaw, opened the proceedings and he 391 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:16,040 Speaker 1: talked for a very long time. He explained early on 392 00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:18,080 Speaker 1: that that was going to be the case, and why, 393 00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:22,240 Speaker 1: stating quote, The difficulty is not in arousing a prejudice. 394 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,200 Speaker 1: It is far more in explaining the work of which 395 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:29,880 Speaker 1: you are to judge. It deals entirely with romance. If 396 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:32,840 Speaker 1: it were a newspaper article which we were bringing before you, 397 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,119 Speaker 1: it could be seen at once where the fault began 398 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:38,360 Speaker 1: and where it ended. It would simply be read by 399 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:42,320 Speaker 1: the Ministry and submitted to you for judgment. Here we 400 00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,679 Speaker 1: are not concerned with a newspaper article, but entirely with 401 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:49,480 Speaker 1: a romance which begins the first of October, finishes the 402 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,879 Speaker 1: fifteenth of December, and is composed of six numbers in 403 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: the Review de Paris, eighteen fifty six. What is to 404 00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,720 Speaker 1: be done in such a case? What is the duty 405 00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:03,719 Speaker 1: of the public ministry to read the whole romance? That 406 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,359 Speaker 1: is impossible. On the other hand, to read only the 407 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 1: incriminating texts would expose us to deep reproach. They could 408 00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,600 Speaker 1: say to us, if you do not show the case 409 00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:16,480 Speaker 1: in all its parts, if you pass over that which 410 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,159 Speaker 1: proceeds in that which follows the incriminating passages, it is 411 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,119 Speaker 1: evident that you wish to suppress the debate by restricting 412 00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,880 Speaker 1: the ground of discussion. In order to avoid this two 413 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:30,320 Speaker 1: full difficulty, there is but one course to follow, and 414 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:33,080 Speaker 1: that is to relate to you the whole story of 415 00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:36,639 Speaker 1: the romance without reading any of it or pointing out 416 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:42,560 Speaker 1: any incriminating passage. Then to cite incriminating texts, and finally 417 00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:45,840 Speaker 1: to answer the objections that may arise against the general 418 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:50,760 Speaker 1: method of indictment. So Pinard then began to tell the 419 00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:56,119 Speaker 1: entire story of Madame Bovary, and in English language translation 420 00:25:56,280 --> 00:26:01,000 Speaker 1: it took almost seven thousand words, so probably around fifty 421 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:05,800 Speaker 1: minutes to an hour when spoken aloud. When he was done, 422 00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:10,720 Speaker 1: he stated that the book glorified adultery and insulted religion. 423 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,440 Speaker 1: Did not seem to matter to him that Emma Bovary 424 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:19,480 Speaker 1: gets serious come uppance in the book. No moral lesson 425 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:24,679 Speaker 1: could validate the offending passages. Pinard then pointed the finger 426 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:28,600 Speaker 1: at Flaubert and his publisher, quote, you have before you, gentlemen, 427 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:32,879 Speaker 1: three guilty ones. Monsieur Flaubert, the author of the book, 428 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:37,080 Speaker 1: Monsieur Pshaw, who accepted it, and Monsieur Pilet who printed it. 429 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,639 Speaker 1: In this matter. There is no misdemeanor without publicity, and 430 00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,680 Speaker 1: all those concerned in the publicity should be equally blamed. 431 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,840 Speaker 1: But we hastened to say that the manager of the 432 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,960 Speaker 1: review and the printer are only in the second rank. 433 00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:57,120 Speaker 1: The principal offender is the author, Monsieur Flaubert. Monsieur Flaubert, 434 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,639 Speaker 1: who admonished by a note from his editor, protested against 435 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,640 Speaker 1: the suppression which had been made in his work. The 436 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:10,720 Speaker 1: opening of the defense by Flaubert's attorney, Monsieur Sinard, began quote, gentlemen, 437 00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:14,760 Speaker 1: Monsieur Gustave Flaubert has been accused before you of making 438 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:18,800 Speaker 1: a bad book, of having in this book outraged public 439 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:23,399 Speaker 1: morals and religion. Monsieur Gustave Flaubert is beside me and 440 00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:26,639 Speaker 1: affirms before you that he has made an honest book. 441 00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:29,600 Speaker 1: He affirms before you that the thought in his book, 442 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,680 Speaker 1: from the first line to the last, is a moral thought, 443 00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,560 Speaker 1: and that if it were not perverted. And you have 444 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,880 Speaker 1: seen during the last hour how great a talent one 445 00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,959 Speaker 1: may have for perverting a thought, it would be and 446 00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:44,800 Speaker 1: will become again presently for you, as it has been 447 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,359 Speaker 1: already for the readers of the book, an eminently moral 448 00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:52,560 Speaker 1: and religious thought capable of being translated into these words 449 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:57,680 Speaker 1: the excitation of virtue through the horror of vice. The 450 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:00,520 Speaker 1: rest of the defense invoked the good name of the 451 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:05,800 Speaker 1: Flaubert family and Gustav's serious and thoughtful nature, but it 452 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:08,720 Speaker 1: also managed to get some misogyny into the mix by 453 00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:12,720 Speaker 1: showing that Flaubert was warning against women trying to rise 454 00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 1: above their station in life. Quote. I have here stated 455 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:20,600 Speaker 1: that Monsieur Flaubert wished to paint a woman who, instead 456 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,480 Speaker 1: of trying to adapt herself to the conditions in which 457 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:27,159 Speaker 1: she was placed, to her position and her birth, instead 458 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,600 Speaker 1: of seeking to make herself a part of the life 459 00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:33,320 Speaker 1: to which she belonged, was occupied with a thousand foreign 460 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:38,560 Speaker 1: aspirations drawn from an education too far above her Instead 461 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:42,280 Speaker 1: of accommodating herself to the duties of her position, of 462 00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:45,360 Speaker 1: being the tranquil wife of a country doctor with whom 463 00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,360 Speaker 1: she should pass her days, in place of seeking her 464 00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:51,800 Speaker 1: happiness and her house and her marriage, sought it in 465 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:57,680 Speaker 1: interminable fancies. Yeah. In case it's not obvious from that passage, 466 00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 1: what he's getting at is this is a woman who 467 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,480 Speaker 1: had a little too much education, and that's dangerous. Yeah, 468 00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:07,240 Speaker 1: she should not have wanted things. Don't want things, don't 469 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:09,800 Speaker 1: learn things that might make you want a life other 470 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,480 Speaker 1: than your own. SNAr insisted on reading the portion of 471 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:16,480 Speaker 1: the story that had been cut by the editors. If 472 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:18,440 Speaker 1: you've read the book, you know which one this is. 473 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:21,240 Speaker 1: It's a scene in which Madame Bowerie and her lover 474 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:25,200 Speaker 1: are having a clandestine sexual meeting in a carriage as 475 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,760 Speaker 1: the driver is instructed to continue to drive around. And 476 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 1: this particular passage he wanted to read because it concludes 477 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:35,080 Speaker 1: with the line quote in her heart, she felt already 478 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,720 Speaker 1: that cowardly docility that is for some women at once, 479 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:43,400 Speaker 1: the chastisement and atonement of adultery, and Sinnar drew attention 480 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,640 Speaker 1: to that line. One of the reasons this is so 481 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,680 Speaker 1: funny to me is that when I was in college 482 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:53,000 Speaker 1: and we studied this book, our whole class did not 483 00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:59,520 Speaker 1: really grasp, like, how what was happening in the catch? Yeah, 484 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:05,360 Speaker 1: professor like read it out loud to us, dramatically, intoning 485 00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:10,160 Speaker 1: the important bits. Yeah, we similar. But I read it 486 00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:14,120 Speaker 1: in high school and I don't remember whether it was 487 00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:15,880 Speaker 1: me or one of my friends that was trying to 488 00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:17,960 Speaker 1: explain it to kids. That were not getting it. That 489 00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:25,040 Speaker 1: was like, if this carriage is a rocket, right, yeah. 490 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,120 Speaker 1: So the defense also appealed to the court on the 491 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:32,520 Speaker 1: basis of the way Charles Bovary is represented in the 492 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:36,240 Speaker 1: book's danu mal declaring quote. There is not a man who, 493 00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:39,480 Speaker 1: having read this, would not say that Monsieur Flaubert is 494 00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:42,040 Speaker 1: not only a great artist, but a man of heart, 495 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,520 Speaker 1: for having in the last six pages turned all the 496 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:49,640 Speaker 1: horror and scorn upon the woman and all the interest 497 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:53,200 Speaker 1: towards the husband. He is a great artist, as has 498 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:56,400 Speaker 1: been said, because he has left the husband as he was, 499 00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:00,160 Speaker 1: he has not transformed him. And to the end he 500 00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:05,000 Speaker 1: is the same, good man, commonplace, mediocre, full of the 501 00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:09,280 Speaker 1: duties of his profession, loving his wife well, but destitute 502 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:13,160 Speaker 1: of education or elevation of thought. He is the same 503 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:17,160 Speaker 1: at the deathbed of his wife. And nevertheless, there is 504 00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:20,760 Speaker 1: not an individual to whom the memory returns with more interest. 505 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:24,560 Speaker 1: Why because he has kept to the end his simplicity 506 00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:28,160 Speaker 1: and uprightness of heart. Because to the end he has 507 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:33,160 Speaker 1: fulfilled his duty while his wife was led astray. So 508 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,480 Speaker 1: here's the important point that I would just personally like 509 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:38,200 Speaker 1: to make regarding the way this book was both attacked 510 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:42,080 Speaker 1: and defended because it's always made me a little bit irate. 511 00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:47,520 Speaker 1: All of the firestorm around it regarding morality was based 512 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,920 Speaker 1: on the idea that the wife of an upstanding husband 513 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:56,280 Speaker 1: would dare to commit adultery. There is never ever introduced 514 00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:59,760 Speaker 1: in any of this discussion any moral red flag regarding 515 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:03,720 Speaker 1: them male characters who were perfectly happy to seduce Sema 516 00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,920 Speaker 1: Bovary even though they knew she was married and in 517 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 1: fact had social relationships with her husband. All of the 518 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:14,400 Speaker 1: blame and shame is given to the woman, Madame Bovary. 519 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:19,080 Speaker 1: Though the court proceedings were brief, Flaubert and his publisher 520 00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:22,520 Speaker 1: waited a week for the verdict. It's lengthy, were not 521 00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:24,840 Speaker 1: going to try to read the whole thing, But the 522 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,520 Speaker 1: ending reads quote be it known that the work of 523 00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:31,760 Speaker 1: which Flaubert is the author is a work which appears 524 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:35,920 Speaker 1: to be long and seriously elaborated from a literary point 525 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,680 Speaker 1: of view, as a study of character. That the passages 526 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:43,880 Speaker 1: coming under the ordinance for dismissal, as reprehensible as they 527 00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: may be, are few in number as compared with the 528 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:51,200 Speaker 1: extent of the work. That these passages either in the 529 00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:55,800 Speaker 1: ideas they expose, or in the situations they represent, bring 530 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,360 Speaker 1: out as a whole the characters which the author wished 531 00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:04,120 Speaker 1: to paint, although exaggerated and impregnated with a vulgar realism, 532 00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:09,320 Speaker 1: often shocking. That Gustave Flaubert affirms his respect for good 533 00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:14,160 Speaker 1: manners and all that attaches itself to religious morals, that 534 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:16,520 Speaker 1: it does not appear that his book has been written, 535 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,720 Speaker 1: like certain other books, with the sole aim of giving 536 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:24,280 Speaker 1: satisfaction to the sensual passions, to a spirit of license 537 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:28,120 Speaker 1: and debauch, or of ridiculing things which would be held 538 00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:31,800 Speaker 1: in the respect of all that he has done wrong 539 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:35,520 Speaker 1: only in losing sight of the rules which every writer 540 00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:40,280 Speaker 1: who respects himself ought never to lose sight of or forget. 541 00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:44,880 Speaker 1: That literature, like art, in order to accomplish the good 542 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,520 Speaker 1: which it is expected to produce, ought only to be 543 00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:53,280 Speaker 1: chaste and pure in its form and expression. And the 544 00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,960 Speaker 1: circumstances be it known that it is not sufficiently proven 545 00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:01,120 Speaker 1: that Peshac, Gustave Flaubert, and Pilas are guilty of the 546 00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:05,240 Speaker 1: misdemeanor with which they are charged. The court acquits them 547 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:08,759 Speaker 1: of the indictment brought against them, and decrees a dismissal 548 00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:13,280 Speaker 1: without costs, so the court had, as Flaubert predicted, found 549 00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:17,520 Speaker 1: him innocent. Madame Boverie was printed as a two volume 550 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:20,000 Speaker 1: novel just a few months later in April of eighteen 551 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:24,640 Speaker 1: fifty seven, and it was an instant bestseller. Had the 552 00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:28,920 Speaker 1: French government not accused Flaubert of immorality, it probably never 553 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:32,440 Speaker 1: would have gained that level of popularity. Following on the 554 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:36,719 Speaker 1: runaway success of Madame Bouverie, Flaubert turned back to his project, 555 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,200 Speaker 1: The Temptation of Saint Anthony, but as one of the 556 00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:43,359 Speaker 1: main points of the novel was a saint tempted by 557 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:47,400 Speaker 1: sexual desire, he reconsidered he did not want to risk 558 00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:51,759 Speaker 1: another trial, so he then moved on to working on 559 00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:55,839 Speaker 1: a historical novel, and this story, titled Salambo, was set 560 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,960 Speaker 1: in Carthage during the third century, when the Mercenary Revolt 561 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,160 Speaker 1: was taking place. This was based vaguely on the writings 562 00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:07,239 Speaker 1: of the Greek historian Polybius, but Flaubert created fictional characters 563 00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:10,000 Speaker 1: and a fictional story that sort of dropped into that 564 00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:15,560 Speaker 1: historical information. He wasn't rewriting it as a fiction. This book, 565 00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:18,880 Speaker 1: published in eighteen sixty two, benefited from the attention that 566 00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:22,520 Speaker 1: Madame Bovari had drawn to Gustave Flaubert's name, and while 567 00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,719 Speaker 1: it was very different in tone, it was also a bestseller, 568 00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,120 Speaker 1: although it did get some critique, some of which was hilarious. 569 00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:33,879 Speaker 1: That was regarding its historical accuracy. But the years in 570 00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:37,840 Speaker 1: which he was writing Salambo, Gustave once again had some 571 00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:41,560 Speaker 1: serious health problems. He had a number of seizures and 572 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:45,680 Speaker 1: during some of these he injured himself as his body 573 00:35:45,719 --> 00:35:48,080 Speaker 1: collapsed and he hit the ground without a cushion, so 574 00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:50,400 Speaker 1: he actually had injuries to his head in his arms. 575 00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:57,600 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy, Flaubert finally published Leducascion Sentimental, but it 576 00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:01,240 Speaker 1: was not the success that Bouvery was. After having worked 577 00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: on it over the course of decades, he was just 578 00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:08,919 Speaker 1: completely deflated by its poor reception, and that same year, 579 00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:12,799 Speaker 1: during France's conflict with Prussia, Flaubert, who was not in 580 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:16,120 Speaker 1: great health, was conscripted as a lieutenant in the Rue 581 00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:20,000 Speaker 1: Home Guard. As things went very poorly for France in 582 00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:24,600 Speaker 1: this conflict, Flaubert had Prussian soldiers billeted in his home 583 00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:27,239 Speaker 1: as eighteen seventy ended, and they stayed there all the 584 00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:30,800 Speaker 1: way up until spring of eighteen seventy one. The writer 585 00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:33,120 Speaker 1: did not stay at his home during this time. He 586 00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:36,280 Speaker 1: went to Dieppe, where he lived with his then adult niece. 587 00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:40,160 Speaker 1: This was merely the beginning of a very rough period 588 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:45,000 Speaker 1: for Flaubert. In eighteen seventy two, his mother died. It 589 00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 1: was expected that he would inherit the Quisse home, but 590 00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:52,920 Speaker 1: his mother had, as a surprise to everyone, willed it 591 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:56,880 Speaker 1: instead to his niece Caroline. And Caroline allowed him to 592 00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:59,680 Speaker 1: remain in the home, but that was not an automatic situation. 593 00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:02,960 Speaker 1: A whole lot of discussion to settle the matter to 594 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:06,439 Speaker 1: the point where that was okay. In eighteen seventy four 595 00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:10,239 Speaker 1: he published The Temptation of Saint Anthony. This was yet 596 00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:13,120 Speaker 1: another instance of a book that he wrote many times 597 00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:16,040 Speaker 1: in different versions before he was happy enough with it 598 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:19,720 Speaker 1: to publish. It was inspired by a visit to Italy 599 00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:22,120 Speaker 1: in which he saw one of the many paintings of 600 00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:26,560 Speaker 1: this biblical story. His earliest version of it actually began 601 00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:29,520 Speaker 1: in the late nineteen thirties before he saw the painting. 602 00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:33,840 Speaker 1: At that time he was endeavoring to create a Faustian novel, 603 00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:37,400 Speaker 1: but then he incorporated that work into his Saint Anthony's 604 00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:40,600 Speaker 1: story in the late eighteen forties. Then he put it aside. 605 00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,359 Speaker 1: That was the novel that his friends had mocked when 606 00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:46,520 Speaker 1: they were all traveling together in eighteen forty nine. He 607 00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:49,600 Speaker 1: didn't revisit it until the late eighteen fifties, when he 608 00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:52,719 Speaker 1: wrote a third version, and then finally he went back 609 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:55,279 Speaker 1: a fourth time and landed at the one that he 610 00:37:55,320 --> 00:38:00,520 Speaker 1: published in the eighteen seventies. These evolutions reflected Flaubert's changing 611 00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:04,360 Speaker 1: attitudes toward religion and science. Yeah, one of those times 612 00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,480 Speaker 1: was the moment Tracy mentioned earlier whereafter Madame Bowerie he 613 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:09,800 Speaker 1: was like, I'm going to go back to St. Anthony. Wait, no, 614 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:14,560 Speaker 1: that will really get me arrested. In his later years, 615 00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:19,280 Speaker 1: Flaubert really struggled financially. He had used up his personal 616 00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:23,520 Speaker 1: fortune to help Caroline's husband, Ernest Commaville, get out of 617 00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:27,400 Speaker 1: debt when his company failed. This was a lot of money. 618 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:29,319 Speaker 1: It has been reported to have been close to a 619 00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:33,120 Speaker 1: million francs, so a very serious sum. Flaubert had had 620 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,120 Speaker 1: to sell off a lot of real estate to make 621 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:38,319 Speaker 1: up that amount of money, and the whole thing had 622 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:42,800 Speaker 1: left him without enough money personally to keep his home Crossay. 623 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:46,040 Speaker 1: Heated when it was cold, so in the winter he 624 00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:49,720 Speaker 1: moved to Paris to try to generate income. He turned 625 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:52,239 Speaker 1: to one of his oldest pieces of writing, and that 626 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:57,000 Speaker 1: was his catalog of cliches. This was eventually reworked into 627 00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:01,799 Speaker 1: a novel titled Bouvar and Picochet, about two clerks who 628 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,560 Speaker 1: come into money and move to the country to retire 629 00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:10,479 Speaker 1: and indulge their curiosity with experiments in various endeavors. While 630 00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:13,880 Speaker 1: they know plenty of axioms and popular ideas about the 631 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:17,080 Speaker 1: workings of the world, they lack the judgment and critical 632 00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:21,400 Speaker 1: thinking to actually do or understand anything with any depth. 633 00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:27,000 Speaker 1: Their experiments in farming, gardening, medicine, and science are all failures, 634 00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:30,040 Speaker 1: and eventually they go back to clerking. This is a 635 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:33,920 Speaker 1: satire on pretense and the middle class, but in a 636 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,800 Speaker 1: way that shows that the author actually has a great 637 00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:41,759 Speaker 1: deal of love for these bumbling protagonists. That list of cliches, 638 00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,400 Speaker 1: he started as a teenager, came in handy because he 639 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:47,520 Speaker 1: could just slot those right in while he was working 640 00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:52,640 Speaker 1: on Bouvar and Pecuchet, Flaubert published instead. He kind of 641 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:55,719 Speaker 1: paused working on that and published a trio of short stories. 642 00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:57,759 Speaker 1: He was hoping that that work would move a little 643 00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:01,160 Speaker 1: more quickly and that he could generate some money. These 644 00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:04,440 Speaker 1: were published in the spring of eighteen seventy seven, and 645 00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:08,279 Speaker 1: after that he immediately returned to work on Bouvard and Pecuchet. 646 00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:12,200 Speaker 1: Flaubert was back at Cliss for the warmer months in 647 00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:15,439 Speaker 1: the spring of eighteen eighty. On April twentieth, he wrote 648 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:18,400 Speaker 1: to his niece, quote ten days from now, well, I 649 00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:21,240 Speaker 1: have reached the point I'd like to attain before leaving 650 00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:24,560 Speaker 1: my dear old Croisse. I doubt it. And when will 651 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,759 Speaker 1: the book be finished? That's the question. If it's to 652 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:30,840 Speaker 1: appear in winter, I haven't a minute to lose between 653 00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:33,720 Speaker 1: now and then. But there are moments when I feel 654 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:39,360 Speaker 1: I'm liquefying, like an old Camembert. I'm so tired. And 655 00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:44,120 Speaker 1: ten days later, on May eighth, Flaubert suddenly died. He 656 00:40:44,239 --> 00:40:47,160 Speaker 1: was literally in the middle of a page of writing 657 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,800 Speaker 1: when he had a stroke. He was working on Bouvert 658 00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:54,760 Speaker 1: and Pecuchet. It was not finished. He was buried in Rue. 659 00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:59,280 Speaker 1: This unfinished novel was published the following year. The reviews 660 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:03,640 Speaker 1: were not great, and debates and analysis about how critics 661 00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:07,000 Speaker 1: interpreted the work versus what the writer intended with it 662 00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:12,000 Speaker 1: continue all the way to today Augustav Lobert. I can't 663 00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:16,360 Speaker 1: wait for Friday discussion, Okay, but in the meantime, I 664 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:20,040 Speaker 1: have a cool sewing email. I'm so excited. I love 665 00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:22,360 Speaker 1: a little sewing email. This is from our listener Barbara, 666 00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:25,120 Speaker 1: who writes, Hello, Holly and Tracy. I've been listening for 667 00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:28,880 Speaker 1: years and usually can listen to two episodes during my commute, 668 00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:31,520 Speaker 1: one on the way in and one on the way home. However, 669 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:33,920 Speaker 1: I currently have a backlog as I was off for 670 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:37,400 Speaker 1: a maternity leave and am slowly making my way through Congratulations. 671 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:40,000 Speaker 1: By the way, the new to Me two parter about 672 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,399 Speaker 1: paper patterns inspired me to write in. When I lived 673 00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:46,239 Speaker 1: in Congo, wax print fabric, the history of which would 674 00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:50,759 Speaker 1: make a great episode, was commonly given as presents for birthdays, weddings, 675 00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:55,640 Speaker 1: Women's Day, very popular, etc. But also different communities would 676 00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:59,480 Speaker 1: create special prints for events, for example, the anniversary of 677 00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:03,759 Speaker 1: a church, university, or other organization. Women and men who 678 00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:06,160 Speaker 1: were part of the community would have outfits made from 679 00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:09,840 Speaker 1: the special fabric for this event. I have many outfits 680 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:12,040 Speaker 1: from my years of living there, and all were made 681 00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:15,520 Speaker 1: for me by various tailors quturiers as they were called. 682 00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:18,840 Speaker 1: These women would come to my house, take my measurements, 683 00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:21,000 Speaker 1: and I would show them a picture of what style 684 00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:23,839 Speaker 1: I wanted. About a week later, they would come back 685 00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:27,360 Speaker 1: with an outfit that would then get fitted and adjusted. 686 00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:31,239 Speaker 1: Within two weeks or sometimes less, I had a completely 687 00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:35,520 Speaker 1: customized garment. I didn't fully appreciate the skill that it 688 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:37,799 Speaker 1: took to make a garment based off of photo with 689 00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:41,600 Speaker 1: no pattern, But now I'm in awe and incredibly grateful 690 00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:44,480 Speaker 1: for my beautiful clothes. I also wish that more of 691 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,319 Speaker 1: them fit me, but postpartum plus an American diet means 692 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:49,359 Speaker 1: that I have to admire many of them as they 693 00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:52,319 Speaker 1: hang in my closet instead of wearing them out. My 694 00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:55,360 Speaker 1: husband is Congolese and my in laws have continued to 695 00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:58,000 Speaker 1: give me various bolts of fabric, so now that we 696 00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:00,400 Speaker 1: have a baby, I've been wanting to make some customized 697 00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:04,040 Speaker 1: clothes for him to represent his heritage. However, I have 698 00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:06,919 Speaker 1: basic sewing skills and a secondhand machine that I haven't 699 00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:09,000 Speaker 1: figured out how to thread yet, so it'll be a 700 00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:12,480 Speaker 1: minute before that happens. Anyway, Thanks for the entertainment on 701 00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:15,360 Speaker 1: the ride and the inspiration to break out the sewing machine, 702 00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:21,960 Speaker 1: and then includes some cool potential future episodes and writes 703 00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:23,840 Speaker 1: thanks for all you do in helping shed light on 704 00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:26,480 Speaker 1: some little known but fascinating topics. All the best, Barbara. 705 00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:29,200 Speaker 1: I love everything about the seat mail. I love the 706 00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:32,920 Speaker 1: idea of like community fabric designs. I love the idea 707 00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:37,360 Speaker 1: of custom designs, custom fabric prints made for given events. 708 00:43:38,080 --> 00:43:39,920 Speaker 1: I love to design fabrics, So this is one of 709 00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:43,359 Speaker 1: my favorite topics in the whole world. And I love, love, 710 00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:48,320 Speaker 1: love Barbara, that you are starting to delve into sewing yourself. Listen, 711 00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:52,040 Speaker 1: I have great news. Sewing is not secret. You can 712 00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:54,280 Speaker 1: learn all these things. It might take time and patience, 713 00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:56,520 Speaker 1: but you'll learn and you'll get better and better, and 714 00:43:56,560 --> 00:44:01,279 Speaker 1: then your kid will have amazing clothes and I can't wait. 715 00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:04,319 Speaker 1: And I hope as you develop as a stitcher you 716 00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:07,080 Speaker 1: share some of those pictures of some of those projects 717 00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:10,160 Speaker 1: with us. Also, ditto goes for your beautiful clothes that 718 00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:13,160 Speaker 1: you had made that maybe don't fit anymore. Listen, fabric 719 00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:15,080 Speaker 1: can get reworked in a lot of interesting ways. I'm 720 00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:18,120 Speaker 1: just saying, once your creativity pops off in this way, 721 00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:20,200 Speaker 1: then you're in trouble because you have so many things 722 00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:22,360 Speaker 1: that you want to do. But I love this so 723 00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:27,799 Speaker 1: much and I just I love the idea of community 724 00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:31,560 Speaker 1: and marking important events with fabric. Like to me, that's 725 00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:35,359 Speaker 1: just perfect, perfect, So thank you for sharing this with us. 726 00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:37,400 Speaker 1: And like I said, I want pictures as you go, 727 00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:40,800 Speaker 1: And if you have any sewing questions send us another email. 728 00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:45,000 Speaker 1: I'll help if I can. We absolutely love hearing from 729 00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:47,520 Speaker 1: our listeners, so if you would like to write to us, 730 00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:51,319 Speaker 1: you can do so at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 731 00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:54,839 Speaker 1: We will have a brand new episode on Monday. You 732 00:44:54,880 --> 00:45:02,279 Speaker 1: can also expect a classic episode tomorrow. Stuff you Missed 733 00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:05,439 Speaker 1: in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more 734 00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:09,840 Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 735 00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:11,800 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.