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| Flaubert in Egypt. Photograph by Maxime Du Camp |
As expected, Maxime Du Camp’s “Souvenirs littéraires” turned
out to be a very interesting and entertaining read. Du Camp after all was
witness and participant to a very fecund period in French letters and close
friend to Théophile Gautier, Gerard de Nerval, Alfred de Musset and especially
Gustave Flaubert.
Two chapters stand out : the one relating the tragic death
of the unfortunate de Nerval, who hung himself in the darkest of the dark
alleys of Paris but managed to keep his hat on his head and the one where Du
Camp comfirms my opinion that Salammbô rather than Madame Bovary is Flaubert’s
true masterpiece,
