FLAUBERT Gustave. - Lot 179

FLAUBERT Gustave. AUTOGRAPH LETTER TO Louise COLET. August 25, 1846, 4 pages in-8 in ink. An important letter, Flaubert is unsettled, even worried, by his mistress Louise Colet's desire to have a child by him. ... You indulge in the sublime selfishness of your love at the hypothesis of a child who may be born. You want it, admit it, you want it as one more link that would unite us, as a fatal contract that would bind our two destinies together. Oh, it has to be you, my dear and all-too-tender friend, for me not to resent such a terrible wish for my happiness. I, who swore I would never again attach my existence to my own, will now give birth to another. If that happens, I won't complain. Who knows if, in the stupid inconsistency of our hearts, man might not experience a spasm of divine joy... Exceptional.