tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post6983024762111535041..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: We long to make music that will melt the stars - Flaubert's plain proseAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-17383863704786341562012-07-03T06:18:07.621-05:002012-07-03T06:18:07.621-05:00My knowledge of French is far too poor to read Fla...My knowledge of French is far too poor to read Flaubert in the original, but when I read the translations, I usually have the French versions (they are my wife's copies: unlike myself, she knows the language well), and frequently turn to them to get some idea of what the original sounds like.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-13717983573636410942012-06-28T21:46:20.942-05:002012-06-28T21:46:20.942-05:00"Unadorned," yes, that's the right w..."Unadorned," yes, that's the right word.<br /><br /><i>Madame Bovary</i> is Flaubert's first published novel, but the fourth one he wrote. The earlier three were highly adorned. His friends were horrified when the third turned out to be nothing but hundreds of pages of adornment.<br /><br />So in <i>Madame Bovary</i> Flaubert is actually simultaneously working on the perfect whole, the perfect section, the perfect decorated sentence, and the perfect unadorned sentence.<br /><br />The brushstroke analogy is not bad. I have read plenty of art critics who discuss better and worse brushstrokes, although I do not know quite what they mean.<br /><br />In the big set-pieces like the wedding or the ball Flaubert happily moves close so to the "something interesting in every sentence" idea.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-61987717178177424602012-06-28T13:21:26.880-05:002012-06-28T13:21:26.880-05:00Yes, that's pretty plain. Now that I think abo...Yes, that's pretty plain. Now that I think about it, a lot of Flaubert's dramatized scenes are unadorned and kind of angular, aren't they? He's much prettier doing landscapes (even such "landscapes" as the wedding procession or Emma's childhood history). Though perhaps the sentences even there are plain; though how much can you separate a sentence from the fabric of the scene? Any individual brushstroke in a masterpiece is likely to be very humdrum. So I don't have an answer.<br /><br />Possibly the concept of writing "at the sentence level" really developed later than Flaubert, and he was more concerned with the larger-sized components of the novel. I don't know.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-1279877829298611872012-06-28T13:04:20.078-05:002012-06-28T13:04:20.078-05:00Here is an early example, coming right after the d...Here is an early example, coming right after the dazzling description of the cap:<br /><br />The cap was new; its peak was shiny.<br /><br />"Stand up," said the teacher.<br /><br />He rose. His cap dropped to the floor. Everyone began to laugh.<br /><br />He bent over for it. A boy beside him sent it down again with his elbow. Once again he picked it up.<br /><br />A later one (II.5):<br /><br />It was a snowy Sunday afternoon in February.<br /><br />All of them - Monsieur and Madame Bovary , Homais and Monsieur Léon - had gone to see a new flax mill that was being built in the valley, a mile or so from Yonville. The apothecary had taken Napoléon and Athalie along to give them some exercise, and Justin accompanied them, carrying a supply of umbrellas over his shoulder.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-86196592512328441512012-06-28T12:48:19.818-05:002012-06-28T12:48:19.818-05:00Hmm. When I think "plain prose" I might ...Hmm. When I think "plain prose" I might think of O'Connor. Flaubert's prose, at least in the uncredited translation I'm reading, seems quite fine and lovely. Certainly the images Rohan lists are not very beautiful, but the book--to my eye at least--is chockablock full of lovely figurative language. Right alongside angular, jarring images, sure. But I have a hard time seeing Flaubert's "plainness." Perhaps I misunderstand what you mean; though I agree, perhaps, that I had an expectation of being <i>bedazzled</i> because of the historical baggage other writers have laid upon this book. Though some passages in <i>MB</i> really are dazzling.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-78989829424126241342012-06-28T09:11:48.479-05:002012-06-28T09:11:48.479-05:00I appreciate your goading - I do peek at the Frenc...I appreciate your goading - I do peek at the French, but not enough. It is rewarding, but exhausting. I also sometimes compare Steegmuller to another version I read several years ago, Mildred Marmur's version. It is a Signet Classics edition, so completely without prestige; it seems at least as good as Steegmuller.<br /><br />Marmur has "to move" for "attendrir" which is also nice and also has associations that are completely wrong. "Move" + "melt" shows what Flaubert means. The music of the writer does not move the stars from their position or overheat them until they are softened, but rather moves them to pity and melts their starry hearts.<br /><br />The two sentences I quote above, with the bear, are one in Flaubert, with a semi-colon joining them. Marmur turns it into four sentences.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-42027631913061139732012-06-28T00:37:13.222-05:002012-06-28T00:37:13.222-05:00I do hope you'll peek at the French now and th...I do hope you'll peek at the French now and then. The word translated as "melt" is "attendrir," for example, which has some different overtones. I'm glad I don't have to translate Flaubert...Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.com