Original Autograph Letter Display. 

   Flaubert, Gustave, [1821, Rouen, Fr. - 1880, Croisset] ALS in French to his good friend, Edmond Laporte, 1 page, n.p. [Paris], n.d. [May 16th, 1874]. Framed & glazed to an overall size of 21" ½ x 16" [5"1/4 x 7" ½], double matted in windows, gilt filet - The fine wood frame elaborately worked to show intentional character & tone. Trans: "My old Bab / I count on being at Croisset on Wednesday, about 4 o'clock. / Be guided by that / I am all gloomy when I think we won't see each other for a long time! / Yesterday, I finished my library lectures! / I embrace you / Yours / Gve / Saturday morning". "The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect." The prime influence over the Realist School of French literature, author of the masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857). Believer in "le seul mot juste". True friend of the greats; George Sand, Ivan Turgenev, Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, &, especially, Guy de Maupassant who regarded himself as Flaubert's disciple & was the great mutual friend of Edmond Laporte. Flaubert sought objectivity above all else in his writing: "The author, in his work, must be like God in the Universe, present everywhere & visible nowhere." It is paradoxical, therefore, that his personality should be so clearly discernible in all his work and that his letters, written casually to his intimates & full of disarming sincerity, delicate sensibility, & even exquisite tenderness-should be considered by some critics as his other masterpiece. $3350