Rouen. Flaubert would have been 200 years old: what are the emblematic places attached to him?
Through Fabien Massin
Published on
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was born in Rouen (Seine-Maritime) 200 years ago, on December 12. He spent a whole part of his life there and wrote almost all of his work. Today, where can we find traces of it in the Norman capital?
Where did Flaubert grow up?
“I was born in a hospital and lived there for a quarter of a century,” he said. Indeed, Gustave Flaubert was born in a house adjacent to the Hôtel-Dieu (now the prefecture), a house from the mid-18th century.e century which was the official accommodation of the chief surgeon, a post occupied by his father, then his brother. He stayed there until the age of 25. The medical universe was thus familiar to him, and we find traces of it in his work, as in Madame Bovary, with the Homais pharmacy and the famous scene of the (catastrophic) club-foot operation. In 1832, the year of cholera, he heard from the sick.
This house is today the Flaubert and History of Medicine Museum, which has a double face and a double vocation: it presents both a part of Flaubert’s life and the history of medicine, through a amazing collection of medical items. This museum, like the Croisset pavilion, joined the Meeting of Metropolitan Museums in January 2021, with a view to creating a literary center, with the two Corneille houses. Note, the current exhibition, In the privacy of Gustave Flaubert, is extended until February 27, 2022 (free entry).
Where did he study?
At home, initially, then at the Royal College, the current Corneille high school. His family environment was favorable, he had books available and the possibility of going to the theater … even if he was given an apprenticeship in reading – by his mother, chose classic in the bourgeois families of the time -, hardworking . Then he was a student of the Royal College from 11 to 18 years old… from where he was expelled!
Indeed, without having been particularly troublemaker (he even forged strong relationships with certain teachers), the young Gustave Flaubert was indeed kicked out of his establishment. In question, a punishment that he had found unfairly and contested alongside other comrades, through a document signed jointly. We have thus kept the letter of his dismissal, the protest petition and his letter of defense. In vain, he had to pass his baccalaureate as a free candidate … before starting law studies which were not to his liking at all. His vocation was already writing.
Where did he write his work?
In Croisset, on the banks of the Seine, in the lower part of Canteleu. He moved here with his mother, when his brother, on the death of their father in 1846, became head surgeon in his turn and therefore kept the accommodation of the Hôtel-Dieu. His father had bought a country house in Déville-lès-Rouen in 1821, with the arrival of the train, but in search of a quieter place, he acquired Croisset, as a country house, in 1844.
It is a large house, built in the XVIIe century, in a property of several hectares, with garden and a Louis XV style pavilion. When Flaubert’s mother died, his niece Caroline inherited the property. Gustave has the right to continue living, respecting a clause… not to marry. One after Flaubert’s death, Caroline sells the house to pay off debts. The house was destroyed to make way for the construction of a factory (alternately distillery, petroleum factory, paper mill). The pavilion, far from the factory, is spared. Quickly relatives of Flaubert wanted to protect him. The property was split, the committee of friends of Flaubert bought the pavilion, and sold it to the city in 1906. It is this pavilion that remains today. You can visit it freely during the summer, on weekends, otherwise by appointment (on 02 76 30 39 85).
Where does it rest?
In the monumental cemetery, the Père Lachaise Rouen which overlooks the city. The location of the family vault was chosen so that the Croisset property can be seen from the cemetery. Flaubert in his last home rubs shoulders with François-Adrien Boieldieu, Louis Ricard, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Marcel Duchamp. Without forgetting his friend Louis Bouilhet – his first director -, a now forgotten poet. The monumental cemetery of Rouen is labeled “remarkable cemetery of Europe”.
Where to follow in the footsteps of his work in Rouen?
In many corners! Yvonville-l’Abbaye (imaginary village, but in which the village of Ry is recognized) where the major part of the action of Madame Bovary, “Is a town eight leagues from Rouen”, illuminated in the novel. Emma goes to Rouen to find her lover Léon, during famous scenes: the visit of the cathedral (with a cumbersome Swiss guide) and the route of the cab, whose route is both real and somewhat fantastic. The many new streets and places did exist (rue Grand-Pont, place des Arts, quai Napoléon, pont, Saint-Pol, Lescure, Mont-Gargan, Rouge-Mare, place du Gaillardbois, rue Maladrerie, rue Dinanderie, Saint-Romain , Saint-Vivien, Saint-Maclou, Saint-Nicaise, etc.), but the geography of the route is fanciful, Flaubert aligns the words by sound affinities and not for the sake of topographical realism.
There is also the Théâtre des arts, which was at the time at the bottom of the rue Grand-P, a very beautiful concave theater that burned down in 1876. This is where Emme meets Leon again, at the during a performance of the opera Lucia di Lammermoor. For his part, Charles Bovary studied at the Lycée Corneille – this is also where the novel begins -, and lived rue Eau-de-Robec, a street then infamous. Flaubert speaks of an “ignoble little Venice”. It was indeed the rue des tanneurs, whose activity gave off pestilential odors.
Note that the manuscripts of Madame Bovary and of Bouvard and Pécuchet (his last novel, unfinished), are kept at the Villon heritage library. Also note that an unpublished manuscript, The Cange, which has just been published, is currently exhibited at the Departmental Archives (Grammont cultural center), as part of the exhibition Dans la tête de Gustave Flaubert. Also find all the digitized work of the writer on the website of Flaubert Center (within the University of Rouen).
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