The Public vs. M. Gustave Flaubert by Various
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page 7 of 113 (06%)
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of black hair. This is the romance. I have related it to you,
suppressing no scene in it. It is called _Madame Bovary_. You could with justice give it another title and call it. _Story of the Adulteries of a Provincial Woman_. Gentlemen, the first part of my task is fulfilled. I have related, I shall now cite, and after the citations come the indictments which are brought upon two counts: offense against public morals and offense against religious morals. The offense against public morals lies in the lascivious pictures which I have brought before your eyes; the offense against religious morals consists in mingling voluptuous images with sacred things. I now come to the citations. I will be brief, for you will read the entire romance. I shall limit myself to citing four scenes, or rather four tableaux. The first will be that of the fall with Rodolphe; the second, the religious reaction between the two adulteries; the third, the fall with Léon, which is the second adultery, and finally the fourth, the death of Madame Bovary. Before raising the curtain on these four pictures, permit me to inquire what colour, what stroke of the brush M. Flaubert employs--for this romance is a picture, and it is necessary to know to what school he belongs--what colour he uses and what sort of portrait he makes of his heroine. The general colour of the author, allow me to tell you, is a lascivious colour, before, during, and after the falls! When she is a child ten or twelve years of age, she is at the Ursuline convent. At this age, when the young girl is not formed, when the woman cannot feel those emotions which reveal to her a new world, she goes to confession: |
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