the development of a history of customs, in which the essential
is absolute exactness and local color. He therefore naturally
wished to make the most scrupulous and detailed observation of
the environment.

Thus is explained the immense labor in preparation which his
stories cost him--the story of "Madame Bovary," of "The
Sentimental Education," and "Bouvard and Pecuchet," documents
containing as much minutiae as his historical stories. Beyond
everything he tried to select details that were eminently
significant. Consequently he was of the opinion that the romance
writer should discard all that lessened this significance, that
is, extraordinary events and singular heroes. The exceptional
personage, it seemed to him, should be suppressed, as should also
high dramatic incident, since, produced by causes less general,
these have a range more restricted. The truly scientific romance
writer, proposing to paint a certain class, will attain his end
more effectively if he incarnate personages of the middle order,
and, consequently, paint traits common to that class. And not
only middle-class traits, but middle-class adventures.

From this point of view, examine the three great romances of the
Master from Rouen, and you will see that he has not lost sight of
this first and greatest principle of his art, any more than he
has of the second, which was that these documents should be drawn
up in prose of absolutely perfect technique. We know with what
passionate care he worked at his phrases, and how indefatigably
he changed them over and over again. Thus he satisfied that
instinct of beauty which was born of his romantic soul, while he
gratified the demand of truth which inhered from his scientific