FLAUBERT AND AMERICA: THE EMPTY TREASURE CHEST

Abstract

Proust's notes on Flaubert's writing conclude that the beauty of L'Éducation sentimentale may lie in an absence of writing.1 The reference to the silence following the shooting of Dussardier may represent hollow praise.2 Yet Proust draws attention to those aspects of Flaubert's style which have subsequently been most subject to critical attention: reflections on linguistic inadequacy, the apparent ‘gaps’ or ‘silences’ in Flaubert's descriptions, the obsession with failure.3 Such absence can be detected earlier: in the expedition to America undertaken by Henry and his mistress in the first Éducation sentimentale (1845). New York is barely described, but represents the gradual deterioration of the couple's relationship, visualized in metaphors evoking emptiness and evaporation. It is also ‘absent’ from much discussion of this early text. Like the sites visited by the travelling Frédéric in the later Éducation, highlighted by Proust for their blankness, America functions as a void.4 Flaubert is commonly associated with a documentary-style approach to writing which necessitates experience of the places he describes.5 Thus the New York chapters of the first Éducation sentimentale seem uncharacteristic. With no experience of America other than that understood from books, Flaubert's descriptions of Henry's time spent abroad seem inauthentic and lacking in detail. Little insight into New York is provided; few images colour the episode. Yet this sparseness gives the American chapters their interest. Sparseness is represented both financially and emotionally. One of the few images of New York sees Henry and Émilie looking into jewellers' windows at diamonds they cannot afford to buy. The American episode recounts Henry's growing realization of the inadequacy of his relationship. America can be read, not necessarily as an example of the young writer's lack of experience of the locale he describes, but as a development in aesthetic concerns.