Voltaire- War
War Distant people hear that they are going to fight, and that they may gain five or six sous a day, if they will be of the party; they divide themselves into two bands, like reapers, and offer their services to whoever will employ them. These multitudes fall upon one another, not only without having […]
War experience
CANDIDE CHAPTER III Never was anything so gallant, so well accoutred, so brilliant, and so finely disposed as the two armies. The trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made such harmony as never was heard in hell itself. The entertainment began by a discharge of cannon, which, in the twinkling of an eye, laid flat […]
Candide in the castle
CHAPTER I How candide was brought up in a magnificent castle and how he was driven thence. In the country of Westphalia, in the castle of the most noble baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, lived a youth whom nature had endowed with a most sweet disposition. His face was the true index of his mind. He had […]
Gustave Flaubert – Salammbô (2)
Salammbô Let us not try to bring this novel back to our present world: Flaubert wrote it to escape from his own. Let us travel with him, in time and space, and plunge into a “barbaric” world of his imagination, where questions of guilt and conscience have no place, where beliefs and […]
Gustave Flaubert – Sentimental Education (2)
Sentimental Education Extract from the chapter 14. In the Sentimental Education, Flaubert wanted to tell the story of his generation. And the great event of this generation is the revolution of 1848. The people put an end to the monarchy. A revolution is first and foremost the violence of an angry mob: something […]
Gustave Flaubert – Sentimental Education
Sentimental Education (Extract from chapter 5) Flaubert should not be read like we eat a sandwich, but rather like being a guest at Alain Ducasse’s table. Every detail matter. Let’s savour the very substance of the language, the alchemy between sound and meaning! In this extract, Flaubert tells the story of his […]
Gustave Flaubert – Three Tales
Three Tales A simple soul The following text is taken from the first of these Tales, A Simple Soul. It tells of the life of a servant, Félicité, devoted to the family that employs her, without calculation or self-reflection. Underneath its apparent simplicity, Flaubert’s text is deeply thought out, worked out very […]
Gustave Flaubert – Madame Bovary (2)
Madame Bovary Madame Bovary fantasises, fantasises restlessly and that is her misfortune. She would do anything for her desires to come alive : abandon her husband, throw money out the window. But Flaubert seems to tell us that reality is stronger than all desires, . “Madame was in her room, which no […]
Gustave Flaubert – Salammbô
Salammbô In this novel, Flaubert, after having done a lot of research, after having smoked pipes for a very long time on his sofa, conjures up ancient Carthage: battles, lions, warlords, a woman devoted to worship… After the Norman greyness of his previous novel (Madame Bovary), he needed to refresh his soul in […]