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Friday, April 9, 2010

"The Dance of Death" by Gustave Flaubert


"The Dance of Death" by Gustave Flaubert (1838, 12 pages)

Recently I decided I wanted to read more short stories.   For me Dailylit.com is a great way to do this.  They have maybe 200 classic short stories on line to select from (all free).   They will send you in e mail or RSS about 2 to 5 minutes (by their estimates most will read faster) worth of a work.   You will get the next installment next day or you can request it be sent at once.  If you do not like the work once you get into it you just cancel.    As a perhaps negative, the translated works are in older now in the public domain editions.   You can also read  lots of books here but personally I do not really want to read longer works in my PC but the short story versions work fine.  (Dailylit.com -there are many read on line type web pages, of course-is especially valuable for readers in places where there basically are no public libraries).     

Gustave Flaubert (1821 to 1880)   published his most famous work, Madame Bovary  in 1857 at age 37.   When I saw I could read a work of Flaubert's at age 17 I was intrigued.   "Dance of Death"  (translator not given) is almost a prose poem.  It is in part the lament of death over the cruel task God has given him.   Death engages in a dialog with Satan.    Death suggested Satan has the more enviable lot as his work will one day be done and he will have rest.    Nero then joins the conversation as one of the finest minions of Satan.      "Dance of Death" does read like the work of a very bookish young man in love with his own intelligence and beginning to feel his creative powers.   You can feel that he no doubt enjoyed the possible shocking effect of this story in Catholic France in the 1830s.  (As I read the laments of Death over his role in the world I was brought to mind that Death is the narrator of The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, one of the very first books I blogged on when I began The Reading Life in July of last year)

The tone of the work and the topics seem to most resemble SalammbĂ´, (1862-  set in Carthage in the 3rd century BC.)   In "The Dance of Death" you can also begin to see the erotic elements that will emerge in Flaubert's work.  Here is an interesting section of the conversation between Death and Satan

I must be everywhere. The precious metals flow, the diamonds glitter, and men's names resound at my command. I whisper in the ears of women, of poets, and of statesmen, words of love, of glory, of ambition. With Messalina and Nero, at Paris and at Babylon, within the self-same moment do I dwell. Let a new island be discovered, I fly to it ere man can set foot there; though it be but a rock encircled by the sea, I am there in advance of men who will dispute for its possession. I lounge, at the same instant, on a courtesan's couch and on the perfumed beds of emperors. Hatred and envy, pride and wrath, pour from my lips in simultaneous utterance. By night and day I work. While men ate burning Christians, I luxuriate voluptuously in baths perfumed with roses; I race in chariots; yield to deep despair; or boast aloud in pride.

In this we can see the perhaps overly florid prose of a young writer and of a young man imaging an exotic world of women, places, and sins he can only see, so far in his life, in his mind.    "Dance of Death"  is worth the 10 or 20 minutes of your time to read it.   It will let you see a great artist trying to feel his power.   It is in part a curiosity read just to see what the author of Madame Bovary  (a lead contender for best novel ever and a very strong bid for best French novel) could write at 17, 20 years before Madame Bovary.   Dailylit.com also has Flaubert's Three Tales on line.   The three short stories in this work are mature masterpieces and should be your second Flaubert.

Mel U

6 comments:

  1. I own Madame Bovary, but have yet to read it. Another TBR that will be tackled...someday!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog and following. I love your cats! My aunt has a cat named Yoda. She's a calico. I LOVE siamese cats...so pretty! I had a lynx point siamese many years ago named Chyna...she was beautiful. Now I just have my wonderful black cat, Alis. She's a mess, but I adore her! Hope you will participate in some of the Cat Thursday memes. Feel free to post from LOL cats or any great pics of your own cats. It's all for the love of cats! =O)

    I'm now following your blog!

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  2. I forgot I had this link to Dailylit.com!

    Great post too :)

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  3. Glad to hear you're enjoying our short stories! One of my favorite things to read by DailyLit are Sherlock Holmes stories--they're about 8-15 installments and it's such a treat to read a bit of the story at lunch.

    Happy reading--
    Maggie Hilliard
    DailyLit

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  4. You just read the most amazing books- your choices are fantastic! Thank you so much for directing me to this link (which will prove quite useful since most of the Montreal public libraries do not satisfy most of my historical reading needs:)
    You are bringing such flavour to this challenge. Thanks so much!

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  5. I haven't used Daily Lit in some time, but yes, they're an amazing resource.

    I also haven't read any Flaubert, but it sounds like I ought to start with Madame Bovary.

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  6. I enjoyed Madame Bovary but it seems many bloggers don't. I thought it was so beautifully written, even though Emma herself was a whiner. I should see what young Flaubert's writing was like to. Thanks for this.

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your comments help keep us going and do a lot to make the blog more interesting.thanks