In a letter to Louise Colet, Flaubert amazingly tells her he KNOWS a woman’s sufferings, including her own, because he is author of them. You speak of women’s sufferings: I am in the midst of them. You will see that I have had to descend deeply into the well of feelings. If my book is good, it will gently caress many a feminine wound: more than one woman will smile as she recognizes herself with it. Oh, I’ll be well acquainted with what they go through, poor unsung souls! And with the secret sadness that oozes from them, like the moss on the walls of their provinicial backyards…
