MihaElla ’s Reviews > The Letters > Status Update

“Ah! your poor dear mamma! How often I think of her! And what need I have of her! There is not a day when I do not say: "If she were there, I should ask her advice.

Cruchard for you,
Polycarp for the human race,
Gustave Flaubert for Literature”

“You speak to me of your dear and illustrious mamma! Next to you I do not think that any one could think of her more often than I do! How I miss her! How I need her!
I had begun un coeur simple solely on account of her, only to please her. She died while I was in the midst of this work. Thus it is with our dreams.”

You will see by my Histoire d'un coeur simple where you will recognize your immediate influence, that I am not so obstinate as you think. I believe that the moral tendency, or rather the human basis of this little work will please you!

I do not say that you do not believe:on the contrary,all your life of affection,of protection,& of charming & simple goodness,proves that you are the most convinced individual in the world.But,as soon as you handle literature,you want,I don't know why,to be another man,

I tell you that, because you have excessive prejudices AS TO WORDS. In truth, you read, you dig, you work much more than I & a crowd of others do. You have acquired learning that I shall never attain. Therefore you are a hundred times richer than all of us; you are a rich man, and you complain like a poor man.

When you feel you are on the ladder, you will mount very quickly. You are about to enter gradually upon the happiest and most favorable time of life: old age. It is then that art reveals itself in its sweetness; as long as one is young, it manifests itself with anguish.

we are buried under the snow;it is the sort of weather that I adore:this whiteness is like general purification,& the amusements of the house seem more intimate and sweeter.Can anyone hate the winter in the country?The snow is one of the most beautiful sights of the year!

**Hurray for the ⛄️ ❄️

“I lack a well-defined and extended vision of life." You are right a thousand times over, but by what means could it be otherwise? I ask you that. You do not enlighten my darkness with metaphysics, neither mine nor that of others.

I am seeking above all for beauty, which my companions pursue but languidly. I see them insensible when I am ravaged with admiration or horror. Phrases make me swoon with pleasure which seem very ordinary to them.

I do not enjoy making "desolation,"believe me,but I cannot change my eyes!As for my "lack of convictions," alas! I choke with convictions.I am bursting with anger & restrained indignation.But according to the ideal of art that I have,I think that the artist should not manifest anything of his own feelings,