The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857
An enchanting book, one that combines so happily the art of the biographer and the art of the translator--and Francis Steegmuller is a master of both. Once one starts reading Flaubert's love letters, it's difficult to stop. (Leon Edel)Deserves to be reread and cherished by all admirers of the finest and most fastidious of French novelists...The love-letters to Louise Colet are so packed with subtle observation and profound psychological insight that, despite their spontaneity, they are works of supreme literary art. Francis Steegmuller's translations of these and of the letters from the Orient are beyond praise--as vivid in English as in the original French. His critical and historical text is extremely illuminating throughout, and I have been amazed and enthralled by this splendid contribution to our knowledge of a literary colossus, so completely objective in his other writings. Here we may see the total man...without his impassive mask. (Harold Acton)