(Pourquoi) Mirbeau a-t-il aimé Flaubert ? Sur les traces d’un voyage sentimental
Octave Mirbeau is a man of passion. The body of work proves that. In his artistic or literary criticism, he does not hide his love or his hatred. Therefore, it seems right to ask if “Mirbeau loved Flaubert”, in order to examine his relationship to the author of Sentimental Education. It appears spli...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
| Published: |
Institut des Textes & Manuscrits Modernes (ITEM)
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Flaubert: Revue Critique et Génétique |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/flaubert/6003 |
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| Summary: | Octave Mirbeau is a man of passion. The body of work proves that. In his artistic or literary criticism, he does not hide his love or his hatred. Therefore, it seems right to ask if “Mirbeau loved Flaubert”, in order to examine his relationship to the author of Sentimental Education. It appears split into two different stages: from cult and veneration for Flaubert, Mirbeau moves on to a violent denial of the author, which he loudly proclaims on several occasions. He himself attributes this change to his discovery of Russian novelists, but the reasons which make him insist on this opposition remain unclear. Indeed, it is difficult to observe a real influence of the much admired Tolstoy in Mirbeau's works. On the other hand, it would seem that Flaubert never ceased to constitute a point of reference for Mirbeau and that despite the declarations of the latter, he continued to influence his style and his concept of the novel. We also find many affinities in their respective worldviews, including pessimism, irony, critical distancing and the horror of platitude. It could therefore turn out, in the final analysis, that Mirbeau remained very close to the repudiated master : do old flames die hard? |
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| ISSN: | 1969-6191 |