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 This is, in fact, an anti-novel, the first and somewhat forlorn precursor of Woolf and Joyce and the Oulipo group. The story is lost in the process although it ties the process together. But Flaubert leaves us in no doubt as to his feelings. Bouvard and Pecuchet suffer the indignities of living as giants among pygmies.
Reviewed by Bob Williams
Bouvard and Pecuchet
by Gustave Flaubert
Dalkey Archive Press
2005, ISBN 1-56478-393-6, $13.95, xxxiii and 328 pages
This is the last novel by Flaubert (1821-80) and he left it unfinished at his death. This edition, in a new translation by Mark Polizzotti, includes the notes that indicate how Flaubert planned to end his novel. The scope of these notes indicates that it would have been a far longer book. This edition also includes – besides a preface by Raymond Queneau – Flaubert’s Dictionary of Accepted Ideas, an alphabetical list of the institutions and habits of thought that Flaubert found distasteful and which he here pilloried – although some entries are there for the fun of it: e.g., “CHIAROSCURO: We don’t know what this is.”
Bouvard, a widower, on a hot summer afternoon meets Pecuchet, a bachelor. Both men are copyists and are about the same age. They think alike although Bouvard is somewhat ribald in his speech and Pecuchet, somewhat prudish. But they find much in common and quickly become very good friends. They are accustomed to life in Paris without finding the city very thrilling and when Bouvard inherits from his father and Pecuchet is able to access some money, they resolve to leave the city for a small village where they will garden and farm. They select Chavignolles (a small village in northwest France) as their place of retirement. Flaubert gives us multiple levels in this novel and one of them is the constant misunderstanding between two fairly old men from Paris and the villagers.
What do two retired men do in retirement? Conscious of their shortcomings as farmers, they depend on books to assist their efforts. Their efforts are a failure and they turn from farming to gardening and the raising of fruit. The results of the book-dominated agronomists are disastrous. They turn their backs on all these projects and submit themselves to one pursuit after another. In turn, they explore the natural sciences, archaeology and history, literature, politics, love, philosophy, religion, pedagogy and social reform. All of these attempts float efficiently on a cast of village characters who drift in and out of the story and humanize what would otherwise be a sterile invention of strict logicality.
This is, in fact, an anti-novel, the first and somewhat forlorn precursor of Woolf and Joyce and the Oulipo group. The story is lost in the process although it ties the process together. But Flaubert leaves us in no doubt as to his feelings. Bouvard and Pecuchet suffer the indignities of living as giants among pygmies. They are clowns, naïve and unlearned, but honest in their struggle against the ignorance that they wish to destroy in themselves and in others. The others are the villagers and they are happy as they are and unwilling to submit to the ill-judging pair of tyros. The honesty of Bouvard and Pecuchet is what keeps them going and keeps our interest in them alive. In the best tradition of satire they are not altogether fools.
On the human level of creatures in a narrative, Bouvard and Pecuchet alienate the villagers, succumb to the lust for land of the local widow and befriend two children who unfortunately are uneducable: the boy is a hoodlum and the girl is a slut. But what they attempt with these children underlies the irony of the basic situation: they have failed to educate themselves and yet they undertake the education of children. Bouvard even goes beyond this and gives a lecture to the village community. So outrageous are his ideas to these reactionaries, that the friends stand a good chance of being tried for sedition. Scorched by their experiences, they seclude themselves and resume their abandoned occupations as copyists. But now they copy, along with casual ephemera, any examples of absurdities that come to their attention. The result is the Dictionary of Accepted Ideas, a work that Flaubert had written many years before he began Bouvard and Pecuchet but which fits it tightly.
Polizzotti as a translator keeps the text moving along at a rapid pace, but he slows it by his unfortunate decision to use obscure words. A translator that sends the reader constantly to the dictionary may be better as an educator than as an entertainer. He also misses the opportunity to make of this a definitively critical edition. With more effort, admittedly no small amount of additional effort, he could have provided notes on the obscure authorities that Flaubert uses. He admits to tampering with the Dictionary to keep it interesting. Better that he had met the Dictionary head on and let the reader decide. But these are small points. The real advantage is that we have a new, fresh edition of a seldom read masterpiece.
About the Reviewer: Bob Williams is retired and lives in a small town with his wife, dogs and a cat. He has been collecting books all his life, and has done freelance writing, mostly on classical music. His principal interests are James Joyce, Jane Austen and Homer. His book Joyce Country, a guide to persons and places, can be accessed at: http://www.grand-teton.com/service/Persons_Places
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