Flaubert et ses classiques : leçon de maintien

Abstract

Flaubert’s correspondence is teeming with stylistic remarks and confessions about reading the classics. The combination of the two educates the author’s taste, but from an angle that goes beyond the historical or patrimonial frame.  Indeed, it is in terms of morality that the classics’ style is considered here. A model of discipline, rather than a mere formal model, Flaubert’s classicism is neither reproduction nor repetition