Lettre autographe signée de Gustave Flaubert adressée à Léon Cladel

Autograph letter signed by Gustave Flaubert addressed to Léon Cladel. Envelope attached. Some underlinings and manuscript corrections by the author. Minor water stains. Three small restorations using adhesive on the second page as well as two fold marks inherent to the letter's folding for mailing.
Amusing letter in which Gustave Flaubert, whose literary renown is well established, offers his support to his friend Léon Cladel who is struggling to have one of his works published.
The "master" - this is how Léon Cladel addresses his colleague - begins this letter with enthusiasm: "I started your book yesterday at 11 o'clock; it was finished this morning at 9!" The "book" in question is L'Homme de la Croix-aux-Bœufs which Flaubert had agreed to re-read for his friend on April 30; he had indeed requested the manuscript deposited with the publisher Georges Charpentier: "Cladel wrote to me to say that he wished me to read (pardon the subjunctive) the novel in sheets which is with you. So send it to me, or bring it to me." (Letter of May 3, 1877). Léon Cladel, very close to Gustave Flaubert, seems to have shared with him the fears of the publisher Édouard Dentu regarding the publication of his work: "And first of all, Dentu must be mad to be afraid to publish it." As a seasoned veteran of the ruthless world of publishing, Flaubert positions himself as a professional and declares: "Nothing in it is reprehensible either politically or morally. What he told you is a pretext?" This question of moral reprehension echoes the famous trial brought against the author of Madame Bovary. Like an enthusiastic literary critic, Flaubert compliments his colleague: "I find your book to be a real book. It is very well done, very careful, very masculine. & I know what I'm talking about, my good man." As a scrupulous reader, he nevertheless allows himself a few remarks on Cladel's manuscript ("I have two or three small criticisms to make (trivial matters) - or rather advice to submit to you.") before reconsidering: "Sometimes, there are pretensions to archaism and naivety. It is an excess of good." Flaubert's attitude here is almost paternal and in any case benevolent: aware of his friend's abilities he wishes to encourage him and see the publication of his work succeed: "But once again, be content & sleep soundly - or rather don't sleep - and often create similar works."
The benevolent writer also mentions in this letter another publisher, Georges Charpentier: "As for Charpentier (to whom I will return your sheets on Friday - the day when I dine at his house) I am going to give him a vigorous talking-to, & in all conscience, without exaggeration & without lies." Charpentier, who has been publishing Flaubert since 1874, has become a close friend of the writer with whom he maintains a rich correspondence. In this month of May 1877, he has just published Trois contes which was for Cladel the occasion for a moving celebration of his master in Letters: "Where the devil did you get that gleaming brush with which you paint your canvases, the small ones like the large ones, and that sobriety that certain Latins would envy you? To be at once Chateaubriand and Stendhal, and moreover Flaubert." This admiration is reciprocal and Flaubert feels for this "true artist" an unfeigned esteem: "The ending is simply sublime! - & of the greatest effect." He will reiterate, a few weeks later, his compliments: "It is worked, chiseled, delved into. Observation, in your case, takes nothing away from poetry; on the contrary, it brings it out." Indeed, Cladel will establish himself as the true heir to the Flaubertian style, much more so than Zola who will precisely reproach him for "work[ing] his prose relentlessly" and "striv[ing] to render perfect each sentence he writes."
It is finally Édouard Dentu who will publish the manuscript of L'Homme de la Croix-aux-Bœufs; Cladel will moreover offer a copy enriched with a beautiful autograph inscription to his esteemed friend: "To my dear master Gustave Flaubert, May 7, 1878. Léon Cladel."