![FLAUBERT, Gustave (1821-1880). Autograph manuscript comprising historical notes, written in continuous prose as background material for Salammbô, his novel of ancient Carthage [1862], 21½ pages, folio.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1995/CKS/1995_CKS_05424_0502_000(103247).jpg?w=1)
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FLAUBERT, Gustave (1821-1880). Autograph manuscript comprising historical notes, written in continuous prose as background material for Salammbô, his novel of ancient Carthage [1862], 21½ pages, folio.
The notes, neatly written in a flowing hand, are in two sections, the first headed 'Marius Intervalle entre la première et la seconde revolte des pauvres et des sujets 191-201 Jugurtha et les limbres'. The second is headed 'Seconde revolte des esclaves, les pauvres de Rome et des Italiens, soulevement des provinciaux, 169-84', with subheadings.
Flaubert, who had visited Carthage in 1858, in the interests of historical accuracy and credibility undertook the most detailed research, reading almost 100 books, including even some Arabic sources. The main events of the Punic war in the novel are taken from Polybius's History Book I, and he also probably re-read Michelet's Histoire Romaine. The numbers in the text of the manuscript are page references, possibly to one of these works. The novel is set in the Carthage of the post Jugurthine period, roughly contemporary with the civil war in Rome.
When the novel finally appeared in November 1862, it had an enormous popular success, although denounced by the Church. It was the success of Salammbô that gained the author's admission to the Court and to fashionable society.
The notes, neatly written in a flowing hand, are in two sections, the first headed 'Marius Intervalle entre la première et la seconde revolte des pauvres et des sujets 191-201 Jugurtha et les limbres'. The second is headed 'Seconde revolte des esclaves, les pauvres de Rome et des Italiens, soulevement des provinciaux, 169-84', with subheadings.
Flaubert, who had visited Carthage in 1858, in the interests of historical accuracy and credibility undertook the most detailed research, reading almost 100 books, including even some Arabic sources. The main events of the Punic war in the novel are taken from Polybius's History Book I, and he also probably re-read Michelet's Histoire Romaine. The numbers in the text of the manuscript are page references, possibly to one of these works. The novel is set in the Carthage of the post Jugurthine period, roughly contemporary with the civil war in Rome.
When the novel finally appeared in November 1862, it had an enormous popular success, although denounced by the Church. It was the success of Salammbô that gained the author's admission to the Court and to fashionable society.