“ A man, on the contrary, should he not know everything, excel in manifold activities, initiate you into the energies of passion, the refinements of life, all mysteries? ”
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1856). copy citation
| Author | Gustave Flaubert |
|---|---|
| Source | Madame Bovary |
| Topic | mystery refinement |
| Date | 1856 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2413/2413-h/2413-h.htm |
Context
“He had never had the curiosity, he said, while he lived at Rouen, to go to the theatre to see the actors from Paris. He could neither swim, nor fence, nor shoot, and one day he could not explain some term of horsemanship to her that she had come across in a novel.
A man, on the contrary, should he not know everything, excel in manifold activities, initiate you into the energies of passion, the refinements of life, all mysteries? But this one taught nothing, knew nothing, wished nothing. He thought her happy; and she resented this easy calm, this serene heaviness, the very happiness she gave him.
Sometimes she would draw;”
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