Bouvard and Pécuchet A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life   By: Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)

[Illustration: "NO, MY LITTLE ANGEL! DON'T BE AFRAID!"]

BOUVARD AND PÉCUCHET

A TRAGI COMIC NOVEL OF BOURGEOIS LIFE

BY

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

VOLUME IX.

SIMON P. MAGEE PUBLISHER CHICAGO, ILL.

COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY

M. WALTER DUNNE

Entered at Stationer's Hall, London

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. PAGE KINDRED SOULS 1

CHAPTER II. EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE 26

CHAPTER III. AMATEUR CHEMISTS 72

CHAPTER IV. RESEARCHES IN ARCHÆOLOGY 123

CHAPTER V. ROMANCE AND THE DRAMA 163

CHAPTER VI. REVOLT OF THE PEOPLE 191

CHAPTER VII. "UNLUCKY IN LOVE" 228

CHAPTER VIII. NEW DIVERSIONS 242

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE "NO, MY LITTLE ANGEL! DON'T BE AFRAID!" (See page 238) Frontispiece

MUTUALLY BECOMING AFFLICTED, THEY LOOKED AT THEIR TONGUES 90

HE WAS ABOUT TO CLASP HER IN HIS ARMS 234

BOUVARD AND PÉCUCHET

CHAPTER I.

KINDRED SOULS.

As there were thirty three degrees of heat the Boulevard Bourdon was absolutely deserted.

Farther down, the Canal St. Martin, confined by two locks, showed in a straight line its water black as ink. In the middle of it was a boat, filled with timber, and on the bank were two rows of casks.

Beyond the canal, between the houses which separated the timber yards, the great pure sky was cut up into plates of ultramarine; and under the reverberating light of the sun, the white façades, the slate roofs, and the granite wharves glowed dazzlingly. In the distance arose a confused noise in the warm atmosphere; and the idleness of Sunday, as well as the melancholy engendered by the summer heat, seemed to shed around a universal languor.

Two men made their appearance.

One came from the direction of the Bastille; the other from that of the Jardin des Plantes. The taller of the pair, arrayed in linen cloth, walked with his hat back, his waistcoat unbuttoned, and his cravat in his hand. The smaller, whose form was covered with a maroon frock coat, wore a cap with a pointed peak.

As soon as they reached the middle of the boulevard, they sat down, at the same moment, on the same seat.

In order to wipe their foreheads they took off their headgear, each placing his beside himself; and the little man saw "Bouvard" written in his neighbour's hat, while the latter easily traced "Pécuchet" in the cap of the person who wore the frock coat.

"Look here!" he said; "we have both had the same idea to write our names in our head coverings!"

"Yes, faith, for they might carry off mine from my desk."

"'Tis the same way with me. I am an employé."

Then they gazed at each other. Bouvard's agreeable visage quite charmed Pécuchet.

His blue eyes, always half closed, smiled in his fresh coloured face. His trousers, with big flaps, which creased at the end over beaver shoes, took the shape of his stomach, and made his shirt bulge out at the waist; and his fair hair, which of its own accord grew in tiny curls, gave him a somewhat childish look.