Prose was born yesterday: you have to keep that in mind. Verse is the form par excellence of ancient literatures. All possible prosodic variations have been discovered; but that is far from being the case with prose.[La prose est née d’hier, voilà ce qu’il faut se dire. Le vers est la forme par excellence des littératures anciennes. Toutes les combinaisons prosodiques ont été faites, mais celles de la prose, tant s’en faut!]

Source:Letter to Louise Colet (April 24, 1852), The Letter of Gustave Flaubert (1830-1857), (ed. 1980), Page 159
Find more on

Themes