Note 470 — Chapter XIII

That Flaubert escaped their error only so far as by fire has been allowed. One might indeed say so by death. For Bouvard et Pécuchet as it stands, and as outlined further, is very near Naturalism. Earlier he had carried the principle far in Salammbô, and would have carried it farther if he had not listened to good advice for once. But he had fire enough in his interior to burn the rubbish and smelt the ore in his better books, and skill enough to run off the metal from the dross, into proper shape. The others had not.