Flaubert et Sade, ou la fascinatîon de l'excès

Sade's thinking underlies many works by Flaubert, Sade's appeal stems from the fact that Flaubert is immensely fascinated by excess, violence and encyclopedic preoccupations. What further catches his imagination is the grotesque in Sade's writings. His endless repetitions, his characters dehumanized by their obsessive endeavors, his language at odds with the narrative, all fit perfectly Flaubert's idea of the comic. Furthermore Flaubert considers sadism, because of its obsession with evil and its strong aversion to freedom as a hybridization of Catholicism. But Flaubert remains ambivalent. Sade both appeals to him and repulses him. (CLT)