A Passage to the Orient: How Flaubert Became a Writer (1849−1851)

Abstract: Between 1849 and 1851, Gustave Flaubert (1821−1880) traveled to the Orient with the photographer Maxime Du Camp (1822-1894). The journey would shape his writing. For Flaubert, the Orient was less a feared boundary to cross than an unexpected space of free movement. His travels in the Orient opened real and metaphorical passages and resulted in the highly sensorial nature of his later writing. Above all, the passage of breath through his lungs as a metaphor for style gave rise to the famous Flaubertian experience of the gueuloir . Real or metaphorical, these passages through the Orient made Flaubert the writer he became.