A Simple Soul shows a distinctive style, Flaubert’s style, a style of its own. It includes extensive description, but not in a normal context. Flaubert strives to describe everything he can think of, making the actual events a minority in his texts. As a fundament for his description we encounter punctuation. Showing a masterful use of commas, he is able to make out of a simple idea a rush of picturing hints. His description of the routine is astonishing and precise, as shown by the second chapter:
“Every Monday morning, the dealer in second-hand goods, who lived under
the alley-way, spread out his wares on the sidewalk. Then the city
would be filled with a buzzing of voices in which the neighing of
horses, the bleating of lambs, the grunting of pigs, could be
distinguished, mingled with the sharp sound of wheels on the cobble-
stones. About twelve o'clock, when the market was in full swing, there
appeared at the front door a tall, middle-aged peasant, with a hooked
nose and a cap on the back of his head; it was Robelin, the farmer of
Geffosses. Shortly afterwards came Liebard, the farmer of Toucques,
short, rotund and ruddy, wearing a grey jacket and spurred boots (Chapter 2).”
He succeeds in introducing timing, names, description, and much explanation of what is in every sentence. His paragraph structure and overall structure remind me of a geometrical term, taking special notice of variation of paragraph size and location: similar figures. It is as if his sentences and his use of pauses and timing inside paragraphs have the same intentions of the spacing and timing of paragraphs.
Each paragraph describes, in detail, a specific something. What at first is confusing then becomes clear: the author will talk about something different each new paragraph, setting a context. Again, this extreme variation of length is noticed in the chapters. Chapter two is about twelve times chapter one, which makes the intentions rather confusing, for nothing noticeably thrilling happened as to justify it.
Through his writing, Gustave Flaubert plays with variations in lengths of his elements. He plays with length and composition of sentences inside paragraphs. He masterfully divides chapters into paragraphs of different lengths and impacts. As if not enough, he goes into dividing the work into chapters of different structures which keep similar description and meaning. In his use of variation, Flaubert is able to make his writing, which would otherwise be boring and monotonous, spontaneous and unexpected.
“Every Monday morning, the dealer in second-hand goods, who lived under
the alley-way, spread out his wares on the sidewalk. Then the city
would be filled with a buzzing of voices in which the neighing of
horses, the bleating of lambs, the grunting of pigs, could be
distinguished, mingled with the sharp sound of wheels on the cobble-
stones. About twelve o'clock, when the market was in full swing, there
appeared at the front door a tall, middle-aged peasant, with a hooked
nose and a cap on the back of his head; it was Robelin, the farmer of
Geffosses. Shortly afterwards came Liebard, the farmer of Toucques,
short, rotund and ruddy, wearing a grey jacket and spurred boots (Chapter 2).”
He succeeds in introducing timing, names, description, and much explanation of what is in every sentence. His paragraph structure and overall structure remind me of a geometrical term, taking special notice of variation of paragraph size and location: similar figures. It is as if his sentences and his use of pauses and timing inside paragraphs have the same intentions of the spacing and timing of paragraphs.
Each paragraph describes, in detail, a specific something. What at first is confusing then becomes clear: the author will talk about something different each new paragraph, setting a context. Again, this extreme variation of length is noticed in the chapters. Chapter two is about twelve times chapter one, which makes the intentions rather confusing, for nothing noticeably thrilling happened as to justify it.
Through his writing, Gustave Flaubert plays with variations in lengths of his elements. He plays with length and composition of sentences inside paragraphs. He masterfully divides chapters into paragraphs of different lengths and impacts. As if not enough, he goes into dividing the work into chapters of different structures which keep similar description and meaning. In his use of variation, Flaubert is able to make his writing, which would otherwise be boring and monotonous, spontaneous and unexpected.
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