Dictionnaire Gustave Flaubert by d'Éric Le Calvez, and: Dictionnaire Flaubert by Gisèle Sèginger (review)

'DICTIONNAIRE. En rire—n'est fait que pour les ignorants', reads a characteristically ironic entry in Gustave Flaubert's Dictionnaire des idées reçues. While there is little likelihood of the two massive dictionaries under review meeting with such a reaction, there is an inescapable irony in the author of the Dictionnaire des idées reçues having every aspect of his life and work scrutinized in alphabetical order. Flaubert scholars, however, will rejoice, for these two mammoth enterprises — over three thousand pages in all — contain a vast body of knowledge and insight, and will be invaluable reference books for many years to come. Éric Le Calvez and Gisèle Séginger have each assembled teams of specialists whose entries offer much more than the bare factual outlines of character, plot, or biography that the title Dictionnaire might imply. These volumes in fact provide a cornucopia of information, ideas, and critical analysis focused not only on Flaubert's life and writings, but on the cultural, historical, and intellectual context in which he worked, and the breadth of his enduring influence. While the two editions have considerable overlap, they differ in several respects. The Garnier volume contains nearly twice as many entries — around 1300, as opposed to Champion's 678. Comparing those beginning with the relatively infrequent letter 'J', for example, we find that while both editions include 'James (Henry)', 'Jeufroy (abbé)', 'Journal' or 'Journalisme', 'Jules', and 'Julien l'hospitalier', Champion also has entries on 'Jésuites', 'Joyce (James)', 'Judith', and 'Justice', whereas Garnier has additional entries on 'Janin', 'Japon', 'Jean (Raymond)', 'Jean-Baptiste', 'Jérusalem', 'Journal. Mémoires de la vie littéraire', 'Journal de Rouen', 'Journées de Juin', 'Jugement', 'Juif', 'Julie (Hébert)', 'Julio', 'Jumièges (Abbaye de)', and 'Justin'. The only shortcoming of the otherwise excellent Champion volume is its deeply frustrating lack of an index, so its readers may never notice that Jerusalem is discussed under 'Palestine', for example, or realize that Jeanne Bem's characteristically insightful seven-page article on Madame Bovary is enhanced by her 'Tostes' entry, where she discusses the importance of place in that novel. The Garnier volume has no index either, but asterisks in its text provide a system of cross-referencing complemented by a list of related topics at the end of each entry, thus inviting endless intriguing browsing. For example, Stéphanie Dord-Crouslé's 'Graffiti' entry notes that despite Flaubert's famous fury at finding tourists' scribbles on ancient monuments, he bought thick carpenters' pencils to leave graffiti of his own, including words scrawled on the seats of railway carriages. This cross-references to a 'Chemin de fer' entry, which points the reader onwards to 'Symbolisme', which in turn offers a multiplicity of further paths to explore. While some of the shortest entries remain purely factual, most go far beyond that. Many of the longest entries, particularly in the Champion volume where they can run to four thousand words, offer original and thought-provoking discussion more akin to a concise journal article than a conventional dictionary entry. Either (or preferably both) of these superb works will make the life of any Flaubert scholar very much easier.