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With his masterwork Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert blazed new trails in literary realism with a gripping tale of a disenchanted wife entangled in an extramarital affair. After that, Flaubert took a completely different tack and dove into the extensive historical research that would form the basis of the novel Salammbo, an action-packed account of the series of wars that devastated Carthage in the 3rd century BC.
I was disappointed by this. Having listened to a 4 part podcast series on the first Punic War, which contained a number of dramatic readings from this book, I expected to find it more gripping. But now I have given up on it around a third of the way through. While Flaubert clearly researched the historical background very assiduously from Roman historian Polybius's work, the narrative reads like what we would now call an info dump, as though he was so determined to show off his research that he barely remembered to tell an actual story. I found it an uninteresting drag so cut my losses after chapter 5 of 15. ( )
Although I admired the work Flaubert put into the book, it was hard to get past all the violence to the animals. The people were killed left and right (life was cheap in those times), it seemed as though they deserved it, often, out of sheer stupidity. But the Mercenaries took their anger out on the innocent animals, ie. maiming and killing elephants, lions, burning the trees that the monkeys were in, boiling fish alive. Still, vividly written. ( )
Took a few days to process. This book was compelling and the story was one I was only familiar with as a historical sidenote. The violence and the sexual imagery used a lot of similar prose, and I found the sensuality sort of mixed between the two. In the end it was like eating rotten, sweet fruit, and certainly not beautiful or enjoyable, albeit unique. I felt at times like I was reading a painting, and kept thinking of Pedro Paramo or Guccione's Caligula (not the pornographic parts) or The General in his Labyrinth in that it was almost feverish and grotesque and stylized in its remembrance. ( )
Il arriva juste au pied de la terrasse. Salammbô était penchée sur la balustrade; ces effroyables prunelles la contemplaient, et la conscience lui surgit de tout ce qu'il avait souffert pour elle. Bien qu'il agonisât, elle le revoyait dans sa tente, à genoux, lui entourant la taille de ses bras, balbutiant des paroles douces ; elle avait soif de les sentir encore, de les entendre; elle ne voulait pas qu'il mourût! À ce moment-là, Mâtho eut un grand tressaillement; elle allait crier. Il s'abattit à la renverse et ne bougea plus.
With his masterwork Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert blazed new trails in literary realism with a gripping tale of a disenchanted wife entangled in an extramarital affair. After that, Flaubert took a completely different tack and dove into the extensive historical research that would form the basis of the novel Salammbo, an action-packed account of the series of wars that devastated Carthage in the 3rd century BC.
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Beyond the gardens of Hamilcar's palace, beyond the walls of Carthage, the Roman hordes stood waiting to annihilate the noblest city of ancient Africa. Within the city, all was madness: the houses were filled with the screams of women and the streets teemed with terrified men. The veil of the goddess Tanit, sacred to Carthage, had fallen to Matho, Roman soldier-of-fortune.
But when Salambo, the exquisite daughter of Hamilcar, rode into the Roman camp, into Matho's tent, to exchange her beauty for the veil of Carthage--he would throw away victory and forsake his army, his nation, and his soul for the price of her body.
Set during the historical struggle between Rome and Carthage, Flaubert's novel offers a richly detailed portrait of the lives and rites of two ancient kingdoms moved by their allegiances to very different gods.
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