Flaubert's flame: a trove of undiscovered letters

Following on from our account in May of ground-breaking online research into Flaubert's writing methods, we have a web-exclusive article this week from author David Waller detailing an astonishing discovery he made while writing his recent book The Magnificent Mrs Tennant: The Adventurous Life of Gertrude Tennant, Victorian Grande Dame (Yale). As Waller explains, the discovery of previously unknown letters between Flaubert and the inestimable Gertrude Tennant show an uncharacteristically tender correspondence on the part of a man better known for his acerbic wit and unsentimental precision of thought and language. They reveal a passionate friendship that began long before Flaubert had attained literary greatness, and that was unexpectedly rekindled decades later when Mrs Tennant was one of the most formidable hostesses in Victorian England and Flaubert one of the world's most revered living novelists.