Abstract: Flaubert’s theater career took a variety of turns and was marked by successive crazes and repeated failures. His interest in playwriting, motivated by friendly loyalty, was reborn between each novel-writing effort. The man of the theater tries out another writerly rhythm and attempts the projection of the imaginary into physical space; he places the audience in front of a spectacle of clichés magnified to excess. Ranging from féerie to “comédie rosse,” Flaubert’s stage works need to be reconsidered.
