Varier pour décrire. Genèse des « chambres souterraines de la forteresse » dans Hérodias de Gustave Flaubert (2)

Abstract

The “brouillons” of chapters I and II of Hérodias show the multiple operations behind the description of “les chambres souterraines de la forteresse” of Machærous. After omitting any mention of Herod’s armament depots in chapter I, Flaubert set about organizing the descriptive passage in chapter II: he selected the weapons to be displayed and, after many attempts, assigned them to the various caverns. By laboriously varying the objects and their respective collocation, the writer achieves the order — and disorder — that the final text of the tale restores to us.