Chapter 8, The Train-spotter's Guide to Flaubert Summary

The house at Croisset was good for Flaubert. It was close to Rouen and gave him access to Paris, yet it was still isolated. The house was large enough for him to have a study but small enough to discourage visitors. His father had bought the house after Flaubert suffered his epilepsy attack and after the property at Deville had been sold so the railroad could be built across the land.

Flaubert belonged to the first railroad generation, yet he hated railroads. Flaubert felt that they were a bad form of transportation and traveling by train bored him. Flaubert also hated that the railways gave people the illusion of progress. He thought moral advances should accompany scientific advances. In Geoffrey's mind, though, the railroad plays an underestimated part in Flaubert's affair with Louise...