Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait

Gustave was left in the charge of others of his mother, who was also nervous and preoccupied; of the country girls in the kitchen, who told him the tales of their villages; of an old man across the street, an amiable monomaniac who whenever a small child came in sight began to read aloud from Don Quixote; and of Uncle Parain from Nogent, a gay, feather-brained little goldsmith who had married a sister of Dr. Flaubert and who, from some strange feeling of sympathy, seemed to prefer his youngest nephew to his own children and was always paying visits to Rouen, taking Gustave on delightful excursions: to the street of the prostitutes, where the goldsmith loved to linger; to the insane asylum, where a dozen wild- haired, half-naked madwomen, chained to their cells, screamed and tore at their own bleeding faces with their filthy nails, as the child of six stared, fascinated. Once, coming home, they passed a guillotine which had just been used; the pavement around it was bright with fresh blood. About this time Gustave began to be afraid of the dark.