What a happy breath I will take as I get onboard the steam boat in Marseilles!" From 12 April to 5 June 1858, Flaubert traveled to Tunisia, to explore the locations of his novel, though little survived from ancient times.
I will once again spend my days on horseback and my nights in a tent. This is why, around the end of March, I will go back to the country of exotic dates. In a letter to Madame de Chantepie dated 23 January 1858, he described his anticipation: "I absolutely have to go to Africa. In 1857, Flaubert decided to conduct research in Carthage, writing in March to Félicien de Saulcy, a French archeologist about his plans. The novel was enormously popular when first published and jumpstarted a renewed interest in the history of the Roman Republic's conflict with the North African Phoenician outpost of Carthage.Īfter the legal troubles that followed the publication of Madame Bovary, when he was tried and acquitted on charges of "immorality", Flaubert sought a less controversial subject for his next novel.
Flaubert's principal source was Book I of the Histories, written by the Greek historian Polybius. It is set in Carthage immediately before and during the Mercenary Revolt (241–237 BCE). Salammbô (1862) is a historical novel by Gustave Flaubert.
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