Rimbaud's girl

Summer is over.

The summer in northwestern France is not hot, long sleeves are worn during the day, and coats or sweaters are required at night. On rainy days, the fireplace is lit to remove the humidity.

This summer has been pretty good, although because of Arthur's injury, he has been busy all the time, and even Flaubert has used it.Flaubert's parents are both doctors. He has 3 older sisters and 1 older brother. The older brother is also a doctor, so he still has some social connections.Although the Aolan family has run away and most of their previous relationships are useless, it is still very easy to do things if they have money.

Vitaly's purpose is: not short of money, and Verlaine's sentence must be as long as possible.

The facts of this case are clear and the responsibility is simple. It is a small criminal case. The judge believes that Verlaine injured Arthur Rimbaud's hand, causing him to lose the normal function of the hand and unable to write (in fact, the left hand is not the right hand), and the injury The murder weapon is a pistol, and the nature is also relatively serious, so the sentence that should have been 24 months was added 18 months.

The trial of the case was extremely fast, and there was no public trial. Neither the Rimbaud siblings participated in the trial.

Other than that, Vitaly was pretty happy.Arthur was finally free from Verlaine's influence, which was something to celebrate; and Gabriel, he was such a smart and obedient boyfriend.

The so-called "smart person" means that he can understand what you are going to say just after you say the beginning. Both Arthur and Gabriel are such people.Gabriel wasn't stupid back then in Rosh Village, he just wanted to have companions, but his upbringing prevented him from understanding a country boy like Shire, so that he would actually be bullied.

Now he should understand that "friends" are not everywhere.

Charles now lives in Charleville, working part-time in her family's small shop, which is quite diligent.The eldest brother Frederick went to the military service, and there was a boy in the family who was serving in the military. Arthur could not serve in the army. After graduating from college, he only needed to participate in reserve soldier training;Arthur would definitely not like life in the army, and she had already figured out that she would spend the money and finish it.

Flaubert finally knew about the entanglement between Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, and believed that the responsibility for this matter lay with Verlaine, not Arthur.He thought that Arthur could take a year off from school first, or go to England to study at university. No one would know about it in a foreign country.

He has never been married, but has always had a mistress, and his relationship with George Sand is probably more of a platonic relationship. He is very tolerant on emotional issues and is not homophobic, but France is a Catholic country, and the religious atmosphere is tolerant. Not homosexual; besides, he felt that Arthur was too young when he met Verlaine, and he might not have figured out his sexuality at all.

It's not uncommon for a young man to try same-sex love, he's tried it himself, but while traveling abroad, hey!That's not much to say, and almost no one knows about it.After trying it, I feel that there is nothing "mysterious".In fact, it is mostly because it is "taboo". Young people always want to try the stimulation of "taboo".

Vitaly sent her brother and boyfriend away, and the Crosval Manor became quiet again.

Life quickly returned to its previous routine and rhythm.

Flaubert could not be regarded as a good teacher. Most of the time, Vitaly read the books by himself, and if there were questions that he did not understand, he could ask him after dinner.She can also write letters to Flaubert's friends, especially if she writes theoretical essays about these friends, if she doesn't understand, she can directly write to them and ask them personally. This is an excellent opportunity: Think about it Look, there are a few people who are engaged in literary theory who can directly write to these bigwigs and ask them about their original creative ideas!It's beautiful when you think about it.

A copy of "Madame Bovary" made Flaubert famous in the literary world. His output was not high, at least not comparable to that of his younger generation Zola; hard-working writers such as Dumas, Dumas, Hugo, and Balzac, All works are equivalent to a body, and all the works can kill a person when piled up. Flaubert's perfectionist obsessive-compulsive disorder led to a small number of his works.

The days of diligent study pass quickly.

Gabriel wrote to her every week, and the tone of the letters became intimate, and he began to treat her as a "girlfriend" rather than just a "friend".He went to Oxford and has since become a glorious bourgeois college student, with new environment and new friends, with 1000 pounds a year for living expenses, and living a happy life.

According to the current exchange rate between the British pound and the French franc, 1000 pounds can be exchanged for 5000 francs, and the living expenses of the five members of Rimbaud's family are only 5 francs a year. He can live quite comfortably on 2000 francs a year alone.He decided not to spend too much money, and he also listened to Vitaly, drink as little as possible, and prepare to save some -->>

The living expenses are saved to take her shopping when I visit her at Christmas.

He talked about his financial situation. After he turned 16, Baron Oran began to pay him an annuity. Last year it was 500 pounds, which was doubled this year. His daily expenses were paid by his father, not counting within the annuity.He still has some fixed assets, and has his own apartment in downtown London. Now Arthur lives in his apartment, and he does not collect rent.

This is the "love letter," she thought.She didn't know how to reply to the letter. The main reason was that her life was too monotonous. She read, read, and read books every day. At most, she wandered around nearby villages. She didn't go to church on Sundays. The farthest she went to Rouen was to do some shopping and go out in the morning. Come back in the evening.

She can only talk to him about daily life, such as who she met when she went out, what frictions there were between servants, and gossip about other people's families.Every time I write a letter to him, I feel very happy, thinking that there is a well-behaved and lovely boyfriend waiting for her in the distance, and promised to listen to her, which feels good.

Arthur also wrote to her every week.He was alone in London, with no one he knew around, and he had to hurry up and learn English.Vitaly gave him 1000 francs. When he arrived in London, Gabriel helped him convert the francs into British pounds. The exchange rate was 5:1, which was only 200 pounds.Fortunately, the purchasing power of the British pound is very strong. He doesn't have to pay rent or go out to socialize. 200 pounds is enough for him to live for a year.

He bought manuscript paper, ink, new pens, continued to write, wrote poetry, wrote, and wrote prose, and tried to find job opportunities, but because the language barrier had not passed, he could hardly find a job.He plans to achieve conversational fluency in four months before he can go out and find a tutoring job teaching French and French composition.

He eats a simple breakfast in the restaurant outside in the morning, then stays in the library all day, eats a little nearby at noon, and returns to the apartment after dinner in the evening.There are two servants staying in the apartment, one male and one female. He does not have to do housework, and the maid washes his clothes for him. Vitaly wrote back asking him to give the servant a little tip occasionally, not too much, just a few shillings, extra The income would make the servants happy, after all the servants were paid the Oran's salary, not the Rimbaud's.

She herself occasionally tipped the servants at the Crosval estate, after all, they were paid by the Flauberts.There is no need to give too much, just a few sous, and the upper limit is no more than one silver coin of 1 francs.It's not a big money, of course, you have to live economically.

Flaubert entrusted her to take care of the household expenses account book. The main income is real estate rent, and there are some rents in kind. Some tenants will use real estate to pay rent; wheat, fruits, vegetables and the like; There are not many other fruits, and they don’t pay much attention to breeding, and the taste is not very good. If you want to eat juicy or sweet fruits, most of them have to be imported from abroad, but they are not very expensive;

Meat includes pork, beef, and a little mutton; poultry, chicken, duck, geese, and pigeons; because it is not far from the sea, fish is often served on the table; before she went out with the housekeeper to collect rent, she casually said that she wanted to eat some game, and some tenants would occasionally I will give her a few birds, but she doesn’t know what species they are, and they eat them as pheasant stew; potatoes are both a staple food and a vegetable, and they are counted separately; eggs, milk, butter, coffee, chocolate, cocoa powder, and sugar are all daily necessities ;

The cook is good at making desserts, and both she and Flaubert love sweets; every time Mrs. Rimbaud writes to her, she tells her that she needs to learn some cooking skills, so that after marriage, she will not be unable to manage three meals a day. She learned a few dishes from the cook so that she could show them to her mother when she came home for Christmas.It doesn't take her too much time to learn to cook, and it can also be used as a spare time after studying, and there is no reluctance.

She also wrote to Gabriel about her daily life of learning how to cook, and Gabriel said sweetly that she must make it for him in the future, it must be delicious.

She happily replied that he must eat all of them, no matter what he eats for him, he had to eat, and she proudly showed off, saying that she had learned how to make several desserts, so she even had the skill of whipping cream, that is, whipping Buttering arms would be tiring, so she left that part of the job to the kitchen maid.

In the blink of an eye, at the end of October, Gabriel sent her some fine Indian cotton cloth and Chinese silk from England, as well as some odds and ends of girls' items, such as ivory bone lace fans and pearl-embellished fans. Lambskin slippers, small and exquisite carved hand mirrors with handles, etc., are packed in a wooden box.The manor’s mail parcels were always sent to the door by the post office. The housekeeper called two servants to carry the wooden box to Vitaly’s room.

He had always sent her things before, but most of them were books, even if he gave her something, he didn't send so many at once.

The servant put down the wooden box on the table in the living room, opened the box with a crowbar, and wrapped everything inside carefully with paper bags or cloth bags.On top of the item was a letter with "Vitaly" written in beautiful cursive script.