FLAUBERT (Gustave). Born in Rouen. 1821-1880. Writer. L.A.S "G. Flaubert" to Eugène Bataille. S.l.n.d., Monday morning, 4 Xbre [4 December 1876]. 1 p. 1/2 in-12. UNPUBLISHED LETTER. Flaubert wants to see Bataille, and hopes to lure him to his retreat at Croisset with this letter. ...How can we meet, dear friend? I dare not invite you to lunch or dinner, as my only servant is a maid, who is not very strong!... Left alone, his niece Caroline and her husband Ernest Commanville have gone back to Paris, ...can't you come and pay me a visit? or, using the Furet, stay with me during the journey from Croisset to Rouen. I would need to confer with your Excellency? A word in reply, perhaps? Flaubert, faced with the financial difficulties of his nephew Ernest Commanville, asked for help from his friend Eugène Bataille (1815-1878), a former pupil of the Collège Royal in Rouen. Despite their political differences (Bataille had supported Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's coup d'état in December 1851 and had become the Emperor's State Councillor), they remained good friends.