At the beginning of June 1853, Madame Pouchet died in Rouen when she had a stroke and fell from her horse while riding with her husband, a doctor and zoologist. Gustave Flaubert, who knows the couple, shared the incident with his friend Louise Colet two days later from Croisset, his home, in a letter that he himself mailed on the way to the funeral. He puts particular emphasis on the circumstances under which the deceased returned to her house: “Bouilhet, who lives across from you, saw her body brought back in a cab and how the son saw his mother, whose face was covered with a handkerchief At the same moment as she was returning home, feet first, a messenger brought a bouquet of flowers that she had ordered that morning. O Shakespeare! “
For the 200th birthday of Gustave Flaubert – Culture
