Orientalist Structures and Restructures When the seyyid ‘Omar, the Nakeeb el-Ashraf (or chief of the descendants of the Prophet) .. . married a daughter, about forty-five years since, there walked before the procession a young man who had made an incision in his abdomen, and drawn out a large portion of his intestines, which he carried before him on a silver tray. After the procession, he restored them to their proper place, and remained in bed many days before he recovered from the effects of this foolish and disgusting act. —Edvward William Lane, 4n Account ef the Manners and Custems of the Modern Egyptians . .. dans le cas de fa chute de cet empire, soit par une révolution Constantinople, soit par un démembrement successif, les puissances européennes prendront chacune, a titre de protectorat, la partie de Vempire qui lui sera assignée par tes stipulations du congrés; que ces protectorats, définis et limités, quant aux territoires, selon les voisinages, la sureté des frontiéres, l’analogie de religions, de moeurs et d’interéts . . ne consacreront que la suzeraineté des puissances. Cette sorte de suzeraineté définie ainsi, et consacrée comme droit européen, consistera principalement dans le droit d’occuper telle partie du territoire ou des cétes, pour y fonder, soit des villes libres, soit des colonies européennes, soit des ports et des échelles de commerce. . . . Ce n’est qu’une tutelle armée et civilisatrice que chaque puissance exercera sur son protectorat; elle garantira son existence et ses éléments de nationalité, sous le drapeau d’une nationalité plus ferte. . . . —Alphonse de Lamartine, Voyage en @rient

I Redrawn Frontiers, Redefined Issues, Secularized Religion Gustave Flaubert died in 188 without having finished Bouvard et Pécuchet, his comic encyclopedic novel on the degeneration of knowledge and the inanity of human effort. Nevertheless the essential outlines of his vision are clear, and are clearly supported by the ample detail of his novel. The two clerks are members of the bourgeoisie who, because one of them is the unexpected beneficiary of a handsome will, retire from the city to spend their lives on a country estate doing what they please (“nous ferons tout ce que nous piaira!”). As Flaubert portrays their experience, doing as they please involves Bouvard and Pécuchet in a practical and theoretical jaunt through agriculture, history, chemistry, education, archaeology, literature, always with less than successful results; they move through fields of learning like travelers in time and knowledge, experiencing the disappointments, disasters, and letdowns of uninspired amateurs. What they move through, in fact, is the whole disillusioning experience of the nineteenth century, whereby—in Charles Morazé’s phrase—“les bourgeois conquerants” turn out to be the bumbling victims of their own leveling incompetence and mediocrity. Every enthusiasm resolves itself into a boring cliché, and every discipline or type of knowledge changes from hope and power into disorder, ruin, and sorrow. Among Flaubert’s sketches for the conclusion of this panorama of despair are two items of special interest to us here. The two men debate the future of mankind. Pécuchet sees “the future of Humanity through a glass darkly,” whereas Bouvard sees it “brightly!” Modern man is progressing, Europe will be regenerated by Asia. The historical law that civilization moves from Orient to Occident . .. the two forms of humanity will at last be soldered together.* This obvious echo of Quinet represents the start of still another of the cycles of enthusiasm and disillusionment through which the two men will pass. Flaubert’s notes indicate that like all his others, 113