He was born to be Emperor of Cochin-China, to smoke 36-fathom pipes, to have 6,000 wives and 1,400 catamites

At eighteen, he [Flaubert] decides that some freakish wind must have mistakenly transported him to France: he was born, he declares, to be Emperor of Cochin-China, to smoke 36-fathom pipes, to have 6,000 wives and 1,400 catamites; but instead, displaced by this meteorological hazard, he is left with immense, insatiable desires, fierce boredom, and an attack of the yawns.

J. Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot (1984), 142

[Tinsel] possessed all the qualities of silver plus one more – pathos

Flaubert once said that he liked tinsel better than silver  because it possessed all the qualities of silver plus one more – pathos. … Of all the pulps, SF pulp is the most tinselly: partly in the sense that its content was more dazzling, starry, most likely to lift its readers’ eyes, metaphorically, to the brilliances above us; but partly also in the sense that it was aware and even revelled in its own cheapness.

A. Roberts, The history of Science Fiction (2005), 175

Gustave Flaubert ... would have described her as being mad as a wet hen.

She [Constance] was thinking of Alaric, Duke of Dunstable, and a stylist like Gustave Flaubert, with his flair for the mot juste, would have described her as being mad as a wet hen.

P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings (1969), 116

'I live alone, like a bear.'

'I [Flaubert] live alone, like a bear.' (The word 'alone' in this sentence is best glossed as: 'alone except for my parents, my sister, the servants, our dog, Caroline's goat, and my regular visits from Alfred le Poittevin'.)

J. Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot (1984), 48