Her nights were spent in writing, which seemed in her case a relaxation from the real business of the day, playing with her grandchildren, gardening, conversing with her visitors - it might be Balzac or Dumas, or Octave Feuillet or Matthew Arnold - or writing long letters to Sainte-Beuve and Flaubert.
Flaubert's Salammbo ought always to be read by those who visit Carthage and Tunisia.
The Relic conveys the impressions of a journey in Palestine and in parts suggests his indebtedness to Flaubert, but its mysticism is entirely new and individual; while the versatility of his talent further appears in The Correspondence of Fradique Mendes, where acute observation is combined with brilliant satire or rich humour.
When Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary, I believe he thought chiefly of a somewhat morbid realism; and behold!
Like Flaubert, Eça was concerned with revealing the detailed psychological motives behind his character's behavior.