Writers Two: Turgenev and Flaubert

I've been reading a book with the letters between Turgenev and Flaubert. They were instant friends and colleagues, peers driving at the purity of literature from their respective countries, Russia and France. They often met up in Paris. Amidst political turmoil, war, great distance, writing struggles and the everyday problems of life (Turgenev had recurring bouts with gout, which sometimes crippled him for weeks at a time) - they managed to keep their very cordial friendship intact.

It's rather amusing and intriguing to read about their foibles and tribulations, the tedium of their lives, the depression, the despair, the strife -- while they wrote great works.

All men, it seems, at least at times, live lives of quiet desperation -- even the Great Ones!