In the year 1858, the French novelist Gustave Flobert arrived in North Africa, hoping to

find inspiration for his latest book.

Flobert was a seasoned traveler, and a decade or so earlier had embarked on a grand tour

of Cairo, Constantinople, Greece and Italy. But the writer who now departed on this new set

of travels was like a different man. Although only 37 years old, he was plagued by sickness

and prone to fits of depression. And the novel he had been working on for the last year

was threatening to drive him mad.

The publication of his most famous work two years before, the novel Madame Bovery,

had brought him fame and wealth. But now he was attempting to write a piece of fiction

quite unlike anything he had ever attempted. It would be a story from classical history

that took place in an empire that had once flourished in the north of Africa, had become

the most powerful society in the ancient world, and then had vanished in its entirety

more than 2,000 years ago. An empire that had been largely forgotten, beside the more

well studied societies of classical Greece and Rome. This was the empire of Carthage.

He had spent the last months locked up in his study like a hermit, surrounded by the

work of ancient historians, trying to bring the lost city of Carthage back to life.

But the writing just wouldn't come, as he wrote to his friend Ernest Fado.

I'm done for my friend. Done for. For the past month I found it impossible to write.

I can't find a single word. Just think of what I've let myself in for, to resuscitate

an entire civilization with nothing whatsoever to go on.

Flowbear made the decision that something would have to change. He wrote of his intentions

to his friend, Mademoiselle La Royaide Chantepe.

...