'In the early thirties she had read a lot of French, starting with Stendhal: and a chunk of his "De l'amour", in the French, found its way into "To the North". In 1932 she was reading for the first time Flaubert's "L'education sentimentale", and told Lady Ottoline: "What perfect writing, and what a clear powerful mind, and what a perfect picture of an enchantment he can produce. And what compass he has: this picture of colour and movement compared with the sad immobility of poor Bovary." A few months later she began translating it'.