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Yorick (The Narrator)
La Fleur is Yorick’s French servant, whom Yorick hires in Montriul after having trouble handling his baggage by himself. Prior to working for Yorick, La Fleur served in the French army, where he learned to play the drum and the fife, and then went home, where he was unemployed. Though La Fleur has none of the skills that Yorick wants in a servant—he doesn’t know how to shave Yorick or take care of Yorick’s wig—Yorick appreciates La Fleur due to La Fleur’s loyalty and positive, even-keeled attitude. La Fleur’s name means “flower” in French, which hints at his vanity and his romantic nature. Yorick describes him as a “coxcomb,” a man excessively concerned with his own appearance, and as they are taking their leave of Montriul, Yorick sees him kissing the hands of six different women and weeping. As Yorick largely approves of La Fleur’s behavior, La Fleur serves to emphasize Yorick’s loyalty to his friends, his sentimentality about women, and his self-indulgent sexuality. Later, La Fleur’s romantic adventures in Paris—a brief liaison with a servant girl who he almost immediately discovers is unfaithful to him—serve as a kind of counterpoint or reinforcement for Yorick’s Parisian flirtations with the grisset and Madame de R—’s chambermaid.
La Fleur Quotes in A Sentimental Journey
The A Sentimental Journey quotes below are all either spoken by La Fleur or refer to La Fleur. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Volume 1
Quotes
In saying this, I was making not so much La Fleur’s eloge, as my own, having been in love with one princess or another all my life, and I hope I shall go on so, till I die, being firmly persuaded, that if ever I do a mean action, it must be in some interval betwixt one passion and another: whilst this interregnum lasts, I always perceive my heart locked up—I can scarce find in it, to give Misery a sixpence, and therefore I always get out of it as fast as I can, and the moment I am rekindled, I am all generosity and good will again; and would do any thing in the world either for, or with any one, if they will but satisfy me there is no sin in it.
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Volume 2
Quotes
The mind sits terrified at the objects she has magnified herself, and blackened: reduce them to their proper size and hue she overlooks them[.]
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La Fleur Quotes in A Sentimental Journey
The A Sentimental Journey quotes below are all either spoken by La Fleur or refer to La Fleur. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Volume 1
Quotes
In saying this, I was making not so much La Fleur’s eloge, as my own, having been in love with one princess or another all my life, and I hope I shall go on so, till I die, being firmly persuaded, that if ever I do a mean action, it must be in some interval betwixt one passion and another: whilst this interregnum lasts, I always perceive my heart locked up—I can scarce find in it, to give Misery a sixpence, and therefore I always get out of it as fast as I can, and the moment I am rekindled, I am all generosity and good will again; and would do any thing in the world either for, or with any one, if they will but satisfy me there is no sin in it.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2
Quotes
The mind sits terrified at the objects she has magnified herself, and blackened: reduce them to their proper size and hue she overlooks them[.]
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