The one way of tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy.

Flaubert’s line frames reading and writing as an ecstatic, consuming refuge from the burdens of ordinary life. “Tolerating existence” suggests that daily reality can feel dull, painful, or insufficient; literature becomes not a polite pastime but an immersive intoxication—an “orgy” of sensation, imagination, and intellect. The metaphor also hints at excess and surrender: one “loses oneself,” dissolving the ego into the lives, styles, and worlds that books provide. In this view, art is not merely decorative; it is a survival strategy and a substitute intensity, offering a heightened experience that makes life bearable while also risking withdrawal from the practical world.