letters

There was some confusing elements about the letters that I did not understand. The first is that in the letters Flaubert told his mistriss that if he died she was to lie all about his life and burn all of the letters. Why on earth would he want her to lie about his life, he had a really interesting life in which he accomplished many things. So why would he just disregard all of this stuff and lie aobut his life. Would he want her to lie to make his life sound more interesting or would he want her to degrade him. So is all of the information that we know about flaubert a lie or is the whole truth. Also, how did these letters escape the fire that was supposed to be put upon them. Maybe the letters are just all lies that Flaubert had previously written to give false information about his life. Or maybe the letters don't even exist at all and Ed Winterton just made them up completely to get some attention from another human being.