Gustave Flaubert (December 12, 1821 – May 8, 1880) was a
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
writer who is counted among the greatest
Western novelistsWestern literature refers to the literature written in the languages of Europe, including the ones belonging to the Indo-European language family as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque, Hungarian, and so forth...
. He is known especially for his first published
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
,
Madame BovaryMadame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert's first published novel and is considered his masterpiece. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life...
(1857), and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.
Early life and education
Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in
RouenRouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
,
Seine-MaritimeSeine-Maritime is a French department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre...
, in the
Haute-NormandieUpper Normandy is one of the 27 regions of France. It was created in 1984 from two départements: Seine-Maritime and Eure, when Normandy was divided into Lower Normandy and Upper Normandy. This division continues to provoke controversy, and some continue to call for reuniting the two regions...
region of
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He was the second son of Achille-Cléophas Flaubert (1784–1846), a surgeon, and Anne Justine Caroline (née Fleuriot) (1793–1872). He began writing at an early age, as early as eight according to some sources.
He was educated at the
Lycée Pierre CorneilleThe Lycée Pierre-Corneille is a school in Rouen, France. It was founded by the Archbishop of Rouen, Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon and run by the Jesuits to educate the children of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie in accordance with the purest doctrinal principles of Roman Catholicism...
in Rouen. and did not leave until 1840, when he went to
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to study
lawLaw is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
. In Paris, he was an indifferent student and found the city distasteful. He made a few acquaintances, including
Victor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
. Toward the close of 1840, he traveled in the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
and
CorsicaCorsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
. In 1846, after an attack of
epilepsyEpilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
, he left Paris and abandoned the study of law.
Personal life
From 1846 to 1854, Flaubert had a relationship with the poet
Louise ColetLouise Colet , born Louise Revoil, was a poet born in Aix-en-Provence in France. In her twenties she married Hippolyte Colet, an academic musician, partly in order to escape provincial life and live in Paris....
; his letters to her survive. After leaving Paris, he returned to Croisset, near the
SeineThe Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
, close to Rouen, and lived with his mother in their home for the rest of his life. He made occasional visits to Paris and England, where he apparently had a mistress. Flaubert never married. According to his biographer Émile Faguet, his affair with Louise Colet was his only serious romantic relationship. He sometimes visited
prostitutesProstitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
. Eventually, the end of his affair with Colet led Flaubert to lose interest in romance and seek platonic companionship, particularly with other writers.
With his lifelong friend
Maxime Du CampMaxime Du Camp was a French writer and photographer.-Life:Born in Paris, Du Camp was the son of a successful surgeon. After finishing college, he indulged in his strong desire for travel, thanks to his father's assets...
, he traveled in
BrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
in 1846. In 1849–1850 he went on a long journey to the Middle East, visiting
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. In
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
he contracted
syphilisSyphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
. He spent five weeks in
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
in 1850. He visited
CarthageCarthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
in 1858 to conduct research for his novel
SalammbôSalammbô may refer to:*Salammbô , the original novel by Gustave Flaubert*Salammbô , an unfinished opera, based on Flaubert's novel, on which Modest Mussorgsky worked between 1863 and 1866...
.
Flaubert was very open about his sexual activities with prostitutes in his writings on his travels. He suspected that a
chancreA chancre is a painless ulceration formed during the primary stage of syphilis. This infectious lesion forms approximately 21 days after the initial exposure to Treponema pallidum, the gram-negative spirochaete bacterium yielding syphilis. Chancres transmit the sexually transmissible disease of...
on his penis was from a Maronite or a
TurkishTurkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
girl. He also engaged in intercourse with male prostitutes in Beirut and Egypt; in one of his letters, he describes a "pockmarked young rascal wearing a white turban" with whom he had
anal sexAnal sex is the sex act in which the penis is inserted into the anus of a sexual partner. The term can also include other sexual acts involving the anus, including pegging, anilingus , fingering, and object insertion.Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men...
. He had intercourse with a 14-year-old Maronite boy in 1850.
Flaubert was a tireless worker and often complained in his letters to friends about the strenuous nature of his work. He was close to his niece, Caroline Commanville, and had a close friendship and correspondence with
George SandAmantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
. He occasionally visited Parisian acquaintances, including
Émile ZolaÉmile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
,
Alphonse DaudetAlphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
,
Ivan TurgenevIvan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
, and
EdmondEdmond de Goncourt , born Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt, was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt.-Biography:...
and
Jules de GoncourtJules de Goncourt , born Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, was a French writer, who published books together with his brother Edmond.- Works :With Edmond de Goncourt:* Sœur Philomène...
.
The 1870s were a difficult time for Flaubert. Prussian soldiers occupied his house during the
War of 1870The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
, and his mother died in 1872. After her death, he fell into financial difficulty. Flaubert suffered from
venereal diseasesSexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
most of his life. His health declined and he died at Croisset of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1880 at the age of 58. He was buried in the family vault in the cemetery of Rouen. A monument to him by
Henri ChapuHenri-Michel-Antoine Chapu was a French sculptor in a modified Neoclassical tradition who was known for his use of allegory in his works.-Life and career:...
was unveiled at the museum of Rouen.
Writing career
His first finished work was
NovemberNovember was Gustave Flaubert's first completed work, a novella first completed in 1842.-Synopsis:In the first part of the novella, the narrator is a schoolboy, and the narrative consists of his meditations on life, as well as his longing for sexual awakening and the beginning of his adult life...
, a novella, which was completed in 1842.
In September 1849, Flaubert completed the first version of a novel,
The Temptation of Saint Anthony. He read the novel aloud to
Louis BouilhetLouis Hyacinthe Bouilhet was a French poet and dramatist.He was born at Cany, Seine Inférieure. He was a schoolfellow of Gustave Flaubert, to whom he dedicated his first work, Miloenis , a narrative poem in five cantos, dealing with Roman manners under the emperor Commodus...
and
Maxime Du CampMaxime Du Camp was a French writer and photographer.-Life:Born in Paris, Du Camp was the son of a successful surgeon. After finishing college, he indulged in his strong desire for travel, thanks to his father's assets...
over the course of four days, not allowing them to interrupt or give any opinions. At the end of the reading, his friends told him to throw the manuscript in the fire, suggesting instead that he focus on day-to-day life rather than fantastic subjects.
In 1850, after returning from Egypt, Flaubert began work on
Madame BovaryMadame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert's first published novel and is considered his masterpiece. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life...
. The novel, which took five years to write, was serialized in the
Revue de ParisRevue de Paris was a French literary magazine founded in 1829 by Louis Desiré Veron....
in 1856. The government brought an action against the publisher and author on the charge of immorality, which was heard during the following year, but both were acquitted. When
Madame Bovary appeared in book form, it met with a warm reception.
In 1858, Flaubert traveled to
CarthageCarthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
to gather material for his next novel,
SalammbôSalammbô may refer to:*Salammbô , the original novel by Gustave Flaubert*Salammbô , an unfinished opera, based on Flaubert's novel, on which Modest Mussorgsky worked between 1863 and 1866...
. The novel was completed in 1862 after four years of work.
Drawing on his youth, Flaubert next wrote
L'Éducation sentimentale (
Sentimental EducationSentimental Education was Gustave Flaubert's last novel published during his lifetime, and is considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century, being praised by contemporaries George Sand, Emile Zola, and Henry James.-Plot introduction:The novel describes the life of a young man ...
), an effort that took seven years. His last complete novel, it was published in 1869.
He wrote an unsuccessful drama,
Le Candidat, and published a reworked version of
The Temptation of Saint Anthony, portions of which had been published as early as 1857. He devoted much of his time to an ongoing project,
Les Deux Cloportes (The Two Woodlice), which later became
Bouvard et PécuchetBouvard et Pécuchet is an unfinished satirical work by Gustave Flaubert, published in 1881 after his death in 1880.Although conceived in 1863 as Les Deux Cloportes , and partially inspired by a short story of Barthélemy Maurice Bouvard et Pécuchet is an unfinished satirical work by Gustave...
, breaking from the obsessive project only to write the
Three TalesThree Tales is a work by Gustave Flaubert that was originally published in French in 1877. It consists of the short stories "A Simple Heart", "Saint Julian" and "Hérodias"...
in 1877. This book comprised three stories:
Un Cœur simple (
A Simple Heart),
La Légende de Saint-Julien l'Hospitalier (
The Legend of St. Julian the HospitallerJulian the Hospitaller, also known as Julian the Poor, was a legendary Roman Catholic saint. His story is today believed by scholars to be fully legendary.-History:There are three main theories of his origin:...
), and
Hérodias (
Herodias). After the publication of the stories, he spent the remainder of his life toiling on the unfinished
Bouvard et Pécuchet, which was posthumously printed in 1881. It was a grand satire on the futility of human knowledge and the ubiquity of mediocrity. He believed the work to be his masterpiece, though the posthumous version received lukewarm reviews. Flaubert was a prolific letter writer, and his letters have been collected in several publications.
At the time of his death, he may have been working on a further historical novel, based on the
Battle of ThermopylaeThe Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August...
Perfectionist style
Flaubert scrupulously avoids the inexact, the abstract, the vaguely inapt expression which is the bane of ordinary methods of composition; he never allowed a
clicheA cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
to pass him. In a letter to
George SandAmantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
he said that he spends his time "trying to write harmonious sentences, avoiding assonances."
Flaubert believed in, and pursued, the principle of finding "
le mot juste" ("
the right word"), which he considered has the key mean to achieve quality in literary art. He worked in sullen solitude — sometimes occupying a week in the completion of one page — never satisfied with what he had composed, violently tormenting his brain for the best turn of phrase, the final adjective. His private letters show that he was not one of those to whom correct, flowing language came naturally: his style was achieved through the unceasing sweat of his brow.
This painstaking style of writing is also evident when one compares Flaubert’s output over a lifetime to that of his peers (see, for example
BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
or
ZolaÉmile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
). Flaubert published much less prolifically than was the norm for his time and never got near the pace of a novel a year, as his peers often achieved during their peaks of activity.
Walter PaterWalter Horatio Pater was an English essayist, critic of art and literature, and writer of fiction.-Early life:...
famously called Flaubert the "martyr of style."
Legacy
As a writer, other than a pure stylist, Flaubert was nearly equal parts
romanticRomanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
and
realistRealism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
. Hence, members of various schools, especially realists and formalists, have traced their origins to his work. The exactitude with which he adapts his expressions to his purpose can be seen in all parts of his work, especially in the portraits he draws of the figures in his principal romances. The degree to which Flaubert's fame has extended since his death presents an interesting chapter of literary history in itself. He is also accredited with spreading the popularity of the colour Tuscany Cypress, a colour often mentioned in his chef-d'oeuvre
Madame Bovary.
Many critics consider his best works to be exemplary models of style.
Flaubert's lean and precise writing style has had a large influence on 20th century writers such as
Franz KafkaFranz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
and J. M. Coetzee. As Vladimir Nabokov discussed in his famous lecture series:
- The greatest literary influence upon Kafka was Flaubert's. Flaubert who loathed pretty-pretty prose would have applauded Kafka's attitude towards his tool. Kafka liked to draw his terms from the language of law and science, giving them a kind of ironic precision, with no intrusion of the author's private sentiments; this was exactly Flaubert's method through which he achieved a singular poetic effect. The legacy of his work habits can best be described, therefore, as paving the way towards a slower and more inspective manner of writing.
The publication of
Madame Bovary in 1856 was followed by more scandal than admiration; it was not understood at first that this novel was the beginning of something new: the scrupulously truthful portraiture of life. Gradually, this aspect of his genius was accepted, and it began to crowd out all others. At the time of his death he was widely regarded as the most influential French Realist. Under this aspect Flaubert exercised an extraordinary influence over
Guy de MaupassantHenri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents....
,
Edmond de GoncourtEdmond de Goncourt , born Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt, was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt.-Biography:...
, Alphonse Daudet, and
ZolaÉmile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
. Even after the decline of the Realist school, Flaubert did not lose prestige in the literary community; he continues to appeal to other writers because of his deep commitment to aesthetic principles, his devotion to style, and his indefatigable pursuit of the perfect expression.
His
Œuvres Complètes (8 vols., 1885) were printed from the original manuscripts, and included, besides the works mentioned already, the two plays,
Le Candidat and
Le Château des cœurs. Another edition (10 vols.) appeared in 1873–1885. Flaubert's correspondence with
George SandAmantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
was published in 1884 with an introduction by
Guy de MaupassantHenri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents....
.
He has been admired or written about by almost every major literary personality of the 20th century, including philosophers and sociologists such as
Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
,
Roland BarthesRoland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
,
Pierre BourdieuPierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher.Starting from the role of economic capital for social positioning, Bourdieu pioneered investigative frameworks and terminologies such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of habitus, field or location,...
and Jean Paul Sartre whose partially psychoanalytic portrait of Flaubert in
The Family Idiot was published in 1971.
Georges PerecGeorges Perec was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist and essayist. He is a member of the Oulipo group...
named
Sentimental EducationSentimental Education was Gustave Flaubert's last novel published during his lifetime, and is considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century, being praised by contemporaries George Sand, Emile Zola, and Henry James.-Plot introduction:The novel describes the life of a young man ...
as one of his favourite novels. The Peruvian novelist
Mario Vargas LlosaJorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
is another great admirer of Flaubert. Apart from
Perpetual OrgyThe Perpetual Orgy: Flaubert and Madame Bovary is a book-length essay by Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa which examines Flaubert's Madame Bovary as the first modern novel. The first part of the book has an autobiographical tone; Vargas Llosa then goes on to examine the structure and meaning...
, which is solely devoted to Flaubert's art, one can find lucid discussions in Vargas Llosa's recently published
Letters to a Young Novelist.
Major works
- Rêve d'enfer, 1837
- Memoirs of a Madman
Memoirs of a Madman is an autobiographical text written by Gustave Flaubert in 1838. The next year, Flaubert offered it to his friend, Le Poittevin...
(1838; Mémoires d’un fou)
- November
November was Gustave Flaubert's first completed work, a novella first completed in 1842.-Synopsis:In the first part of the novella, the narrator is a schoolboy, and the narrative consists of his meditations on life, as well as his longing for sexual awakening and the beginning of his adult life...
(1842)
- Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert's first published novel and is considered his masterpiece. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life...
(1857)
- Salammbô
Salammbô is a historical novel by Gustave Flaubert. It is set in Carthage during the third century BCE, immediately before and during the Mercenary Revolt which took place shortly after the First Punic War. Flaubert's main source was Book I of Polybius's Histories...
(1862)
- Sentimental Education
Sentimental Education was Gustave Flaubert's last novel published during his lifetime, and is considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century, being praised by contemporaries George Sand, Emile Zola, and Henry James.-Plot introduction:The novel describes the life of a young man ...
(1869; L'Éducation sentimentale)
- Le Candidat (vaudeville), 1874
- The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874; La Tentation de Saint Antoine)
- Three Tales
Three Tales is a work by Gustave Flaubert that was originally published in French in 1877. It consists of the short stories "A Simple Heart", "Saint Julian" and "Hérodias"...
(1877; Trois contes). "A Simple Heart", "Saint Julian" and "Herodias"
- Le Château des cœurs
Le Château des cœurs was a féerie by Gustave Flaubert, published in 1880 in the review La Vie moderne under the editorship of Émile Bergerat....
(théâtre), 1880
- Bouvard et Pécuchet
Bouvard et Pécuchet is an unfinished satirical work by Gustave Flaubert, published in 1881 after his death in 1880.Although conceived in 1863 as Les Deux Cloportes , and partially inspired by a short story of Barthélemy Maurice Bouvard et Pécuchet is an unfinished satirical work by Gustave...
(1881)
- Dictionary of Received Ideas
The Dictionary of Received Ideas is a short satirical work collected and published in 1911-3 from notes compiled by Gustave Flaubert during the 1870s, lampooning the clichés endemic to French society under the Second French Empire. It takes the form of a dictionary of automatic thoughts and...
(1911; Dictionnaire des idées reçues)
- Souvenirs, notes et pensées intimes (1838–1841), 1965
- Album, annoté par Jean Bruneau et Jean A. Ducourneau, 1972
- Bibliomanie et autres textes 1836–1839, 1982
Correspondence (in English)
- Selections:
- Selected Letters (ed. Francis Steegmuller, 1953, 2001)
- Selected Letters (ed. Geoffrey Wall, 1997)
- Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour (1972)
- Flaubert and Turgenev, a Friendship in Letters: The Complete Correspondence (ed. Barbara Beaumont, 1985)
- Correspondence with George Sand:
- The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters, translated by Aimée G. Leffingwel McKenzie (A.L. McKensie), introduced by Stuart Sherman (1921), available at the Gutenberg website as E-text N° 5115
- Flaubert-Sand: The Correspondence (1993)
Biographical and other related publications
- Brown, Frederick, Flaubert: a Biography, Little, Brown; 2006. ISBN 0-316-11878-8
- Hennequin, Émile, Quelques écrivains français Flaubert, Zola, Hugo, Goncourt, Huysmans, etc., available at the Gutenberg website as E-text N° 12289
- Barnes, Julian
Julian Patrick Barnes is a contemporary English writer, and winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize, for his book The Sense of an Ending...
, Flaubert's ParrotFlaubert's Parrot is a novel by Julian Barnes that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984 and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize the following year...
, London: J. Cape; 1984 ISBN 0-330-28976-4
- Steegmuller, Francis, Flaubert and Madame Bovary: a Double Portrait, New York: Viking Press; 1939.
- Tooke, Adrianne, Flaubert and the Pictorial Arts: from image to text, Oxford University Press; 2000. ISBN 0-19-815918-8
- Wall, Geoffrey, Flaubert: a Life, Faber and Faber; 2001. ISBN 0-571-21239-5
- Various authors, The Public vs. M. Gustave Flaubert, available at the Gutenberg website as E-text N° 10666.
- Sartre, Jean-Paul
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
. The Family Idiot: Gustave Flaubert, 1821–1857, Volumes 1–5. University of Chicago Press, 1987.
- Patton, Susannah, A Journey into Flaubert's Normandy, Roaring Forties Press, 2007. ISBN 0-9766706-8-2
External links
Online texts
- French
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Audiobook (mp3): La femme du monde (taken from Flaubert's early works) (plain text and HTML)
- Works by or about Gustave Flaubert at Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions color illustrated)
- Flaubert's works: text, concordances and frequency list Gustave Flaubert, his work in audio version
- Audio: "Speech on Madame Bovary" at the Center for the Art of Translation
More links
- Overview from kirjasto.sci.fi
- Site of the Centre Flaubert at Rouen
- Multilingual research links from fjvenezia.com
- Flaubert entry at the Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
- Bibliomania page
- A comprehensive site in French at perso.wanadoo.fr
- Flaubert 'Bookweb' on literary website The Ledge, with suggestions for further reading
- Flaubert works (HTML/PDF), media & interactive timeline from mootnotes.com
- An exhibition on Flaubert's journey to Egypt
- 'The Martyr of Letters', essay on The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, F. L. Lucas, Studies French and English (1934), pp. 242-266