Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) was a French novelist and a leading figure in literary realism. Praised for his rigorous, restrained style and his commitment to objectivity, he is best known for Madame Bovary, a novel widely regarded as a milestone in modern prose.

Born December 12, 1821, in Rouen, Normandy, Flaubert was the son of a physician. He studied law in Paris before dedicating himself to writing. He spent much of his life in the Paris region and at the family estate in Croisset, where he developed a meticulous work routine and a reputation for thorough revision.

His body of work includes several landmark novels. Madame Bovary (1857) examines a provincial wife's disillusionment and sparked a famous trial for obscenity, ultimately leading to an acquittal and intense public debate. Salammbô (1862) is a historical novel set in ancient Carthage. L'Éducation sentimentale (1869) traces a young man's disappointments during the French Restoration. He also published Trois Contes (1877) and began Bouvard et Pécuchet, an unfinished work that appeared posthumously in 1880.

Flaubert is celebrated for his devotion to the "mot juste"—the exact word chosen with painstaking care—and for his insistence on narrative precision and psychological depth. His realism and emphasis on surface detail and interior life influenced later writers, contributing to the development of naturalism and the evolution of the modern novel.

Flaubert died in 1880, leaving a substantial correspondence and a lasting literary legacy. His work remains central to studies of realism and is widely read for its craftsmanship, clarity, and exploration of human aspiration and disappointment.