His father was the chief surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital and hoped that Gustave would also be a doctor but the son’s passion was for literature: from a very early age he knew that he wanted to write. Gustave Flaubert was born in 1821 in Rouen. Our contributors include both well-known figures in Flaubert studies, as well as younger scholars who have begun to make their mark.Įach essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of 'Works Cited,' along with endnotes.‘The author, in his work, must be like God in the Universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.’ Flaubert

The main chapters of the present volume consist of four studies of Flaubert in context, followed by a series of more detailed critical and often close readings. As a major figure in Western literature and culture, he is also studied, in translation, as a part of survey courses in literature and humanities. Today, Flaubert's works-in particular Madame Bovary and the Trois contes (1877)-are studied in schools and universities and not always in the French and Modern Languages departments. Gustave Flaubert became widely known throughout the twentieth century, having many admirers and even disciples. That said, Flaubert was not without his admirers (and even disciples) in his later years: to them he was the “cher Maître.” Indeed, in the wake of modernism-of which Flaubert was acknowledged to be a major precursor-it is twentieth century readers, rather than their nineteenth-century counterparts, who have enabled him to come into his own. However, Flaubert was not a one-book author, and he continued to innovate and astonish-not that his upsetting of expectations, often bizarrely, would necessarily go down well with his contemporaries. This volume examines Flaubert's quest for literary perfection, his extensive correspondence with such contemporaries as Ivan Turgenev and Guy de Maupassant, and his most famous work, Madame Bovary. A great starting point for students seeking an introduction to Gustave Flaubert and the critical discussions surrounding his work.Ĭonsidered a prolific pioneer of literary realism and one of the founders of modern fiction, French author Gustave Flaubert is known for his strong sense of style and obsession with le mot juste (the right word).