Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist. He was born and died in Rouen, France, on the 12^th of December 1821 and the 8^th of May 1880, respectively.  He is most widely known for his novel Madame Bovary, which was published in 1857. After completing his secondary studies at a Lycée in Rouen, he studied law in Paris, but was a despondent student and disliked the city. He gave up law in 1846. (brown 2006) Flaubert is most commonly recognized as a pioneer of the literary movement of Realism. Realism is generally more concerned with the everyday and commonplace aspects of life, and defined predominantly by the precision and care with which the work is constructed. This is in contrast to the preceding era of Victorian literature (which was usually darker and concerned with the grittier aspects of life, and in which the forces of nature contributed greatly to the plot.) Although he was a great realist, there are also prominent aspects of romanticism in his work. As a writer, Flaubert was deeply influenced by the Marquis de Sade, which may seem surprising simply based on the difference in the subjects of their novels. However, over the course of his life, Flaubert returned to de Sade many times – as he was so intrigued by de Sade’s ability to depict physical agony in an artful way that these themes come to the surface in several of Flaubert’s works (for example, Emma’s suicide by arsenic poisoning in Madame Bovary.) (Wall 2007) Flaubert’s style of prose has been described by Vladimir Nobokov as “[a] kind of ironic precision, with no intrusion of the author’s private sentiments […] the legacy of his work habits can best be described […] as paving the way towards a slower and more introspective manner of writing.” (Nobokov 1980) This kind of precise, slow, self-reflective writing Flaubert is known for is perhaps a response to the criticism his first version of his novel The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1849) received. The Temptation of Saint Anthony is a distinctly fantastical novel, its is Flaubert’s attempt to create a Faust in French, and because it did not initially receive any praise, Flaubert may have changed his writing to focus on more everyday subjects in response to this. (Leal 1990) His writing style did no come naturally to him, as he describes in some of his personal correspondence, but instead was painstakingly constructed. (Flaubert 1980) His most famous and influential novel, Madame Bovary was quite shocking when it was first published, as it depicts a middle-class (bourgeoisie) French woman as breaking the moulds of what was expected of a wife at the time, and giving herself over to passion and foolishness. (Flaubert 2004) This novel is a rather feminist interpretation of the 19^th century woman, although it is not at all glowing. Flaubert recognizes the cage of domesticity that many women were confined to, and a woman’s inability to flee her unsatisfying life without the help of a man. (Flaubert 2004) Flaubert’s construction of a new way of writing a novel influenced many authors who came after him, very notably Franz Kafka. Kafka was deeply influenced by Flaubert’s method of introspective and precise writing, so much so that their attitudes towards the connection between literature and the self were very similar. Kafka was so touched by Flaubert’s attitude towards the painstaking creative process that both writers had a similar method of creating. (Bernheimer 1982) Because of his marrying of realism and romanticism many writers influenced by either movement can trace their influence to Flaubert and his style. Flaubert’s creation of what could be called the modern novel has influenced many writers, as his perfectionist style of realist narration was so captivating. His method of structuring his writing was so influential that many 21^st century readers are so familiar with his influence that it is hard to notice. (Wood, 2009) In terms of literary style, narration, and prose, there was most definitely a time before Flaubert and a time after him.

Astrid Moore

Works Cited

Bernheimer, Charles. Flaubert and Kafka: Studies in Psychopoetic Structure. Yale University Press, 1982.

Brown, Frederick. Flaubert: A Biography. Little Brown, 2006.

Flaubert, Gustave. The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1857-1880. Edited by Francis Steegmuller. Harvard University Press, 1980.

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Leal, R.B. “The Unity of Flaubert’s ‘Tentation de saint Antoine (1874)’”. The Modern Language Review, 85(2). 1990.

Nobokov, Vladimir. Lectures on Literature, Volume 1. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.

Wall, Geoffrey. Thinking with Demons: Flaubert and de Sade. The Cambridge Quarterly, 36(2). Oxford University Press, 2007.

Wood, James. How Fiction Works. Vintage Books, 2009.

Other Relevant Reading

Burton, Richard D.E. The death of politics: the significance of Dambreuse’s funeral in ‘L’Education sentimentale’. French Studies, 50(2). The Society for French Studies, 1996.

De Baisi, Pierre-Marc. Gustave Flaubert : Une Manière Spéciale De Vivre. Paris: B. Grasset, 2009.