(1821-1880) novelist
Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen, France. His father was the chief of surgery at the hospital in Rouen, and his mother, who went on to become the most important and influential person in his life, was the daughter of a physician. Flaubert was never satisfied with his bourgeois background and often rebelled against it; these rebellions ultimately led to his expulsion from school and to his finishing his education privately in Paris.
Flaubert’s school years, aside from aiding in the development of his rebellious personality, also introduced him to his love of writing. As a teenager, he fell in love with a married woman, Elisa Schlesinger. The relationship was destined to end in disappointment, but his idealized love for Elisa provided the inspiration and subject matter for much of his writing.
While studying law in Paris in the early 1840s, Flaubert suffered from what was diagnosed at the time as a nervous attack, probably a form of epilepsy. He subsequently failed his law exams and decided to devote himself full time to writing.
In 1846, he was introduced to another writer, Louise Colet. This was the start of a relationship that lasted many years. Although they spent very little time together, they corresponded regularly, and she became his mistress. He broke off the relationship in 1855 when she attempted to visit him at his country retreat. Her novel, Lui (1859), gives a vengeful account of their relationship.
Although he was living outside of Paris at the time, Flaubert maintained close contact with family and friends in the city and was a witness to the Revolution of 1848. Afterward, he took up an acquaintance with the writer Maxime du Camp. Together, the pair traveled for three years, visiting North Africa, Greece, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and Italy. On his return to France, Flaubert began work on what would become his greatest achievement, Madame Bovary, a novel that took five years to complete.
Critical Analysis
Madame Bovary is a shocking tale of adultery, based on the unhappy affair of the title character, Emma Bovary. The novel was first published in the Revue de Paris in 1856 and appeared as a two-volume book in 1857. Like many of his contemporaries’ works, Flaubert’s novel was attacked for its vivid depiction of what was considered morally offensive behavior. Flaubert was prosecuted for the work on charges of immorality and on the grounds that it was offensive to religion. He came before the same judge who later found Charles baudelaire guilty on a similar charge. Flaubert, however, was not convicted.
Madame Bovary is more than a simple tale of adultery. The protagonist, Emma Bovary, is a dreamer who, as a child, read the works of Sir Walter Scott and the romantics and, as an adult, longs for a life of romance and adventure. She is stuck, instead, in an unhappy marriage to Charles Bovary, a physician, who fails to recognize how miserable his wife is. Seeking escape from her boredom, she turns to extramarital affairs as a source of happiness and adventure. Her pursuit of another life ultimately causes her to fall deeply into debt and leads to her decision to commit suicide. The character was important to Flaubert, who felt her choices exemplified the problem of women who lived in a society trapped in materialism.
As a result of his success with Madame Bovary, Flaubert enjoyed much fame as a writer during the 1860s in the court of Napoleon III. He counted among his close friends Emile Zola, George sand, Hippolyte Taine, and Ivan tur-genev. All of these writers shared with him similar aesthetic ideals and a dedication to the realistic and nonjudgmental representation of life through literature.
His later works included Salammbo (1862), about the siege of Carthage, and L’Education senti-mentale (1869), a novel of forbidden romance between a young man and an older married woman set against the backdrop of the 1848 revolution. With his concern for precise form and for detailed observation of human nature, Flaubert began to be associated with a new school of naturalistic writers. He took the approach that it was the goal of the novelist to remain neutral, explaining and teaching but never judging. Many younger writers, such as Guy de maupassant and Anton chekov adopted this outlook.
Although Flaubert was highly respected as a writer, his personal life was shadowed by financial difficulties. After the death of his father, he took up residence with his mother and young niece, who was forced to declare bankruptcy. Flaubert spent much of his fortune assisting her and her family. During his final years, Flaubert lived as a virtual hermit, working on a collection of three stories, Trois contes, and on the long novel Bouvard et Pecuchet. Before completing the novel, he died from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Other Works by Gustave Flaubert
Early Writings. Translated by Robert Griffin. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991.
Flaubert-Sand: The Correspondance. Translated by Francis Steegmuller and Barbara Bray. New York: Knopf, 1993.
The First Sentimental Education. Translated by Douglas Garman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
The Temptation of St. Anthony. Garden City, N.Y.: Ha-leyon House, 1950.
Works about Gustave Flaubert
Berg, William J., and Laurey K. Martin. Gustave Flaubert. Boston: Twayne, 1997.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. The Family Idiot: Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1857.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Wall, Geoffrey. Gustave Flaubert: A Life. London: Faber and Faber, 2001.
