Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert (Rouen, 1821 – Croisset, 1880) stands among the very greatest of French writers. We might say he lived his entire life in Croisset, near Rouen, faithfully following the discipline of a wholly inner life, in a passionate quest for elevation and artistic creation. His outer life was somewhat lacking in events: a trip to Brittany (1847); a long journey to the Orient (1849–1851); a number of winter stays in Paris (from 1857); the love of a muse, Louise Colet (1846–1855); the death of his mother; the financial collapse of his niece, and the ensuing economic hardship. His biography is basically the story of his masterpieces. On returning from his Oriental travels in the company of Maxime Du Camp, he wrote Madame Bovary (1857), the novel that would make him famous and lead him to be tried for immorality: a trial which would come to an end with his absolution. In 1867, he returned once more to his youthful project of Sentimental Education (1869), a work that would mark the full maturity of his genius.