The great French novelist was born in Rouen in 1821, son of a
distinguished surgeon. He studied law briefly, but in 1844 he was
struck with epilepsy-it was the first of a series of violent fits
that filled Flaubert's life with apprehension and drove him to lead
a hermit's life. Having been attracted to literature at an early
age, he soon turned his entire attention to writing. His first
novel, Madame Bovary, won instant fame upon his publication in
1857- Flaubert was sued for "immorality," but was later
acquitted.
An avid traveler, his fundamentally romantic nature reveling in the
exotic, Flaubert went to Tunisia to research his second novel,
Salammbo (1862). Both Salammbo and The Sentimental Education (1869)
were poorly received, and Flaubert's genius was not publicly
recognized until his masterful Three Tales (1877). Among his
literary peers, his reputation was extraordinary, and he formed
lasting friendships with Turgenev, George Sand, and the Goncourt
brothers.
Despite his reputation as a master of realists, he was not
fundamentally a realistic novelist. Flaubert's aim was to achieve a
rigidly objective form of art, presented in the most perfect form.
His obsession with his craft is legendary- he could work seven
hours a day, many days on end, on a single page, trying to attune
his style to his ideal of balanced harmony, seeking always le mot
juste.
In 1875 Flaubert sacrificed his modest fortune to help his niece,
Caroline, and as a result his last years were marked by financial
worry and bitter isolation. He died suddenly in May, 1880, leaving
his last work, Bouvard and Pecuchet unfinished.
"Madame Bovary is like the railroad stations erected in its epoch: graceful, even floral, but cast of iron." -- John Updike
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