Gustave Flaubert

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Early life and works
Mature career
Later years
Method of composition

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Gustave Flaubert summary

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How did Gustave Flaubert combine Romanticism and realism in his novels?
How did Gustave Flaubert support Guy de Maupassant’s literary education?
How did Gustave Flaubert use the word bourgeois?
How did Gustave Flaubert’s father’s work as a surgeon influence his early life?
How did Gustave Flaubert’s financial troubles arise in his later years?
How did Gustave Flaubert’s realism differ from Champfleury’s ideas about realism?
How did Louis Bouilhet and Maxime du Camp respond to Gustave Flaubert’s early version of The Temptation of Saint Anthony?
How did the deaths of Gustave Flaubert’s father and sister affect his life?
How did the trial affect public interest in Madame Bovary?
How do Emma Bovary’s debts lead to her death?
How does A Sentimental Education depict the Revolution of 1848?
How does Flaubert’s style reflect the viewpoints of different characters?
How does Gustave Flaubert’s writing show that people see reality differently?
How does Madame Bovary portray middle-class provincial life?
How is Frédéric Moreau’s story in A Sentimental Education connected to Gustave Flaubert’s early life?
How long did Gustave Flaubert spend writing Madame Bovary?
What did Gustave Flaubert mean by saying an author should be present everywhere and visible nowhere?
What did Gustave Flaubert mean by seeking le seul mot juste?
What does the term Flaubertian mean in literature?
What happens to Berthe Bovary at the end of Madame Bovary?
What historical period does A Sentimental Education portray?
What is Par les champs et par les grèves about?
What journey did Gustave Flaubert take with Maxime du Camp in 1847?
What was the imaginary character called le Garçon created by Gustave Flaubert and Alfred Le Poittevin?
What was the outcome of Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 obscenity trial?
When and where did Gustave Flaubert die?
When and where was Gustave Flaubert born?
When was Madame Bovary first published in the Revue de Paris?
Where did Gustave Flaubert live for most of his adult life?
Where did Gustave Flaubert publish his first work in 1837?
Which countries did Gustave Flaubert visit with Maxime du Camp from 1849 to 1851?
Which writers were Gustave Flaubert’s friends in his later years?
Who are Rodolphe and Léon in Madame Bovary?
Who was Alfred Le Poittevin and how did he influence Gustave Flaubert?
Who was Louise Colet in Gustave Flaubert’s life?
Who were Gustave Flaubert’s parents?
Why did Gustave Flaubert leave the Faculty of Law in Paris?
Why did Gustave Flaubert revise his writing so carefully?
Why does Emma Bovary become unhappy in her marriage to Charles Bovary?
Why is Madame Bovary considered a major work of literary realism?
Why was Bouvard et Pécuchet left unfinished?
Why was Gustave Flaubert put on trial after Madame Bovary was published?
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What was George Sand’s early life like?
What is Guy de Maupassant best known for?
Where was Jean-Paul Sartre from?
When did Jean-Paul Sartre meet Simone de Beauvoir?
Why is Denis Diderot significant?
What was Denis Diderot’s early life like?
How did Denis Diderot die?
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What is Victor Hugo remembered for?

Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists A-K

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External Websites

The Washington Post - Flaubertï¿½s letters are as hilarious and humane as his best fiction
Amercian Society of Authors and Writers - Gustave Flaubert

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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Gustave Flaubert - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Gustave Flaubert

French author

Written by

Jacques Barzun

Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) was a French-born American teacher, historian, and author who influenced higher education in the United States by his insistence that undergraduates avoid early specialization...

Jacques BarzunAll

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Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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History

Gustave Flaubert (born December 12, 1821, Rouen, France—died May 8, 1880, Croisset) was a novelist regarded as the prime mover of the realist school of French literature and best known for his masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857), a realistic portrayal of bourgeois life, which led to a trial on charges of the novel’s alleged immorality. Flaubert’s father, Achille Cléophas Flaubert, who was from Champagne, was chief surgeon and clinical professor at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Rouen....

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