Mémoires d’un fou

work by Flaubert

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June 30, 2026

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Mémoires d'un fou (Memoirs of a Madman) is an early work by Gustave Flaubert, written when he was 16. It recounts his intense passion for Elisa Schlésinger, who was eleven years his senior and married. This infatuation later served as inspiration for the character Marie Arnoux in Flaubert's novel L'Éducation sentimentale (Sentimental Education). The work reveals Flaubert's early struggles with idealism and his eventual disillusionment, themes that would recur in his more famous novels like Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education.12

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Gustave Flaubert
Mature career
…he completed the manuscript of Mémoires d’un fou (“Memoirs of a Mad Man”), which recounted his devastating passion for Elisa Schlésinger, 11 years his senior and the wife of a music publisher, whom he had met in 1836. This passion was only revealed to her 35 years later when she…
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…he completed the manuscript of Mémoires d’un fou (“Memoirs of a Mad Man”), which recounted his devastating passion for Elisa Schlésinger, 11 years his senior and the wife of a music publisher, whom he had met in 1836. This passion was only revealed to her 35 years later when she…
Read More