born Dec. 12, 1821, Rouen, France
died May 8, 1880, Croisset
French novelist.
Flaubert abandoned law studies at age 22 for a life of writing. His masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857), a sharply realistic portrayal of provincial bourgeois boredom and adultery, led to his trial (and narrow acquittal) on charges of immorality. His other novels include the exotic Salammbô (1862), set in ancient Carthage; A Sentimental Education (1869), a classic bildungsroman of disillusionment in a time of social and political change; and The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874), notable for its depiction of spiritual torment. Trois Contes (1877) contains three novellas set in the ancient, medieval, and contemporary periods. Renowned for his lapidary style, he is regarded as the foremost exponent of French realism .
Gustave Flaubert, detail of a drawing by E.F. von Liphart, 1880; in the Bibliothèque ...
By courtesy of the Bibliotheque Municipale, Rouen; photograph, Ellebe