Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert (December 12, 1821 - May 8, 1880) wasnovelist bornRouen, Seine-Maritime, inHaute-Normandie RegionFrance. His novelsperhapsmost well-craftedany ofFrench realists. (Compare Honoré de BalzacGuy de Maupassant.) He would occasionally spend an entire night writingfind that he had only composedfew sentences. This explains his exceedingly small output.
Gustave Flaubert
His greatestmost famous workundoubtedly Madame Bovary (1857), which describesdisenchantment ofFrench bourgeois. Other noted works include Salammbo (1862),historical novel setancient Carthage, L'Education Sentimentale (1869), La Tentation de Saint Antoine (1874), Trois Contes (1877),Bouvard et Pécuchet (1881, posthumous).
He can be saidhave made cynicism into an art-form, as evinced by this observation from 1846: To be stupid,selfish, andhave good health arethree requirementshappiness; though if stupiditylacking,othersuseless.
Among his friends were writers George Sand, Guy de Maupassant, Edmond de GoncourtJules de Goncourt.
Gustave Flaubert died1880was interred inRouen Cemetery, Rouen, France.
