Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) was a French novelist born in Rouen, where his father worked as a surgeon at the city hospital. He spent most of his adult life at Croisset, a house on the Seine near Rouen, writing slowly and with great care. He travelled in Egypt and the Near East as a young man, and these journeys left a mark on his imagination. Flaubert believed that every sentence should be exactly right, and he spent days searching for a single word. His first published novel, Madame Bovary, appeared in 1856 and led to a trial for offending public morals, from which he was acquitted. Later works ranged from the ancient Carthage of Salammbô to the modern city life of Sentimental Education and the short tales of his final years. He is often seen as a founder of modern realism, admired for his precise style, his cool and ironic narration, and his insistence that the author should stay out of the story. Many later novelists have counted him a master.