La tentation de Saint Antoine

The Temptation of Saint Anthony is a long work in dramatic form, which Flaubert reworked over many years. It shows the hermit Anthony alone in the Egyptian desert, assailed through one night by visions. Figures from sin, heresy, philosophy and the old gods of many religions appear to him, offering pleasures, doubts and strange ideas. The book is part drama, part prose poem, and quite unlike the plain surface of his realist novels. It reveals the more fantastic and learned side of Flaubert, with a deep interest in belief and its many forms.