Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert (1821-80), French novelist. The son of a surgeon, he began writing stories while still at school. After some years in Paris, he returned to his native Rouen in 1846. His masterpiece Madame Bovary (1857), the story of an idealistic young woman’s vain search for happiness through a series of unsuccessful love affairs, was condemned for immorality, but Flaubert was eventually acquitted of the charges made against him. His other works include the mystical Salammbo (1862), Sentimental Education (1870), and the short stories Three Tales (1877). All his works were meticulously documented; his obsession with realism and stylistic perfection is revealed in his correspondence with his mistress Louise Colet and other friends.
