Gustave Flaubert facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gustave Flaubert
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Flaubert c. 1865
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| Born | 12 December 1821 Rouen, Normandy, Kingdom of France |
| Died | 8 May 1880 (aged 58) Croisset (Canteleu), Rouen, French Third Republic |
| Resting place | Rouen Monumental Cemetery |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Genre | Fictional prose |
| Literary movement | Realism, romanticism |
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Gustave Flaubert (12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a famous French writer. He is known as one of the most important authors of a writing style called realism. This style focuses on showing life exactly as it is, with lots of detail.
Flaubert cared a lot about how his stories were written. He worked very hard to make his writing perfect. His most famous book is Madame Bovary (published in 1857). He also wrote many letters that are still read today. A well-known short story writer, Guy de Maupassant, learned a lot from Flaubert.
Contents
Life
Gustave Flaubert's Early Years and School
Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen, a city in northern France. His father, Achille-Cléophas Flaubert, was a top surgeon and director of a hospital in Rouen. Gustave started writing stories when he was very young, possibly as early as eight years old.
He went to school at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen. After finishing school in 1840, he moved to Paris to study law. However, he didn't enjoy studying law and didn't like Paris much. He did meet a few important people there, including the famous writer Victor Hugo. In 1846, after getting sick, he decided to stop studying law and left Paris.
Flaubert's Personal Life and Travels
After leaving Paris, Flaubert went back to Croisset, a town near Rouen, and lived there for the rest of his life. He sometimes visited Paris and even England.
Flaubert described himself as a "liberal," meaning he believed in freedom and individual rights. He disliked anyone who tried to control others too much.
He loved to travel. In 1846, he explored Brittany in France with his friend Maxime Du Camp. From 1849 to 1850, he went on a long trip to the Middle East, visiting places like Greece and Egypt. He also spent five weeks in Istanbul. Later, in 1858, he visited Carthage to gather information for his novel Salammbô.
Flaubert never got married and never had children. He was a very hard worker and often wrote to his friends about how difficult writing could be. He was close to his niece, Caroline Commanville, and had a good friendship with the writer George Sand. He also met other famous writers like Émile Zola and Ivan Turgenev in Paris.
The 1870s were tough for Flaubert. Soldiers occupied his house during the Franco-Prussian War. His mother passed away in 1872, and he faced money problems because of his niece's husband's business troubles. His health got worse, and he died in Croisset in 1880 at age 58. He was buried in Rouen.
Gustave Flaubert's Writing Career
Flaubert's first finished story was a short novel called November, which he completed in 1842.
In 1849, he finished the first version of his novel The Temptation of Saint Anthony. He read it aloud to his friends, who told him to throw it away and write about everyday life instead.
After returning from Egypt in 1850, Flaubert started working on Madame Bovary. This novel took him five years to write! It was first published in parts in a magazine in 1856. The government took legal action against the publisher and Flaubert, saying the book was immoral. However, both were found innocent. When Madame Bovary was published as a book, it was very popular.
In 1858, Flaubert traveled to Carthage to find ideas for his next novel, Salammbô. This book took him four years to write and was finished in 1862.
Next, he wrote L'Éducation sentimentale (Sentimental Education), which was based on his own youth. This book took him seven years and was published in 1869. It was his last complete novel.
He also wrote a play that wasn't very successful. He then worked on a new version of The Temptation of Saint Anthony. He spent a lot of time on a big project called Bouvard et Pécuchet, which was a funny story about how silly human knowledge can be. He paused this project only to write Three Tales in 1877. This book has three stories: A Simple Heart, The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller, and Herodias.
Flaubert spent the rest of his life working on Bouvard et Pécuchet, but he never finished it. It was published after he died in 1881. He wrote many letters, and these have been collected and published.
Flaubert's Perfectionist Writing Style
Flaubert was famous for being extremely careful with his words. He always tried to avoid words that weren't exactly right or expressions that were too common. He wanted his writing to be very precise.
He believed in finding "le mot juste" (which means "the right word"). He thought this was the most important way to create great literature. He often worked alone and sometimes spent a whole week just to finish one page! He was never happy with his writing until it was perfect.
Flaubert explained that good writing didn't come easily to him. He achieved his amazing style through hard work and many revisions. He once said he wanted to create a style that was "rhythmic as verse, precise as the language of the sciences." He also famously said that a writer in their book should be "like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere." This means the writer should be in control but not show themselves directly in the story.
Because he worked so carefully, Flaubert published much less than other writers of his time. He didn't write a new novel every year like some of his friends. People often called him the "martyr of style" because he sacrificed so much for perfect writing.
Flaubert's Lasting Legacy
Flaubert was a unique writer because he combined elements of both romanticism and realism in his work. This means writers from different styles have been inspired by him. The exact way he chose his words to fit his purpose can be seen throughout his books, especially in how he describes his characters.
His writing style, which was very clear and precise, greatly influenced many 20th-century writers, including Franz Kafka. When Madame Bovary was published in 1856, it caused more scandal than praise at first. People didn't immediately understand that it was a new way of showing life truthfully. But over time, this part of his genius was recognized.
By the time he died, Flaubert was seen as the most important French Realist writer. He had a huge influence on writers like Guy de Maupassant, Alphonse Daudet, and Émile Zola. Even after the Realist style became less popular, Flaubert remained important to writers because he cared so deeply about art, his dedication to style, and his never-ending search for the perfect way to say something.
His collected works were published after his death. His letters with George Sand were also published in 1884. Many famous people, like the writer Mario Vargas Llosa, have admired Flaubert's work.
Images for kids
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Portrait by Eugène Giraud, c. 1856
See also
In Spanish: Gustave Flaubert para niños
