fr. Gustave Flaubert
French realist prose writer, considered one of the greatest European writers of the 19th century
short biography
The famous French novelist, one of the creators of the modern novel genre, was a native of the city of Rouen, where he was born on December 12, 1821. His father was a famous doctor, his mother was a representative of an old Norman family. During the years 1823-1840. Gustave was a student of the city's Royal College. He did not shine with academic success, but already in those years his great love for literature and passion for history manifested itself.
In 1840, Flaubert became a law student at the Paris Sorbonne. In 1743, he was diagnosed with a disease of the nervous system that resembled epilepsy and required a decrease in motor activity. Illness forced in 1844 to stop studying at the university. When his father died in 1846, Gustave moved to the estate of Croisset, located near Rouen, to his mother, and all his further biography was connected with this place. Flaubert led a secluded life and left here for a relatively long time only twice in his life, and on both occasions his companion was Maxime Ducan, his best friend.
The inheritance inherited from his father allowed him and his mother not to think about their daily bread, Flaubert could completely devote himself to literary work. His first stories - "Memoirs of a Madman" (1838), "November" (1842) - were written in the spirit of French romanticism, but already in the first edition of the novel "Education of the Senses" (1843 -1845, remained unpublished), a transition to realistic positions is noticeable.
In 1848-1851, the period after the defeat of the revolution, Flaubert, for ideological reasons, did not participate in public life, the Paris Commune was not understood and accepted by him. He lived in a completely different world, adhering to the concept of isolation and elitism of literature.
In 1856, a work was published that became a masterpiece of world literature and a new stage in the development of the modern novel - “Madam Bovary. provincial manners. The novel appeared on the pages of the Revue de Paris magazine with editorial cuts, however, even this did not save the book from being accused of immorality and bringing its author to trial. After the acquittal, the novel was released in its entirety in 1857 as a separate edition.
In 1858, Flaubert made a trip to Tunisia and Algeria, where he collected factual material for the second novel, Salambo (published in 1862). In 1863, the third novel was published - "Education of the Senses", in 1874 the "Temptation of St. Anthony" was published, a dramatic poem in prose of philosophical content. The crowning achievement of Flaubert's creative biography was the Three Tales published in 1877 and the remaining unfinished novel Bouvard and Pécuchet.
The last ten years of Flaubert turned out to be unhappy: illness deprived him of strength and optimism, the estate was occupied during the Franco-Prussian war by a foreign army, his mother and good friend Bouillet died, his friendship with Maxime Ducan was interrupted. Finally, he experienced financial difficulties, because. he donated most of his fortune to less wealthy relatives, and the publication of books did not bring much money: critics did not favor his works. However, Flaubert was not completely alone, he was friends with George Sand, was mentor Guy de Maupassant, his niece took care of him. The writer's body was severely depleted, and he died on May 8, 1880 from a stroke.
Flaubert's work had a significant impact not only on national, but also on world literature. In addition, thanks to his mentorship, a number of gifted writers came to literature.
Biography from Wikipedia
Gustave Flaubert(French Gustave Flaubert; December 12, 1821, Rouen - May 8, 1880, Croisset) - French realist prose writer, considered one of the largest European writers of the 19th century. He worked a lot on the style of his works, putting forward the theory of the "exact word" ( le mot juste). He is best known as the author of Madame Bovary (1856).
Gustave Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821 in the city of Rouen into a petty bourgeois family. His father was a surgeon in the hospital of Rouen, and his mother was the daughter of a doctor. He was the youngest child in the family. In addition to Gustave, the family had two children: an older sister and brother. Two other children did not survive. The writer spent his childhood bleakly in the doctor's dark apartment.
From 1832 he studied at the Royal College and Lyceum in Rouen, where with a friend (Ernest Chevalier) he organized a handwritten journal Art and Progress in 1834. His first public text appeared in this journal.
In 1836 he met Eliza Schlesinger, who had a profound influence on the writer. He carried his silent, unrequited passion through his whole life and displayed it in the novel "Education of the Senses".
The youth of the writer is associated with the provincial cities of France, which he repeatedly described in his work. In 1840 Flaubert entered the faculty of law in Paris. There he led a bohemian life, met many famous people, wrote a lot. He dropped out of school in 1843 after his first epileptic fit. In 1844, the writer settled on the banks of the Seine, not far from Rouen. Flaubert's lifestyle was characterized by isolation, the desire for self-isolation. He tried to devote time and energy to literary creativity.
In 1846 his father died, and after some time his sister. His father left him a solid inheritance on which he could live comfortably.
Flaubert returned to Paris in 1848 to take part in the Revolution. From 1848 to 1852 he traveled to the East. He visited Egypt and Jerusalem, through Constantinople and Italy. He wrote down his impressions and used them in his works.
Since 1855, in Paris, Flaubert visited many writers, including the Goncourt brothers, Baudelaire, and also met with Turgenev.
In July 1869 he was greatly shocked by the death of his friend Louis Bouillet. There is evidence that Flaubert had love affairs with the mother of Guy de Maupassant, which is why they had friendly relations.
During the occupation of France by Prussia, Flaubert hid in Rouen with his mother and niece. His mother died in 1872 and at that time the writer had already started having problems with money. There are health problems as well. He sells his property, leaves an apartment in Paris. He publishes his works one after another.
The last years of the writer's life were overshadowed by financial problems, health problems and the betrayal of friends.
Gustave Flaubert died on May 8, 1880 as a result of a stroke. Many writers attended the funeral, including Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, Edmond Goncourt and others.
Creation
In 1849 he completed the first edition of The Temptation of Saint Anthony, a philosophical drama on which he subsequently worked all his life. In its worldview, it is imbued with ideas of disappointment in the possibilities of cognition, which is illustrated by the clash of different religious trends and corresponding doctrines.
First edition of Madame Bovary, 1857. Title
Flaubert's fame was brought about by the publication of Madame Bovary (1856) in a magazine, work on which began in the autumn of 1851. The writer tried to make his novel realistic and psychological. Soon after, Flaubert and the editor of the Revue de Paris were sued for "insulting morality." The novel turned out to be one of the most important forerunners of literary naturalism, but the author's skepticism is clearly expressed in it in relation not only to modern society, but also to man in general. As noted by B. A. Kuzmin,
in the very work of Flaubert, as it were, ashamed to show his sympathy for people who are not worthy of this sympathy, and at the same time considers it below his dignity to show his hatred for them. As a resultant of this potential love and quite real hatred for people, Flaubert's pose of dispassion arises.
Some of the formal features of the novel noted by literary critics are a very long exposition, the absence of a traditional goodie. Transferring the action to the province (with its sharply negative image) puts Flaubert among the writers in whose work the anti-provincial theme was one of the main ones.
Gaston Bucière. Salambo. 1907
The acquittal allowed the novel to be published as a separate edition (1857). The preparatory period of work on the novel "Salambo" required a trip to the East and North Africa. So the novel appeared in 1862. This is a historical novel that tells about the uprising in Carthage in the third century BC. e.
Two years later, in September 1864, Flaubert completed work on the final version of the novel "Education of the Senses". The third novel, The Education of the Senses (1869), was full of social problems. In particular, the novel describes the European events of 1848. The novel also includes the author's own life events, such as the first love. The novel was coldly received and only a few hundred copies were printed.
In 1877, he published in magazines the stories The Simple Heart, Herodias, and The Legend of St. Julian the Merciful, written in between work on his last novel, Bouvard and Pécuchet, which remained unfinished, although we can judge its finale from the surviving author's sketches, quite detailed.
From 1877 to 1880 he edited the novel Bouvard and Pécuchet. This is a satirical work that was published after the death of the writer in 1881.
A brilliant stylist who carefully honed the style of his works, Flaubert had a huge impact on all subsequent literature, brought to it a number of talented authors, among whom were Guy de Maupassant and Edmond Abu.
Flaubert's writings were well known in Russia, Russian critics wrote sympathetically about them. His works were translated by I. S. Turgenev, who was close friends with Flaubert; M. P. Mussorgsky created an opera based on "Salambo".
Major works
Gustave Flaubert, a contemporary of Charles Baudelaire, holds a leading role in 19th-century literature. He was accused of immorality and admired, but today he is recognized as one of the leading writers. The novels Madame Bovary and The Education of the Senses brought him fame. His style combines elements of both psychologism and naturalism. Flaubert himself considered himself a realist.
Gustave Flaubert began work on Madame Bovary in 1851 and worked for five years. The novel was published in Revue de Paris magazine. The style of the novel is similar to the works of Balzac. The plot tells about a young man named Charles Bovary, who recently graduated from a provincial lyceum and got a position as a doctor in a small settlement. He marries a young girl, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. But the girl dreams of a beautiful life, she reproaches her husband for his inability to provide such a life and gets herself a lover.
The novel "Salambo" was published after the novel "Madame Bovary". Flaubert began work on it in 1857. He spent three months in Tunisia, studying historical sources. When he appeared in 1862, he was received with great enthusiasm. The novel begins with the mercenaries celebrating victory in the war in the gardens of their general. Angry at the absence of the general and remembering their grievances, they smash his property. Salammbô, the general's daughter, comes to calm down the soldiers. Two mercenary leaders fall in love with this girl. The freed slave advises one of them to conquer Carthage in order to get the girl.
Work on the novel "Education of the Senses" began in September 1864 and ended in 1869. The work is autobiographical. The novel tells about a young provincial who goes to study in Paris. There he learns friendship, art, politics and cannot choose between a monarchy, a republic and an empire. Many women appear in his life, but none of them can be compared with Marie Arnoux, the merchant's wife, who was his first love.
The idea for the novel "Bouvard and Pécuchet" appeared in 1872. The author wanted to write about the vanity of his contemporaries. Later, he tried to understand the very nature of man. The novel tells how, on a hot summer day, two men, Bouvard and Pécuchet, meet by chance and get to know each other. Later it turns out that they have the same profession (copier) and even shared interests. If they could, they would live outside the city. But, having received an inheritance, they still buy a farm and are engaged in agriculture. Later it turns out their inability to this work. They try themselves in the field of medicine, chemistry, geology, politics, but with the same result. Thus, they return to their profession of copyists.
Compositions
- "Memoirs of a Madman" / fr. Memoires d "un fou, 1838
- "November" / fr. Novembre, 1842
- "Madam Bovary. Provincial manners” / fr. Madame Bovary, 1857
- "Salambo" / fr. Salammbô, 1862
- "Education of the senses" / fr. L "Education sentimentale, 1869
- "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" / fr. La Tentation de Saint Antoine, 1874
- "Three stories" / fr. Trois contes, 1877
- Bouvard and Pécuchet, 1881
Screen adaptations
- Madame Bovary (dir. Jean Renoir), France, 1933
- Madame Bovary (dir. Vincente Minnelli), 1949
- Education of the Senses (dir. Marcel Cravenne), France, 1973
- Save and Save (dir. Alexander Sokurov), USSR, 1989
- Madame Bovary (dir. Claude Chabrol), France, 1991
- Maya Memsaab, (dir. Ketan Mehta), 1992, (based on the novel "Madame Bovary")
- Madame Bovary (dir. Tim Fievell), 2000
- Night after night / All nights (Toutes les nuits), (dir. Eugene Green), (based on), 2001
- Simple soul (Un coeur simple), (dir. Marion Lane), 2008
- Madame Bovary (dir. Sophie Barthez), 2014
Music
- opera "Madame Bovary" / Madame Bovary (1955, Naples), composer Guido Pannain.
Gustave Flaubert. The novel Madame Bovary, first published in 1856
Do not consider it a heretical act - a post about an infamous novel, once considered frankly shameless. About times, about customs, you know. But Madame Bovary herself decides where and when she comes. If she decided to visit on Christmas Eve, so be it.
As always, I answer the reader's question - why read this book? Maybe because this book is included in the curriculum of your educational institution? Not the worst reason to read.
But it is better to read Madame Bovary if you are dreamers and dreamers. If you always thought that you are a stranger in your family. I wanted to run away from my native disgusting places to where my eyes look. A great and pure love was dreaming, and the most that they could offer you was to come in the evening to the hayloft ...
If you do not want to be entangled in a network of loans, debt obligations, then it is better to learn from the example of poor Emma how to fall into the traps of usurers.
And if you ever want to end this life, do not choose, please, as a poison, arsenic. Monstrous suffering is inevitable. Madame Bovary has already sacrificed herself for our knowledge. The repetition is redundant.
Finally, if you are interested in the impeccable beauty of the style, the originality and intricacy of the plot of one of the masterpieces of world literature, read the novel Madame Bovary.
P.S. Of course, such perfection does not just happen. Flaubert wrote the novel slowly, painfully, literally living with the heroine her difficult life. Therefore, his famous phrase is not surprising: “Madame Bovary is me, gentlemen.”
Read completely 
In search of myself
A very cynical novel. There are no positive characters in this book. And the author does not express his attitude to the characters. At least I didn't find them. What is this book about? About love, of course. There is in it both pure love (the love of Julien) and carnal love in Rodolphe. Emma has been looking for love throughout the novel. She left me with a feeling of empty space, pursuing a beautiful life. And her husband to match - narrow-minded. Nevertheless, after a while she is disappointed in marriage, she begins to get bored in the company of her husband and dream of a prince. Her dreams begin to torment her more and more. Love leads Emma to the abyss. She is active, not just dreamy. And he cannot sit idle. The novel prompts reflection on life, on love.
The novel is very multifaceted, many images from the novel are found in our lives.
In search of true love. On the way to self-destruction.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is considered a masterpiece of world literature. Most reviews of the book are positive. My review will be no exception. However…
My friends, recommending the book for reading, unanimously repeated: "A book about a strong woman!"
May my friends and comrades forgive me, but, in my opinion, the main character is not as strong as she wanted to seem. Inspired by love stories, Emma Bovary begins to live in daydreams, weary of family life. Even the birth of a child does not bring her joy. The scene where Emma pushes her daughter struck by the emotional dryness of the heroine, which goes against her general emotional attitude towards life. The fact that Emma was able to do what she considered right and went to action, despite the laws of honor, spirituality and common sense, does not speak of the strength of her character, but, on the contrary, emphasizes weakness.
It would seem that everything is as it should be: a devoted loving husband, home, family ... What did she miss? Why did the soul demand passions, extramarital sinful relationships? Or was the temptation too strong?
It is not clear why Emma chose this path: in an endless search for thrills and her own promiscuity, she ruined her family? Tired of provincial life? Reality, earthiness and unromantic life? Maybe. However, all this did not give a reason to "fall into the abyss" of hopelessness and self-destruction.
The impression is that the heroine is not tormented by special torments of conscience, but selfishly does what she pleases. At the same time, she does not want to condemn or somehow comment on her actions. She's just sorry. All life has passed in search of something real: real feelings, real relationships, real love. But was she herself in all this real? While next to her passed the life of her husband, her daughter. What was the meaning of this search for the present?
The plot of the story is extremely simple and predictable. At the same time, the author very accurately selects the right words in each sentence, in the description of each detail, in order to most fully describe what is happening in the life of the characters. For its time, the work, of course, is provocative and scandalous. And yet, to some extent, it is relevant for the present.
The main emotion that arose after reading the book is regret. Regret is not from the time spent reading, but from the events described in the work, from the fact that nothing can be changed, and the time of the heroes cannot be turned back.
But there is something special in this novel that makes you want to read it to the end.
Strong woman
A magnificent work of the classic Gustave Flaubert, which makes you think.
Young Emma Bovary wants to love and fly, but worries do not give her the opportunity: her father breaks her leg, studying at a church school. But fate gives her a chance: meeting the doctor Charles, feelings and marriage. The girl dreams of being happy and loved in marriage, imagines family life, but in reality everything is not at all like in dreams: Charles's mother constantly reproaches her daughter-in-law, her husband is not able to earn a decent existence, and Emma always sits at home and reads women's books. novels. She wanted something strong and heroic in her husband, but the husband is weak.
Later, Emma and her husband move to a small town because the woman was pregnant. A daughter is born, but the girl will not save the marriage: there are more and more conflicts: the mother-in-law accuses the daughter-in-law of extravagance, the husband irritates Emma more and more often and it becomes clear that marriage is a mistake. A woman meets a young man in the town, younger than herself, but the relationship is not developed: perhaps the main character did not have enough love, sympathy, so she was looking for them on the side. Leon leaves to study, and in order to drown out the pain, the time of shopping from the shopkeeper begins: on bail, on a mortgage, etc. Leray was a clever, flattering and cunning person. He had long guessed Emma's passion for beautiful things and constantly sent either cuts, then lace, then carpets, then scarves. Gradually, Emma found herself in considerable debt with the shopkeeper, which her husband did not suspect.
Emma's second love ended even more tragically - with illness and grief. Rodolphe, whom she met, was not adapted to life: he demanded decisions from her, but she decided, borrowed, gave gifts and lived from meeting to meeting. The woman dreamed of loving and being loved, living with Rodolphe and leaving her husband. But the more Emma became attached, the more Rodolphe cooled towards her. Once he missed three dates in a row, and even. didn't apologize. At that moment, the pride of a woman in love was hurt, even thoughts arise to love her husband, but Charles did not understand her feelings.
Soon an escape plan with Rudolph is ready and everything is ready to escape, but the lover refuses at the last moment and sends a basket of apricots. With desperation comes inflammation of the brain. When the wife is sick, the husband borrows money from the shopkeeper. Soon, the disease recedes and in the theater she will meet her first lover, Leon, who has to spend a lot of money to deceive her husband. She pays for the hotel and gives him gifts, but the cunning Leray began to persistently remind her of her debts. A huge amount has accumulated on signed promissory notes and it is threatened with an inventory of property. Unable to stand the test, she drinks arsenic and dies.
What led to a terrible tragedy: firstly, the weakness of her husband, who was not able to solve problems, who took out a loan when Emma was sick, and told her that he had agreed on everything; but it turns out that she paid for everything herself: secondly, young lovers who lived at her expense and could not solve problems. She had to be strong all the time, so her soul could not stand it, which led to suicide.
Gustave Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821 in the family of a famous surgeon, spent all his childhood and youth at the hospital where his father's apartment was located. Flaubert himself thought from an early age that he was destined for a different career, although he began to write already in his teens. Interest in life, but more death, which largely determined the semantic core of future works, was born here, within the walls of the Rouen hospital, when, as a boy, secretly from his parents, Gustave made his way into the autopsy room and watched the bodies disfigured by death.
After receiving his initial education at the Royal College of Rouen, in 1840 Flaubert went to Paris to study law. This decision was not dictated by the heart: jurisprudence did not in the least interest the young man. In the most romantic capital of the world, he lives more than secluded, he has practically no comrades.
After studying for three years at the Sorbonne, Flaubert failed to pass the translation exam. In the same year, he was diagnosed with a disease that resembled epilepsy in symptoms. Doctors strongly recommend Gustave to lead a sedentary lifestyle, and constant seizures, from which he saw salvation only in taking hot baths, plague him. To find salvation from the disease, the future writer goes to Italy.
The year 1845 radically changes his life vector: his father dies, and then his beloved sister, Carolina. Flaubert takes care of the daughter of her sister and her husband, and also decides to return home to his mother in order to overcome the pain of loss with her. Together with her, they settled on a small, picturesque estate in Croisset, near Rouen. From now on, Flaubert's whole life will be connected with this place, which he left for a long time only twice.
The inheritance received allowed Flaubert not to know material worries, having no official service, he daily and painstakingly worked on his works.
In line with the then dominant romanticism in literature, his first stories were written: Memoirs of a Madman (1838) and November (1842). But in the novel "Education of the Senses", which did not see the light of day, work on which lasted from 1843 to 1845, the notes of realism are clearly traced.
By 1846, the beginning of his relationship with Louise Colet, a well-known writer in those days, whom he met in Paris, dates back. This affair, lasting eight years, was the longest affection in Flaubert's life. Due to the fact that the writer was very afraid to pass on his illness by inheritance, he, not wanting to continue his family, did not propose to anyone, although he was always popular with women.
Glory fell on Flaubert when, in 1856, his first novel Madame Bovary, which is the writer's hallmark, was published in the Revue de Paris magazine. Painstakingly, day after day, for five years, thinking over every written word, Flaubert wrote a book about how illusion can destroy reality. The plot is simple: an unremarkable, more than ordinary bourgeois woman, in order to add color to her life, starts two intrigues, not noticing that a loving person has always been there.
The novel, which ended in the suicide of the heroine, made a lot of noise. The author and editors of the magazine were sued for immorality. The sensational trial ended in an acquittal. But in 1864, the Vatican listed Madame Bovary on the Index of Forbidden Books.
The subtlest psychology in revealing the image of the main character became a real discovery in literature and largely determined the path of development of the entire European novel.
In 1858, Flaubert travels to Africa, bringing not only impressions from the voyage, but also his second novel Salammbo, the action of which takes the reader to ancient Carthage, making him a witness to the love of the daughter of a commander and leader of the barbarians. Historical accuracy and careful attitude to every detail of the narrative allowed this book to take its rightful place in a number of historical novels.
The third novel of the writer "Education of feelings" is devoted to the theme of the "lost generation".
The son of a doctor who wanted to become a lawyer, but became one of the main writers of France in the 19th century. Gustave Flaubert was a scandalous author, although he himself never aspired to this, it’s just that his novels raised too much from the bottom of French society, which was mostly silent.
Family and childhood
Gustave Flaubert was born into a petty bourgeois family. His father worked in the clinic of Rouen as a surgeon, and his mother was the daughter of a doctor. Flaubert also had an older brother and a younger sister. But despite this, Gustave grew up alone, most often spending time in a locked apartment, or in a hospital near his father.
Since her father, in addition to the profession of a doctor, was also a wealthy landowner, the eleven-year-old Gustave was sent to study first at the Royal College, and then at the Lyceum of Rouen. At the Lyceum, he met Ernest Chevalier, together with whom they decided to create their own magazine, Art and Progress, within the walls of the educational institution. So the 13-year-old Gustave became one of the editors of the manuscript edition, and after a while he began to write his own texts there.
Study and sickness
At the age of 15, he met Eliza Shezlinger, whose affection he eventually transferred to the pages of the novel "Education of the Senses", he remembered his first love until the last days of his life.
And although Gustave liked to write, he nevertheless decided to connect his life with jurisprudence, so in 1840 he entered the law faculty at the University of Paris. But he failed to complete the course - in 1843 he had an epileptic fit. At that time, the disease was considered dangerous, doctors attributed hot baths to him, which, of course, could not be taken often, linking his fate with law. Therefore, Flaubert abandoned his studies.
Life in bohemian Paris bored him a little, and he moved to a town near Rouen, where he settled in a house on the banks of the Seine. Almost without communicating with anyone, he spends a lot of time in thought, writes "Education of the Senses", although the novel itself will not be published soon - only after 25 years.
A year later, he goes on a trip, on the advice of doctors and of his own free will to change the situation. So, in 1845 he travels through the towns of Italy, a year later he returns to Rouen due to the death of his father. A year later, his sister dies. Since his father left him a fairly decent inheritance, Gustave took care of his sister's daughter and, oddly enough, of the deceased's husband.
Travels and first novel
In 1848 Flaubert returned to Paris, only to take part in the Revolution. He spent the next four years traveling: he visited Egypt and Italy, Jerusalem and the Ottoman Empire. The impression of what he saw became part of his future novels.
Beginning in 1851 and for the next five years, he worked on the book Madame Bovary. The poverty of Egypt and several unhappy love stories experienced during the trip helped him write a novel about which he himself said: "Messrs. Bovary - it's me." Like the author, his main character dreams more than lives a real life.
The novel was a breakthrough. Critics started talking about a new author who condemned romanticism as a style in literature. Flaubert and the editor of the magazine where the novel was first published were sued for "insulting public morality" - after all, the book deals with treason and suicide, in addition, the novel was recognized as the first herald of naturalism in literature. Fortunately, Flaubert was acquitted.
But the court case had a negative impact on his physical and mental health. Gustave locks himself in his house and does not want to see anyone. The only person who was with him at that time was his mother, she settled with her son after the death of her husband. She also looked after him during epileptic seizures.
Despite the fact that Flaubert liked women very much, he did not dare to marry and have children because of his illness. Although many biographers claim that it was thanks to the seizures of epilepsy that Flaubert wrote so many wonderful and important books. He understood that a seizure could happen at any moment and no one knows which of them will be the last, so he worked sparingly.
Soon he makes a trip to Tunisia, after returning from which he sits down to write a new novel - "Salambo". The book is published in 1962.
Recognition and scandals
In 1864, the Vatican officially banned "Madame Bovary" as a work that corrupts the heart, a few years later the same fate awaits "Salambo". Although in France, both books do not become less popular because of this.
The novel was accepted favorably by both critics and readers, but this did not change Flaubert's reclusive lifestyle. The next book, written a long time ago, The Education of the Senses, comes out in 1869. Although the book was recognized as strong, some critics spoke rather harshly about it. Some said that Flaubert tried to combine a cold mind and a burning heart, and it would be better to write just two separate books, while others did not understand why a naturally sentimental writer condemns sentimentality itself in his book.
In the same year, a close friend of the writer, Louis Bullet, died, and three years later, his mother.
Between these two personal tragedies, he managed to serve in the army during the Franco-Prussian war, for which he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.
last years of life
In 1972 Flaubert was declared bankrupt. He spent a huge part of his fortune trying to pay the debts of the husband of his deceased sister, but over the years they did not decrease. In order to somehow get out, Flaubert sells property in Paris and Rouen. Problems with money immediately responded with an exacerbation of epilepsy.
In 1877, his story "A Simple Soul" and several other works were published.
In the same year, the first translations of Flaubert's stories into Russian appeared - this was done by his friend, writer Ivan Turgenev. It was Turgenev that he was always glad to see in his house in Croisset, the Russian writer, as a sign of friendship, dedicated one of his stories “The Song of Triumphant Love” to Flaubert.
Gustave spends the next three years editing his latest novel, Bouvard et Pécuchet. But the writer did not live to see its publication.
In 1880, at the age of 58, he died of a stroke. Bouvard and Pécuchet was published only a year after the death of the author.
- It is Flaubert who owns the famous expression "ivory tower", which has become a kind of symbol of the artist's lonely life. A life entirely devoted to creativity without the hope of understanding from the public and criticism.
- Flaubert brought to light another famous French prose writer - Guy de Maupassant.
- Despite the "immoral" views and the complete rejection of the bourgeois system in his country, Flaubert fulfills his civic duty during the Franco-Prussian war in 1848 and joins the ranks of the national guard with the rank of lieutenant.
- Some famous writers directly imitated Flaubert. O. Wilde, for example, copied from Flaubert fragments of The Temptation of St. Anthony.
Titles and awards
- Legion of Honor
The 19th century in the field of culture was rightfully considered the century of the novel. The novel was to the educated classes what the series are now. Both entertainment and learning. At Gorky's call "Love a book - a source of knowledge!" legs are growing just from that era when the novelist not only entertained the public with a plot, but at the same time screwed it with a lot of useful information. Victor Hugo will always be an example to us in this.
Why Victor Hugo! He is not alone! The 19th century is the century of glory for the French novel. It was then that literature in France became a source of decent income for many, the most diverse, writers and journalists. The circle of consumers of literature, those who could read and enjoyed it, grew many times over. For which special thanks should be said to the system of public education and the industrial revolution. The "production" of novels has also become a kind of entertainment industry. But not only. Literature and journalism shaped the national consciousness and the French language itself.
And if we talk about language and style, the main success in this area has been achieved by Gustave Flaubert (1821 - 1880). He is sometimes called the creator of the modern novel.
“Flaubert's Normandy mustache” is remembered by everyone who listened to and fell in love with D. Tukhmanov's disc “According to the Wave of My Memory”, which appeared in 1975. What is true is true, Gustave Flaubert's mustache was luxurious. And yes, he was a native of Normandy.
Gustave Flaubert was born in the "capital" of Normandy, Rouen. His father was the chief physician of the local hospital. Studying at the Royal College of Rouen made the boy fall in love with history and literature. And not only French. Gustave read both Cervantes and Shakespeare. Here, in college, he acquired a true friend for life, the future poet L. Buie.
Now from Paris to Rouen - two hours by train. At the beginning of the 19th century, this was also not very far away, so Gustave Flaubert went to continue his studies in Paris. At the Sorbonne he studied law. After three years of study, he did not pass the exams and said goodbye to the thought of a career as a lawyer. But he had a burning desire to become a writer.
In 1846 my father died. After him, the family was left with a sufficient fortune so that Gustave could return to the Croisset estate near Rouen, which belonged to their family. Here he lived, taking care of his mother and doing literature. From here, he used to travel to Paris, where he met with famous colleagues E. Zola, G. Maupassant, the Goncourt brothers and I. S. Turgenev. By the way, the Russian writer had a considerable influence on all the listed French writers. A translation was not required for communication. Turgenev spoke excellent French.
Flaubert's life is not particularly eventful. Although there were travels in it. For example, in Tunisia, which has recently become a French colony, and in the Middle East. But still he locked himself in the provinces and concentrated entirely on literature. He did not have to constantly earn a living by writing. Therefore, he could at his pleasure hone each phrase in search of the “right word” (“mot juste”). In the already mentioned song from the disc “According to the wave of my memory”, written after a poem by M. Voloshin, the Goncourt brothers are called “chasers”. Perhaps this nickname would be more suitable for the great perfectionist Flaubert. In short, G. Flaubert became famous as an outstanding stylist.
Throughout his creative life, Flaubert published five books. His first novel, Madame Bovary, was published in 1857. The release of the novel was accompanied by a scandal, which attracted additional attention to it.
The main theme of this work is the conflict between invented life and real life. The heroine of the novel is not a heroic person at all. Moreover, the unforgettable MS Panikovsky would call Madame Bovary a pitiful and insignificant person. An ordinary bourgeois from a small town near Rouen (a province of a province, so to speak), in search of adventure and "high" (in her understanding) love, squanders her husband's money and eventually commits suicide. At the same time, it is poisoned with arsenic. Who knows - not the most aesthetic way to settle scores with life. Long and painful dying, black vomit... And G. Flaubert painstakingly described all this. And in general, Flaubert's work made a splash with its realism. Before that, no French writer had described in detail how the heroine of his novel was being fucked in a carriage circling the city. Ah, the morality of the French nation was terribly traumatized by this! The author and editors of the magazine in which the novel was published were sued for insulting public morality
The lawsuit by the writer and journalists was won. In 1857, the novel "Madame Bovary" was published as a separate book. Completely, without cuts. And critics stuck a label to H. Flaubert: a realist. However, the realism of the French writer has little to do with the critical realism that flourished in pre-revolutionary Russia, and even more so with the socialist realism that frightened philology students in the Soviet Union for seventy years.
The second book of G. Flaubert came out five years later. It was the historical novel Salammbô. The action took place in Carthage after the first Punic War. That is, long before our era. Exotic, however. The writer's impressions of the trip to Tunisia had an effect. Carthage was in these parts. By the way, the novel was and remains a very fascinating reading matter. There is a lot of eroticism in it, which at that time could be considered pornography too.
The third novel, "Education of feelings" ("L "éducation sentimentale") was published in 1859. This is a story about a young man who lives in the difficult times of the next French revolution. The young man was brought up in a romantic spirit, but faced with real life. Honestly speaking, this is a phenomenon that occurs with every generation of young men in any, even not very revolutionary, time.So the novel may seem interesting to many boys of the 1990s.(There was also a turbulent time in modern Russian history) And yes, in this the story also has a sexual zest - the love of a young man and an adult woman, fifteen years older than him.
In 1874, a book was published that Flaubert had been writing for almost twenty years, "The Temptation of St. Anthony" ("La Tentation de Saint-Antoine"). Flaubert does not so much describe the feat of the saint as broadly and generously, in a Brueghelian way, paints all existing and conceivable heresies, religions, philosophies and sins. It is interesting to write about sins, and it is not boring to read.
Reading all of these novels is still interesting. Flaubert is not a boring writer. Not Emile Zola, who fired up the firebox of his creative imagination for the full-length book series Rougon-Macquart (21 "production" novels are no joke!). In terms of subject matter, it is closer to Maupassant, whose books in the days of my adolescence were not given to schoolchildren in the library. The only difference is that Flaubert wrote one novel on a topic about which Maupassant wrote a dozen short stories. So if someone has not read Flaubert, we can advise you to fill this gap. At least the time spent on this will not be a pity. And the translations into Russian are good, making you feel the skill of the great stylist.
It is difficult to talk about the kind of life that G. Flaubert lived in his last years. No adventures, no love affairs. True, they say that he had love with Guy de Maupassant's mother. Death began to creep up on friends and relatives, in 1869 his friend, the poet Buye, died. During the Franco-Prussian War, the Croisset estate was occupied by the Germans. Criticism of his novels was treated with some suspicion. Both the plots and the language of his novels caused rejection. So the publication of Flaubert's novels did not bring commercial success. And the maintenance of the estate required more and more money, but incomes did not increase.
Flaubert died at his estate of Croisset on May 8, 1880. By that time, no one denied his influence on the development of the French novel. And since French literature at the end of the 19th century was exemplary for all writers of the enlightened community, it can be said without exaggeration: the work of Gustave Flaubert influenced all world literature. Including Russian. One way or another, Leo Tolstoy wrote with an eye on the French. And "Anna Karenina" is, in a sense, a Russian version of the story of Madame Bovary, a bad woman who chased the so-called "love".
The influence of French literature on Soviet literature is even stronger and not at all beneficial. The fact is that the Union of Soviet Writers was created by people for whom Flaubert, Maupassant, Zola were stars of the first magnitude. And, having begun to lead the Union, they wittingly or unwittingly pushed the seething literature of the Soviet 1920s into the already established and therefore boring frame of realism, knocked together by the great French novelists. At the same time, they understood realism in a completely different way than the great French. Therefore, this frame was significantly narrowed down, wrapped in a kumach and called socialist realism. And since the leadership of the Union was united, and feeding came from one hand, practically none of the writers who declared themselves Soviet could resist the pressure. The more talented sculpted, as best they could, epics about modern life, encrusting them to the best of their talent and non-conformism with pearls and diamonds. The untalented also achieved some success in composing according to the recipes of the great ones. They were published in mass circulation, but it was difficult to read this brew. Masochists can read Babaevsky, and suicides - M. Bubenov. Some of the sovpis already in the 1970s brought to life what was gossiped about A. Dumas the father a hundred years before. Huge "opupei" like "Eternal Call" scribbled "literary slaves." And how multinational Soviet literature was created is a separate lament.
However, Gustave Flaubert is not at all to blame for these “excesses on the ground”.
