Flaubert
Madame Bovary
The novelist as stylist. Le mot juste — the exact word — was his obsession, and Madame Bovary is its monument: a provincial adultery story elevated to art by the sheer perfection of its prose. Every serious novelist after Flaubert writes in his shadow.
Key works
- Madame Bovary1857— Romantic illusion destroyed by realist prose
- Sentimental Education1869— The education of a generation through failure