Flaubert's obsession with his art is legendary: he would work for days on a single page, obsessively attuning sentences, seeking always le mot juste in a quest for both beauty and precise observation. His reputation among his fellow writers, however, was more constant and those who admired him included Turgenev, George Sand, Victor Hugo and Zola. Both Salammbo (1862) and The Sentimental Education (1869) were poorly received, and Flaubert's genius was not publicly recognized until Three Tales (1877). Madame Bovary won instant acclaim upon book publication in 1857, but Flaubert's frank display of adultery in bourgeois France saw him go on trial for immorality, only narrowly escaping conviction. After three unhappy years of studying law in Paris, an epileptic attack ushered him into a life of writing. Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen in 1821, the son of a distinguished surgeon and a doctor's daughter. With a Preface by Michèle Roberts Read more Details Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Geoffrey Wall It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi.' But even her affairs bring her disappointment, and when real life continues to fail to live up to her romantic expectations, the consequences are devastating. An ardent devourer of sentimental novels, she seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. Its heroine, Emma Bovary, is stifled by provincial life as the wife of a doctor. Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of a married woman's affair caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857.
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