Selected Works of Flaubert

Author: Flaubert
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-09-01
Features: Flaubert lived during the height of Romanticism in France. In his childhood, his admired writer was Victor Hugo, and as a result, his early novels often reflected a touch of Romanticism. In 1836, Flaubert accompanied his parents to Trouville for a summer holiday. One day, while walking along the beach, he met a mysterious and melancholic woman and fell deeply in love with her. Two years later, this young man, who had secretly loved her, poured his romantic feelings into a semi-autobiographical novel, The Diary of a Madman, describing his obsessive passion and melancholic emotions. The Echoes of Autumn, written in 1842, can be considered the culmination of his early works. This novel tells the story of a lonely and troubled young man who eagerly longs to experience the taste of love, but instead encounters a prostitute. After their separation, the young man remains unable to forget the prostitute and ultimately dies of melancholy. The entire novel is filled with a bitter and somber atmosphere, expressing Flaubert's own anxieties and sorrows. Flaubert's greatest breakthrough in the art of realist fiction came from completely eliminating subjective lyrical elements in his works, establishing what is known as the "purely objective" art. Through his artistic practice, he demonstrated that profound social commentary could be achieved through a combination of forceful imagery, rather than direct emotional expression. This writing method, which maintains a certain distance between the author and the work, with its objective and detached style, had a profound influence on later French literature. As a result, Flaubert gained fame in the 20th century and was revered by contemporary literary critics as a pioneer of modernist art.
When writing about Madame Bovary, Flaubert's focus was not on her love story, but on depicting her journey from innocence to (destruction), and the causes and consequences of her downfall. He exposed the harm capitalism inflicts on human nature, corrupts souls, and even devours people. With a sharp and detached pen, Flaubert created vivid characters, revealing the ugliness of the so-called prominent figures in a money-driven society, imbuing his work with strong critical realism. Madame Bovary caused a stir in society upon its release and has since become a masterpiece of 19th-century critical realism literature.