Gustave Flaubert

Born in Rouen on December 12, 1821, and later based for much of his life in Croisset, Gustave Flaubert became one of the major figures of 19th-century French literature. He is widely associated with literary realism, and his reputation rests especially on Madame Bovary (1857), the novel that first made his name.

That book caused a public scandal and led to a trial over alleged immorality, but Flaubert was acquitted. He went on to write works including Salammbô, Sentimental Education, and Three Tales, while also becoming known for his letters and for his relentless search for precision in style.

Readers still return to Flaubert for the sharpness of his observation and the care of his sentences. His fiction often looks closely at ordinary lives and disappointed hopes, yet it does so with a level of craft that made him a lasting influence on later novelists.