Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert, born in Rouen in 1821, abandoned law after epilepsy struck, dedicating himself to literature. His masterpiece Madame Bovary (1857) exposed provincial ennui and adultery, earning him a trial for immorality but eventual acquittal. Flaubert’s meticulous prose, striving for “le mot juste,” made him the foremost realist of France. He later wrote Salammbô (1862), a historical novel set in Carthage, and Sentimental Education (1869), chronicling disillusionment amid revolution. His Trois Contes (1877) displayed narrative precision across eras. Mentor to Guy de Maupassant, Flaubert insisted the author be “present everywhere, visible nowhere.” He died in 1880, leaving a legacy of stylistic perfection.
There is no truth. There is only perception