WRITER

Gustave Flaubert

1821 - 1880

Photo of Gustave Flaubert

Icon of person Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert (UK: FLOH-bair, US: floh-BAIR; French: [ɡystav flobɛʁ]; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realism strives for formal perfection, so the presentation of reality tends to be neutral, emphasizing the values and importance of style as an objective method of presenting reality". Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Gustave Flaubert has received more than 2,020,843 page views. His biography is available in 106 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 102 in 2019). Gustave Flaubert is the 45th most popular writer (up from 60th in 2019), the 39th most popular biography from France (up from 57th in 2019) and the 13th most popular French Writer.

Gustave Flaubert is most famous for his novels Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.0M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 80.60

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 106

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 14.52

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.54

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Madame Bovary
Fiction / Classics
Emma Bovary yearns for a life of luxury and passion of the kind she reads about in romantic novels. But life with her country doctor husband in the provinces is unutterably boring, and she embarks on love affairs to realize her fantasies. This new translation by Margaret Mauldon perfectly captures Flaubert's distinctive style. - ;'Would this misery go on forever? Was there no escape? And yet she was every bit as good as all those other women who led happy lives!' When Emma Rouault marries Charles Bovary she imagines she will pass into the life of luxury and passion that she reads about in sentimental novels and women's magazines. But Charles is a dull country doctor, and provincial life is very different from the romantic excitement for which she yearns. In her quest to realize her dreams she takes a lover, and begins a devastating spiral into deceit and despair. Flaubert's novel scandalized its readers when it was first published in 1857, and it remains unsurpassed in its unveiling of character and society. In this new translation Margaret Mauldon perfectly captures the tone that makes Flaubert's style so distinct and admired. - ;A superb new translation. s -
18575 / 5
L' éducation sentimentale
1903
Salammbô
Carthage (Extinct city)
1863
Trois contes
Fiction
In each of three short stories—"Herodias," "The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitator," and "A Simple Heart"—Gustave Flaubert studies the nature of humanity and spirituality with his characteristically sharp eye. A loyal servant dies alone, having served her masters all her life without complaining of the tragic losses she suffered; a young man sanctified at birth is driven by bloodlust to inadvertently fulfill the curse placed on him; and John the Baptist endures his life mixed with curses and blessings. Through them all, Flaubert emphasizes the significance of humility in the face of lasting glory. This collection was nominated for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2010.
1883
L' e ducation sentimentale
1923
Flaubert par lui-même
La Varende, Jean de, 1887-
1951

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Gustave Flaubert ranks 45 out of 7,302. Before him are Charles Dickens, Hermann Hesse, Charles Baudelaire, Émile Zola, Stendhal, and Euripides. After him are Aristophanes, Jane Austen, Aeschylus, Simone de Beauvoir, Octave Mirbeau, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1821, Gustave Flaubert ranks 3. Before him are Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Charles Baudelaire. After him are Hermann von Helmholtz, Rudolf Virchow, August Schleicher, Lola Montez, Elizabeth Blackwell, Auguste Mariette, Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, Louis Vuitton, and Richard Francis Burton. Among people deceased in 1880, Gustave Flaubert ranks 1. After him are Jacques Offenbach, Maria Alexandrovna, George Eliot, Paul Broca, Henryk Wieniawski, William Lassell, Ned Kelly, Anselm Feuerbach, Michel Chasles, Emperor Norton, and Bettino Ricasoli.

Others Born in 1821

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Others Deceased in 1880

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In France

Among people born in France, Gustave Flaubert ranks 39 out of 6,770. Before him are Émile Durkheim (1858), Alexandre Dumas (1802), Charles Baudelaire (1821), Pierre Curie (1859), Émile Zola (1840), and Stendhal (1783). After him are Henry IV of France (1553), Simone de Beauvoir (1908), Octave Mirbeau (1848), Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor (1122), Eugène Delacroix (1798), and Louis XIII of France (1601).

Others born in France

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Among WRITERS In France

Among writers born in France, Gustave Flaubert ranks 13. Before him are Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900), Denis Diderot (1713), Alexandre Dumas (1802), Charles Baudelaire (1821), Émile Zola (1840), and Stendhal (1783). After him are Simone de Beauvoir (1908), Octave Mirbeau (1848), Marcel Proust (1871), Romain Rolland (1866), Charles Perrault (1628), and Arthur Rimbaud (1854).

French born Writers

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