FLAUBERT, Gustave, French novelist: b. Rouen, France, 12 Dec. 1821; d. Rouen, 8 May 1880. He was the son of a house surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu. From his earliest childhood literature was his absorbing passion. At the age of 10 or 11, he wrote scenarios of plays of which nothing but the titles remain, 'The Avaricious Lover,' 'The Ignorant Antiquary,' etc. On his father's billiard table he acted out his own plays with his little sister Caroline and his two chums Ernest Chevalier and Le Poitevin as his mummers. He was obsessed by the desire to write plays, and it is surprising that he did not persevere in that line of work. At a very youthful age he wrote for Le Colibri, a theatri cal review. His favorite dramatic authors were Victor Hugo and Shakespeare and he patterned after them most carefully. In 1838 and 1839 he wrote (Smark' and 'The Dance of Death,' in the form of a dialogue or a sort of poem in prose. At that time at the Fair of Saint Romain, a play entitled 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony' was being acted. This made a very decided impression upon his youthful mind for later on in 1845 when in Genoa and gazing at the painting of 'Hell' by Breughel in the Balbi Palace, he conceived the idea for what eventually proved to be one of his masterpieces, 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony.' Upon reaching maturity, however, he became greatly interested in the psychology and sentiments of his time, and to make a close and comprehensive presentation of human motives he realized that the stage was inade quate for the expression of his philosophy.
The legend that Flaubert studied for the medical profession is false. It is based on his profound knowledge and technical documenta tion of the pathological cases which he described, but it must not he forgotten that his knowledge of every subject which he handled bore the same hall marks of profundity and exactness. Medicine interested him and he read profusely and did an immense amount of research work. Bouilhet, his classmate, who was later in the elder Flaubert's office, helped him greatly in his investigations. Throughout his life Flaubert was quite sincere in an honest indifference to public opinion. His first and greatest book (Madame Bovary' (1857) achieved a great vogue because of a certain rumor of immorality which kept growing until the matter was threshed out in the law courts of France. It gave the code of the modern
naturalistic school, and "the formula of the modern novel," according to Zola. Flaubert was more or less a recluse, at a sub urban house in Rouen, spending entire months in unremitting study, relieved by an occasional visit to Paris. He hated democracy and the bourgeoisie, and in (Madame Bovary' he pro duced the bitterest satire on romanticism. (Salammbo' (1862) applied the same method to the civilization of ancient Carthage. 'L'Edu cation sentimentale' (1869) was pronounced by Zola "the only true historical novel that I know in which the resurrection of dead hours is absolute, with no trace of the novelist's trade." (La tentation de (1874) is one of the finest prose works of his time and the best example of dream literature in the world. 'Trois contes' (1877) ; cceur 'La legende de Julien rhos pitalier) and 'Herodias' show a kind of roman tic realism connecting as it were the romantic and the naturalistic school. Flaubert's great merit lies in his faultless style and the precision in which his works enunciate a view of fiction which was to guide French novelists for a generation. His (Bouvard and Pechuchet' is a triumphant denunciation of what he termed "the ineptitudes° of humanity. Flaubert was appointed chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1866. George Sand visited him frequently. She sent him 75 volumes of her work, and ad vised him with his plays, securing the accept ance of He visited London, Brus sels and Dieppe in 1870-71, returning to his suburban residence after the restoration of peace. Flaubert's complete works appeared in eight volumes in 1885. (See MADAME BOVARY ; SALAM MBO) . Consult Albalat, 'Le travail du style' (Paris 1903) • Bertrand, L., `Gustave Flaubert' (ib. 1912p Faguet, 'Flau bert' (ib. 1899) ; Gaultier, T. de, 'La philo sophic du bouvarysme' (ib. 1911) ; Tarver, 'Gustave Flaubert as Seen in his Works and Correspondence' ( London 1895) ; 'Corre spondence de Flaubert) (4 vols., Paris 1873 85).