Synopses & Reviews
Gustave Flaubert (18211880), whose
Madame Bovary outraged the right-thinking bourgeoisie, is now brought to life as the singular person and artist he was.
As Frederick Brown reveals, Flaubert was fraught with contradiction a sedentary man who took epic voyages through Egypt and the Middle East; a man of genius who could be flamboyantly uncouth, but was fanatically devoted to beautifully cadenced prose. While making much of his camaraderie with male friends, Flaubert depended upon the emotional nurture of maternal women, notably George Sand, with whom he engaged in a justly celebrated correspondence. His assorted mistresses French, Egyptian, and English fed both his richly erotic imagination and his fictional characters, and his letters provide a record of them. Flaubert's time and place literally put him on trial for portraying lewd behavior in Madame Bovary. His milieu also made him a celebrity and, indirectly, brought about his financial ruin. Flaubert died suddenly at the age of fifty-nine, and soon afterward, his beloved retreat near Rouen was torn down and converted into a distillery to cover his niece's debts. He privately dreamed of popular success, which he in fact achieved with Madame Bovary, but never sacrificed to it his ideal of artistic integrity.
Frederick Brown's magisterial biography honors his subject's life, times, and legacy.
Review
"Brown recognizes Flaubert's enduring legacy, providing a model of artistic integrity for Kafka and a sense of the usable past for Cather. A landmark biography." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"A profound look at an important French literary era, told with verve and wisdom." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"The 24 chapters not only offer a vivid, detailed, and accurate account of Flaubert's life, they also provide relevant historical background for Europe, France, and Rouen, Flaubert's birthplace....Highly recommended." Library Journal
Review
"[Brown's] magnificent new book is at once a history of 19th-century France and a brilliant exercise in character animation." James Wood, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Frederick Brown has received deserved praise in the past for his biographies of Jean Cocteau and Émile Zola....Even higher praise is now due for his Flaubert. Written with literary flair and restraint, graced by many a happy turn, this biography is sustained by patient build-ups. It covers considerable ground and takes the reader into many side alleys, but never loses its sense of focus and continuity." Victor Brombert, The Times Literary Supplement (read the entire TLS review)
Synopsis
From the highly acclaimed author of Zola: A Life comes the definitive biography of Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary.Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), whose Madame Bovary outraged the right-thinking bourgeoisie, is now brought to life as the singular person and artist he was. As Frederick Brown reveals, Flaubert was fraught with contradiction--a sedentary man who took epic voyages through Egypt and the Middle East; a man of genius who could be flamboyantly uncouth, but was fanatically devoted to beautifully cadenced prose. While making much of his camaraderie with male friends, Flaubert depended upon the emotional nurture of maternal women, notably George Sand, with whom he engaged in a justly celebrated correspondence. His assorted mistresses--French, Egyptian, and English--fed both his richly erotic imagination and his fictional characters, and his letters provide a record of them.Flaubert's time and place literally put him on trial for portraying lewd behavior in Madame Bovary. His milieu also made him a celebrity and, indirectly, brought about his financial ruin. Flaubert died suddenly at the age of fifty-nine, and soon afterward, his beloved retreat near Rouen was torn down and converted into a distillery to cover his niece's debts. He privately dreamed of popular success, which he in fact achieved with Madame Bovary, but never sacrificed to it his ideal of artistic integrity. Frederick Brown's magisterial biography honors his subject's life, times, and legacy.
Synopsis
From the highly acclaimed author of Zola: A Life comes the definitive biography of Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary. As Frederick Brown reveals, Flaubert was fraught with contradiction -- a sedentary man who took epic voyages through Egypt and the Middle East; a man of genius who could be flamboyantly uncouth, but was fanatically devoted to beautifully cadenced prose. While making much of his camaraderie with male friends, Flaubert depended upon the emotional nurture of maternal women, notably George Sand, with whom he engaged in a justly celebrated correspondence. His assorted mistresses -- French, Egyptian, and English -- fed both his richly erotic imagination and his fictional characters, and his letters provide a record of them.
Flaubert's time and place literally put him on trial for portraying lewd behavior in Madame Bovary. His milieu also made him a celebrity and, indirectly, brought about his financial ruin. Flaubert died suddenly at the age of fifty-nine, and soon afterward, his beloved retreat near Rouen was torn down and converted into a distillery to cover his niece's debts. He privately dreamed of popular success, which he in fact achieved with Madame Bovary, but never sacrificed to it his ideal of artistic integrity.
Frederick Brown's magisterial biography honors his subject's life, times, and legacy.
Synopsis
From the highly acclaimed author of Zola: A Life comes the definitive biography of Gustave Flaubert on the 150th anniversary of Madame Bovary's publication.