Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert is an influential French novel writer born in Rouen, North France, on December 12th, 1821. He wasn’t an only child and he had a brother Achillea and sister Caroline that was three years younger than him.

He started writing as a boy when he was eight and after finishing school he moved to Paris in 1840 to study law. Due to his illness (epilepsy) and failure at his college he went to Normandy where he pursued literature with the support of his parents.

He traveled a lot to places such as Greece, Egypt, and Britain and in his works he was honest and open about his sexual experiences and activities. He suffered from numerous STDs because of his adventures.

His first work was “The Temptation of Saint Anthony”, a poetic-philosophic rhapsody in which his biggest inspiration for the main character Saint Anthony was a childhood event. He also worked on “Bouvard et Pécuchet” but he didn’t finish it so it was finished after his death.

N 1877 he published “Three Tales” and it was the last book he published. His most significant and the most controversy work was "Madame Bovary". He died on the family estate in Croisset, near his hometown on May 8th 1880 where he moved after he returned from Paris.