Gustave Flaubert. 197 years of the author of Madame Bovary or Salambó

Gustave Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821 in Rouen, in French Normandy. So it is already 197 years of the author of two fundamental novels of the XNUMXth century, and both with a woman's name. Madame Bovary y Salambo. Today in his memory I remember this great Gallic writer with a snippet selection of these and other of his works.

Gustave Flaubert

Son of a surgeon, Achille-Cléophas Flaubert, was his mother, Anne-Justine-Caroline, the one who most represented in the life of Gustave Flaubert.

Flaubert began to study Right, but he left it due to his epilepsy and other nervous imbalances. This also influenced his shy and neurotic character. So his existence always wanted to be very homely. He lived in Croisset, where the Flauberts had a country house. It was there that he wrote his best-known works.

However, he also traveled through various countries such as Egypt, Syria, Turkey or Italy, visits that left a mark and inspiration for his works. Also, and despite not maintaining much contact with people, he did have important literary names of his time as friends, such as Emile Zola or George Sand.

He died from a cerebral haemorrhage on May 8, 1880 at age 59. He is buried in the Rouen cemetery.

Style and work

Flaubert is framed within the realistic and naturalistic literature. His most famous work is undoubtedly Madame Bovarypublished in 1857, a novel that recounts the vicissitudes of a adulterous bourgeois woman. For this book Flaubert was persecuted and tried for attempting to against public morals, but in the end he was acquitted.

Other important titles are the historical novel Salambo, The temptation of San Antonio, Memories of a madman o Correspondence, a compilation of your letters, or Sentimental education, based on his teenage love affairs with Elisa Schlesinger.

These are some selected fragments of his works.

Madame Bovary

Ah, the only charm of his life was gone, the only possible hope of happiness! How had he not seized this fortune when it was presented to him? Why hadn't she held him with both hands, with both knees, when she wanted to get away? And he cursed himself for not having loved Leon; thirsty for her lips. She wanted to run to join him, to throw herself into his arms, to tell him: "It's me, I'm yours!"

Reasons and daring

«As regards the idea of ​​homeland, that is, a certain portion of land drawn on the map and separated from the others by a red or blue line, no! For me, the homeland is the country I want, that is, the country I dream of, the one in which I feel comfortable ».

Memories of a madman

«My taste and my heart had corrupted, as my teachers said, and, among so many beings with ignoble inclinations, my spiritual independence had made me esteem the most depraved of all; he was demoted to the lowest rank for superiority itself. They hardly allowed me my imagination, that is to say, according to them, an exaltation of the neighboring brain of madness ».

Salambo

"Hamilcar had thought that the mercenaries would wait for him in Utica or that they would return on him, and realizing that his forces were not enough to attack or resist, he headed south, along the right bank of the river, which immediately put him protected from any surprises. He wanted, by first forgetting his rebellion, to separate all the tribes from the cause of the barbarians, and then, when he had them isolated in the middle of the provinces, to fall on them and exterminate them.

In fourteen days he pacified the region between Rucaber and Utica, with the cities of Tignicaba, Tesurah, Vaca and others in the west. Zunghar, built in the mountains; Asuras, famous for its temple; Yerado, rich in junipers; Taphitis and Hagur sent embassies to him. The people of the countryside came with their hands full of provisions, implored his protection, kissed his feet and those of the soldiers, and complained of the barbarians. Some came to offer him, in sacks, the heads of mercenaries killed by them, as they said, but who had actually cut them from the corpses, since many had been lost when they fled and were found dead in the olive groves and vineyards.

The temptation of San Antonio

Turn off, the darkness deepens. And suddenly they pass through the air, first a pool of water, then a prostitute, then the corner of a temple, the face of a soldier, a chariot with two rearing white horses. These images come abruptly, jerkily, standing out in the night as if they were scarlet paintings on ebony wood. His movement accelerates. They parade in a dizzying way. Other times they stop and gradually turn pale, ending up being diluted. Either they fly away and others immediately arrive.
Antonio closes his eyes.


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