Gustave Flaubert

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Gustave Flaubert

WRITER

Gustave Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen, Seine-Inférieure, France. His father was a Medical Doctor and practiced surgery in Rouen, in Hôtel-Dieu (where Flaubert was born). His mother was from an aristocratic Norman family. Young Flaubert received a good private education with emphasis on literature. In 1840 he went to Law School in Paris. There he met Victor Hugo and made his plan of becoming a writer. In 1846 he abandoned Paris and the study of law, after a probably nervous disease. From 1846-1854 he had an affair with the poet Louise Colet, which was his only relationship, and he never married. Flaubert traveled about several countries in Europe and in Africa. His travel experiences, especially those in Greece, Egypt, and Tunisia, gave him material for his writings.

  • When was
    Gustave Flaubert born?

    Gustave Flaubert was born on Wednesday, December 12, 1821

  • Where was
    Gustave Flaubert born?

    Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen, France

  • How old was
    Gustave Flaubert when they died?

    Gustave Flaubert was 59

  • When did Gustave Flaubert die?

    Gustave Flaubert died on
    Saturday, May 8, 1880


Best Quotes

  • What seems to me the highest and the most difficult achievement of Art is not to make us laugh or cry, or to rouse our lust or our anger, but ...
  • What I would like to write is a book about nothing, a book without exterior attachments, which would be held together by the inner force of it...
  • There are in me, in literary terms, two distinct characters: one who is taken with roaring, with lyricism, with soaring aloft, with all the so...
  • The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.
  • The most important quality of art and its aim is illusion; emotion, which is often obtained by certain sacrifices of poetic detail, is somethi...
  • The finest works of art are those in which there is the least matter. The closer expression comes to thought, the more the word clings to the ...
  • The cult of art gives pride; one never has too much of it.
  • The artist must be in his work like God in his Creation, invisible and all-powerful, so that he is felt everywhere but not seen.
  • One mustn't always believe that feeling is everything. In the arts, it is nothing without form.
  • Once one has kissed a cadaver's forehead, there always remains something of it on the lips, an infinite bitterness, an aftertaste of nothingne...

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