He was educated at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille in the heart of the city, and did not leave until 1840, when he went to Paris to study law. He was born in at the Hôtel-Dieu, where his parents had an apartment and his father worked as a surgeon. ROUEN: Gustave Flaubert was born in the city of Rouen in Normandy on 21 December 1821. Readers related hugely to this and the novel was a huge hit.

Flaubert’s pairing of a beautiful young woman, Emma, with the respectable but unexceptional Dr Charles Bovary, results in Emma yearning for passion, excitement and wealth when village life does not quite live up to her expectations. A story set in a traditional Normandy village was not the most obvious subject matter for Parisian readers, but they were drawn to it in their droves. Madame Bovary, Flaubert’s masterpieceįlaubert is best known in the English-speaking world for his debut novel, Madame Bovary, where a bored Normandy housewife behaves so controversially that in 1856, Flaubert was put on trial for obscenity. However, as literary realism grew in popularity, Flaubert’s writing style gradually resulted in his becoming the region’s most beloved literary figures, and one of France’s most famous and influential writers. Flaubert’s fellow Normans were initially dismayed by his often all-too-realistic portrayals of places like Rouen, the Pays de Caux, the Pays d’Auge and the Flowered Coast. He published only a few novels and short stories and one play in his lifetime, and it was only after his death in 1880 that he grew in influence. During his life, Flaubert rarely left his native Normandy, apart from occasional trips to Paris, southern Europe and the Middle East. Originally from Rouen, Gustave Flaubert is known around the world for his 1857 novel Madame Bovary.

La signora Bovary by Gustave Flaubert