A Simple Soul

Bouvard and Pecuchet, published after the death of its author in 1881, is the novel of contemporary stupidity and vulgarity, whose roots lie in the blind faith in the redeeming power of technique, industry and commerce. Bouvard and Pecuchet, two small Parisian office workers, discover that they feel the same aversion for their mediocre life.

Bouvard's legacy arrives at just the right moment to enable them to change it: they settle on a farm in Normandy and devote themselves to agricultural experiments of all kinds, as well as to experimental studies in fields as varied as chemistry, astronomy, archeology or spiritualism.

In this unfinished novel, Flaubert amuses himself by ridiculing the scientific pretensions of his time. For the writing of this novel Flaubert made encyclopedic readings that reflect his obsession that the writer must document what he writes, so that subjectivity is reduced to the maximum.

Herodias is a short story originally published in the work Three Tales in 1877, it is based on the biblical character of the same name and its story narrates the beheading of John the Baptist. To write it, the author was inspired by the dance of Salome, taken from a bas-relief in Rouen Cathedral, and by his experience of having observed a dancer during his stay in Egypt.

We have Herodias, who is holding a birthday party for Herod Antipas, her second husband, and has also hatched a plan to behead John. This plan is based on making Herod fall in love with her daughter Salome, so that he promises to do or give her whatever she desires, and in turn make her daughter ask for John's head.

As Herod does not oppose the request everything happens as Herodias has planned, and the party attendees witness how the executioner Mannaeus kills John.

Madame Bovary is a novel that was published in installments in the Revue de Paris from October 1, 1856 to December 15 of the same year; and in book form, in 1857.

Besides being one of the literary selections par excellence in the genre of the so-called late romanticism, Madame Bovary constitutes one of the reference points of the realist movement.

This work was developed in those years in three parts; with an incredible literary acuity, Gustave Flaubert shows his point of view on the life of the high society of France at the beginning of the 19th century, by marrying the protagonist to someone who offers her nothing more than to exhibit her as if she were a trophy.

This travelogue collects Gustave's experiences and most detailed observations during his trip to Brittany, which began in May 1847 and ended on July 28 of the same year.

Flaubert made this trip with his friend Maxime du Camp, with whom he also shares authorship. Although the pen alternates in the text, the differences in the stroke of the two writers can be discerned without major problems. Du Camp fills his pages with history; Flaubert, on the other hand, is more romantic and sometimes sharp and ironic.

Among Gustave Flaubert's followers it is well known that the author was a great stylist, which is evident in Over Strand and Field thanks to his extraordinary eye for landscape, nature, people, cultural heritage; and to his wonderful descriptive language.

Salammbo is a historical novel first published in 1862. The action of the work takes place in the third century BC in the territory of Carthage, during the so-called Mercenary War, which occurred shortly after the Carthaginian defeat against the Romans in the First Punic War.

Like the author's previous novel, Madame Bovary, this work was very well received and consolidated Flaubert's reputation as a novelist. The novel, in its effort to revive the forgotten Carthaginian culture, mentioned all the details the author could glean from history books and offered detailed and colorful descriptions of daily life in Carthage, its customs and attire, descriptions that, in turn, exerted some influence on contemporary French fashion.