Flaubert’s Madame Bovary: The United States of the Untied Tastes of Reality and Imagination

Abstract

A proper beginning for a study on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary should be inclusive of the writer’s stance in the literary arena, especially, in the development of the genre of novel. Where does Flaubert stand? Is he a realist, a naturalist, or a romantic? These questions and arguments about the style of Flaubert’s writing and his attitude particularly in his composition of Madame Bovary vary considerably. Flaubert is often considered a realist writer. Realists by writing books that focused on the details of everyday life without disregarding the most unwelcome aspects of it challenged their romantic predecessors who rather decorated their writings with sentimentalism, subjectivity and gothicism. Flaubert participates in the realistic representation by describing his characters’ emotions, actions, and settings vividly and without much romantic or fantastic embellishments