Where Flaubert Lies

Chronology, Mythology and History

Claire Addison

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 1996
• Print ISBN: 9780521420167
• eBook ISBN: 9780511881350
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book offers crucial perspectives on the vexed question of chronology in Flaubert's work. Critics have struggled long and hard with the apparent inconsistencies in his writing, but Claire Addison's study reveals that the situation is far more subtle, complex and intriguing than hitherto supposed. She argues that Flaubert's manipulation of dates is deliberate and that what have previously been dismissed as inadvertent errors are in fact evidence of the strong presence of Flaubert's family life, events in historical Europe and events in the life of his literary characters. This interesting reading goes far beyond what traditional methods of literary history allow us to perceive of the link between the life and work of the author.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Publisher’s note
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations and conventions
• Introduction
• 1. The Flaubert dates
• 2. The colours of time in the first Education sentimentale
• 3. Conception, birth, death in Madame Bovary
• 4. Heads and tails in Salammbô
• 5. Two-timing in L’Education sentimentale
• 6. The Hundred Days of Bouvard et Pécuchet
• 7. Petit dictionnaire de Flaubert
• Conclusion
• Diachronic and synchronic charts
• Bibliography
• Index