Gustave Flaubert (UK: /ˈfloʊbɛər/ FLOH-bair, US: /floʊˈbɛər/ floh-BAIR,[1][2] French: [ɡystav flobɛʁ]; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. He is known especially for his debut novel Madame Bovary (1857), his Correspondence, and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert.
His first finished work was November, a novella, which was completed in 1842.[21]
At the time of his death, he may have been working on a further historical novel, based on the Battle of Thermopylae.[25]
