The Early Works

Abstract

Flaubert was one of those writers who, from his earliest years, could not bear to throw away any piece of paper on which he had written. Though he published virtually nothing before Madame Bovary, posthumous ‘complete’ editions of his works begin with numerous literary texts, journals of his travels and even some school exercises.¹ Indeed the line is hard to draw, in 1835–36, between school work and free composition, as the latter is dominated by themes from history, his favourite school subject. But soon he adopted the then popular form of the ‘philosophical’ tale, using elements of the fantastic, and at first a knowing irony, to express pessimism about human destiny, and illustrate in a colourful fashion the ultimate questions of life and death, especially death.