Gustave Flaubert Quotes
What stops me from taking myself seriously, even though I am essentially a serious person, is that I find myself extremely ridiculous, not in the sense of the small-scale ridiculousness of slap-stick comedy, but rather in the sense of ridiculousness that seems intrinsic to human life and that manifests itself in the simplest actions and the most extraordinary gestures.
Flaubert, Gustave. The Letters of Gustave Flaubert 1830-1857. Translated by Francis Steegmuller, Harvard University Press, 1980, p. 98.
Gustave Flaubert was an influential French novelist who was perhaps the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary (1857), for his Correspondence, and for his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer {Guy de Maupassant} was a protégé of Flaubert.
