Born in Rouen in 1821, the son of a surgeon, Flaubert grew up in a hospital. He learned pessimism regarding human existence watching the dissection of cadavers as a child. But, like his most famous character, Emma Bovary, he found escape in romanticism, reading novels by Lord Byron and Victor Hugo. He attended the prestigious College Royal in Rouen. On his way home from law school one year, he suffered what was probably a seizure. That episode changed his life. He condemned himself to the life of a hermit and spent most of his time writing.

Flaubert presented startling insight into the female heart and mind, considering he only had two serious love interests during his life. The first came at the age of fourteen. He fell in love with twenty-six year old, and married, Elisa Schlesinger. The second, Louise Colet, became his mistress from 1846 until 1855.

In 1880, Flaubert died of a cerebral hemorrhage. His greatest works, Madame Bovary, 1857; Salammbo, 1862; L'education Sentimentale, 1869; and La tentation de Saint Antoine, 1874, defined free indirect style,, a style that gives the reader no guidance from the author. Agonizing writings of demanding style and exacting language are best described by Flaubert in his masterpiece, Madame Bovary, "Human language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, when all the time we are longing to move the stars to pity."

Amy Arden is the Dusty Shelf editor.