Editing Gustave Flaubert (section)

===Writing career===
[[File:Gustave Flaubert par Pierre François Eugène Giraud.jpg |thumb|Portrait by [[Eugène Giraud]], {{circa}} 1856]]
His first finished work was ''[[November (novella)|November]]'', a novella, which was completed in 1842.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Frederick |title=Flaubert: a Biography |publisher=Little, Brown |year=2006 |isbn=0-316-11878-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/flaubertbiograph00brow/page/115 115] |url=https://archive.org/details/flaubertbiograph00brow/page/115 }}</ref>

In September 1849, Flaubert completed the first version of a novel, ''[[The Temptation of Saint Anthony (novel)|The Temptation of Saint Anthony]]''. He read the novel aloud to [[Louis Bouilhet]] and [[Maxime Du Camp]] over the course of four days, not allowing them to interrupt or give any opinions. At the end of the reading, his friends told him to throw the manuscript in the fire, suggesting instead that he focus on day-to-day life rather than fantastic subjects.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-redemption-of-saint-anthony/ |title=The Redemption of Saint Anthony |last=Dickey |first=Colin |date=7 March 2013 |website=The Public Domain Review  |access-date=9 December 2019}}</ref>

In 1850, after returning from Egypt, Flaubert began work on ''[[Madame Bovary]]''. The novel, which took five years to write, was serialized in the ''[[Revue de Paris]]'' in 1856. The government brought an action against the publisher and author on the charge of immorality,<ref name=EB1911/> which was heard during the following year, but both were acquitted. When ''Madame Bovary'' appeared in book form, it met with a warm reception.

In 1858, Flaubert travelled to [[Carthage]] to gather material for his next novel, ''[[Salammbô]]''. The novel was completed in 1862 after four years of work.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://heritage.bnf.fr/bibliothequesorient/en/gustave-flaubert-art |title=Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) |last=Basch |first=Sophie |website=BnF Shared Heritage |publisher=[[Bibliothèque nationale de France]] |access-date=9 December 2019 }}</ref>

Drawing on his youth, Flaubert next wrote ''L'Éducation sentimentale'' (''[[Sentimental Education]]''), an effort that took seven years. This was his last complete novel, published in the year 1869. The story focuses on the romantic life of a young man named Frédéric Moreau at the time of the French Revolution of 1848 and the founding of the Second French Empire.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XCu5VDIzZM4C |title=Essentials of World Literature |last1=Hopper |first1=Vincent F. |last2=Grebanier |first2=Bernard |year=1952 |publisher=Barron's Educational Series |isbn=978-0-8120-0222-5 |pages=482 }}</ref>

In the 1870s, Flaubert wrote an unsuccessful drama, ''Le Candidat'', and he published a reworked version of ''The Temptation of Saint Anthony'', portions of which had been published as early as 1857. He devoted much of his time to an ongoing project, ''Les Deux Cloportes'' (''The Two Woodlice''), which later became ''[[Bouvard et Pécuchet]]'', breaking the obsessive project only to write the ''[[Three Tales (Flaubert)|Three Tales]]'' between 1875 and 1877. This book comprises three stories: ''Un Cœur simple'' (''A Simple Heart''), ''La Légende de Saint-Julien l'Hospitalier'' (''The Legend of St. [[Julian the Hospitaller]]''), and ''Hérodias'' (''Herodias''). After the publication of the stories, he spent the remainder of his life toiling on ''Bouvard et Pécuchet'', the unfinished version of which was posthumously published in 1881. It was a grand satire on the futility of human knowledge and the ubiquity of mediocrity.<ref name=EB1911/> Flaubert believed the work to be his masterpiece, though the novel received only a very small print run and mostly lukewarm reviews. 

Flaubert was a prolific letter writer, and his letters have been collected in several publications.

At the time of his death, he may have been working on a further historical novel, based on the [[Battle of Thermopylae]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Otto |last=Patzer |title=Unwritten Works of Flaubert |journal=Modern Language Notes |volume=41 |issue=1 |date=January 1926 |pages=24–29|jstor=2913889|doi=10.2307/2913889 }}</ref>