Flaubert: A Life by Geoffrey Wall (MP3 CD)

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Subtitle: A Life

A blond giant of a man with green eyes and a resonant actor's voice, Gustave Flaubert, perhaps the finest French writer of the nineteenth century, lived quietly in the provinces with his widowed mother, composing his novels at the rate of five words an hour. He detested his respectable neighbors, and they, in turn, helped to ensure his infamy as a writer of immoral books. Geoffrey Wall's stylish and compelling new biography weaves together Flaubert's provincial life with his escapes to Paris, where he participated in all the important literary and social milieus, and his passionate travels, which put him in company with courtesans, actresses, acrobats, gypsies, and simpletons of every stripe. Wall is especially good at showing how Flaubert’s outwardly calm, inwardly turbulent life inspired the complex settings and unforgettable characters of his imperishable novels.

REVIEWS

“The clearest, most satisfyingly biographical account of Flaubert to date.”—Independent

“Extraordinarily accomplished....The result of this nimble thinking, and even sharper writing, is one of the best biographies of this or any other year.”—Sunday Telegraph

“In this magnificently readable biography, Geoffrey Wall has pursued and pinned down his reclusive prey....This is a biography written from experience, and it has a vividness and immediacy that make it a pleasure to read....”—Times Literary Supplement

“Probably the clearest, most satisfying biographical account of Flaubert to date.”—Independent

GEOFFREY WALL has translated Madame Bovary and other works of Flaubert. A teacher at the University of York, he lives in New York with his wife and four children.