''Bouvard et Pécuchet'' is an unfinished satirical novel by

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...

, published in 1881 after his death in 1880.

Background

Although it was conceived in 1863 as ''Les Deux Cloportes'' ("The Two Woodlice"), and partially inspired by a short story of Barthélemy Maurice (''Les Deux Greffiers'', "The Two Court Clerks", which appeared in ''La Revue des Tribunaux'' in 1841 and which he may have read in 1858), Flaubert did not begin the work in earnest until 1872, at a time when financial ruin threatened. Over time, the book obsessed him to the degree that he claimed to have read over 1500 books in preparation for writing it—he intended it to be his masterpiece, surpassing all of his other works. He only took a minor break, in order to compose '' Three Tales'' in 1875–76. It received lukewarm reviews: critics failed to appreciate both its message and its structural devices.

Plot summary

''Bouvard et Pécuchet'' details the adventures of two Parisian copy-clerks, François Denys Bartholomée Bouvard and Juste Romain Cyrille Pécuchet, of the same age and nearly identical temperament. They meet one hot summer day in 1838 by the canal Saint-Martin and form an instant, symbiotic friendship. When Bouvard inherits a sizable fortune, the two decide to move to the countryside. They find a property near the town of Chavignolles in Normandy, between

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Falaise Falaise may refer to: Places * Falaise, Ardennes, France * Falaise, Calvados, France ** The Falaise pocket was the site of a battle in the Second World War * La Falaise, in the Yvelines ''département'', France * The Falaise escarpment in Quebec ...

, and west of

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...

. Their search for intellectual stimulation leads them, over the course of years, to flounder through almost every branch of knowledge. Flaubert uses their quest to expose the hidden weaknesses of the sciences and arts, as nearly every project Bouvard and Pécuchet set their minds on comes to grief. Their endeavours are interleaved with the story of their deteriorating relations with the local villagers; and the

Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europe ...

is the occasion for much despondent discussion. The manuscript breaks off near the end of the novel. According to one set of Flaubert's notes, the townsfolk, enraged by Bouvard and Pécuchet's antics, try to force them out of the area, or have them committed. Disgusted with the world in general, Bouvard and Pécuchet ultimately decide to "return to copying as before" (''copier comme autrefois''), giving up their intellectual blundering. The work ends with their eager preparations to construct a two-seated desk on which to write. This was originally intended to be followed by a large sample of what they copy out: possibly a ''sottisier'' (anthology of stupid quotations), the ''

Dictionary of Received Ideas The ''Dictionary of Received Ideas'' (or ''Dictionary of Accepted Ideas''; in French, ''Le Dictionnaire des idées reçues'') is a short satirical work collected and published in 1911–13 from notes compiled by Gustave Flaubert during the 1870s, ...

'' (encyclopedia of commonplace notions), or a combination of both.

Structure

The work resembles the earlier ''

Sentimental Education ''Sentimental Education'' (French: ''L'Éducation sentimentale'', 1869) is a novel by Gustave Flaubert. Considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century, it was praised by contemporaries such as George Sand and Émile Zola, bu ...

'' in that the plot structure is episodic, giving it a

picaresque The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corru ...

quality. Because Bouvard and Pécuchet rarely persevere with any subject beyond their first disappointments, they are perpetually rank beginners: the lack of real achievement and the constant forward movement through time (as shown through the rapid political changes from 1848 to 1851) create a strong sense of tension in the work. Bouvard et Pécuchet, par Bernard Naudin

*Chapter 1. Meeting; friendship; Bouvard's inheritance (1838–41) *Chapter 2. Agriculture; landscape gardening; food preservation (March 1841 – autumn 1842) *Chapter 3. Chemistry; anatomy; medicine; biology; geology *Chapter 4. Archeology; architecture; history (a study of the Duc d'Angoulême); mnemonics *Chapter 5. Literature; drama; grammar; aesthetics *Chapter 6. Politics (25 February 1848) *Chapter 7. Love *Chapter 8. Gymnastics, spiritualism, hypnotism, Swedenborgianism, magic; theology; philosophy; they consider suicide;

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

*Chapter 9. Religion *Chapter 10. Education (Victor and Victorine); music; urban planning; arguments with everyone around them *Likely ending. Speeches at the Golden Cross Inn; futurism; they narrowly escape prison; the desk for two

Major themes

Nowhere does Flaubert's exploration of the relation of signs to the objects they signify receive a more thorough treatment than in this work. Bouvard and Pécuchet systematically confuse signs and symbols with reality, an assumption that causes them much suffering, as it does for

Emma Bovary ''Madame Bovary'' (; ), originally published as ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' ( ), is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and em ...

and Frédéric Moreau. Yet here, due to the explicit focus on books and knowledge, Flaubert's ideas reach a climax. The relentless failure of Bouvard and Pécuchet to learn anything from their adventures raises the question of what is knowable. Whenever they achieve some small measure of success (a rare occurrence), it is the result of unknown external forces beyond their comprehension. In this sense, they strongly resemble Anthony in '' The Temptation of Saint Anthony'', a work which addresses similar

epistemological Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

themes as they relate to classical literature.

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

wrote that the novel expresses a belief in the alienation of human thought from human experience. The worldview that emerges from the work, one of human beings proceeding relentlessly forward without comprehending the results of their actions or the processes of the world around them, does not seem an optimistic one. But given that Bouvard and Pécuchet do gain some comprehension of humanity's ignorant state (as demonstrated by their composition of the ''

''), it could be argued that Flaubert allows for the possibility of relative enlightenment. In ''Bouvard et Pécuchet'', Gustave Flaubert made fun of 18th and 19th century attempts to catalogue, classify, list, and record all of scientific and historical knowledge. In October 1872, he wrote, the novel is "a kind of encyclopedia made into a farce... I am planning a thing in which I give vent to my anger... I shall vomit over my contemporaries the disgust they inspire in me... It will be big and violent." It is possible that the stress contributed to his death as he was drawing near to the close of the novel. Indeed, in 1874, he confessed to

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...

" tis leading me very quietly, or rather relentlessly, to the abode of the shades. It will be the death of me!"

Literary significance and criticism

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

wrote "Flaubert having recorded provincial customs in ''

Madame Bovary ''Madame Bovary'' (; ), originally published as ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' ( ), is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emp ...

'' and city habits in the ''

'', set out to complete his record of nineteenth century life by presenting all sorts of things that the average man of the period would have had in his head." Pound compared ''Bouvard et Pécuchet'' to Joyce's ''Ulysses''.

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', '' England, England'', and ''Art ...

said that it "requires a stubborn reader, one willing to suspend normal expectations and able to confront both repetitious effects and a vomitorium of pre-digested book learning." In his essay "A Defense on ''Bouvard et Pécuchet''"

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

writes that "Flaubert was the author who forged the realist novel was also the first to shatter it." He compares the novel with the satirical parables of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Du ...

and

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...

and thinks that it anticipates

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...

's absurdism.

. "A Defense on ''Bouvard et Pécuchet''"

English translations

* ''Bouvard and Pécuchet'', trans. T. W. Earp and G. W. Stonier (Jonathan Cape, 1936) * ''Bouvard and Pécuchet'', trans. Alban J. Krailsheimer (Penguin, 1976) * ''Bouvard and Pécuchet'', trans. Mark Polizzotti (Dalkey Archive, 2005)

Screen adaptations

* ''Bouvard et Pécuchet'' (1971), directed by Robert Valey. * ''Byli jednou dva písaři'' (1972), Czechoslovak TV series directed by Ján Roháč with

Jiří Sovák Jiří Sovák (''né'' Schmitzer; 27 December 1920 – 6 September 2000) was a Czech actor, best known for his comedy roles. Life and theatre career Jiří Sovák was born Jiří Schmitzer to the family of an innkeeper in Prague.Jiří Sovák, ...

and

Miroslav Horníček Miroslav Horníček (10 November 1918 in Plzeň – 15 February 2003 in Liberec) was a Czech people, Czech actor, writer, director, artist and theatre :wikt:theoretician, theoretician. He is well known in the Czech Republic for his on-stage partn ...

as Bouvard and Pécuchet respectively * ''Bouvard et Pécuchet'' (1990), directed by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe.